How to Control Clover Effectively

If you see a little white flower with four leaves in your lawn, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have found a lucky charm – it means you have clover.   In fact, customers often call in and refer to “clover with yellow flowers”.  Actually, they are referring to an entirely different weed, known as oxalis or yellow woodsorell.

Both are perennial weeds which grow easily in lawns from Elkins Park to Phoenixville and are common throughout Pennsylvania. It became so widely found because grass mixes in the 1940s and 1950s commonly included a dose of clover and it stuck around.

Clover attracts bees because of the nectar in the flower and anyone who has experienced a bee sting on the bottom of their foot knows it isn’t a pleasant experience. Clover also reduces the uniformity of the grass because its texture, color, and growth rate are different from that of grasses.

The most commonly encountered form of clover is white clover. It is a shallow-rooted weed that grows easily in overly moist areas of your lawn as well as areas that are nitrogen depleted.  It is also a weed that actually competes with the existing turf and works to smother your desirable grass if left untreated. 

In some cases, Weed Man rotates in a specific product that specially targets clover and oxalis as well as other tough weeds, such as wild violets and ground ivy.

Clover Management Tips

·         A healthy lawn is a clover-free lawn – consistent fertilization and basic maintenance practices are musts.

·         Don’t let areas with excess moisture persist.

·         Keep phosphorous levels low.

Consistent application of a nitrogen based fertilizer to your lawn will help create a healthy, thick lawn and is one of the best deterrents of clover. Keeping the pH and nutrient levels consistent are important steps for keeping unwanted weeds out. Clover is especially fond of phosphorus in lawns so keep that in mind as you fertilize.

Here Come the Weeds Again...

Spring has finally sprung from Hatboro to Phoenixville, which means broadleaf weeds are back as well.  Here's some tips to help ensure the weeds, like wild onion, clover, and dandelion and nowhere to be seen on your lawn:

• Promoting a healthy lawn is the best defense against having severe weed problems.
•  Proper mowing and watering, regular fertilization and core cultivation when necessary are key ingredients in building a healthy lawn. 
• Most broadleaf weeds that invade lawns can be effectively controlled with the use of selective weed control materials that are currently available. 

Special attention and care is often needed to control certain types of persistent weeds.  In some cases, it may be necessary to rotate in different types of weed control to ensure the most effective, season-long control.

Prepare Your Lawn for Spring

From Springfield Township to King of Prussia, although we look outside and see mounds of snow, spring right around the corner. It is important to get an early start on your lawn care, here are some helpful hints to get you started. 

• ·         Disperse snow from shaded areas to sunny areas of your lawn to help the snow melt. This is will prevent from snow mold from forming. 

• ·         Avoid walking on your frozen lawn as it can damage it and cause problems in the future.

• ·         Once the lawn becomes visible break up and debris left over from the fall and let that lawn breath.

• ·         Let the lawn that and absorb the water before doing any work.

Once you start to see the grass give Weed Man a call at (610) 940-6900 we have licensed professionals who can answer any more questions you may have. For a free analysis of your lawn click here for a quote.

Planning for Spring

It's never too early to plan to get your lawn off on the right foot this spring.  If the weather predictions hold true for Montgomery and Chester Counties, we'll be fertilizing properties in early March, just six weeks away!  While it's still technically winter, here are a couple tips to care for your lawn now.

For starters, avoid excessive traffic on your lawn, especially when it's way below freezing.  Walking on the turf can damage the crowns of the grass plants, in some cases, this can cause damage to the turf when they come out of dormancy.  Secondly, if you didn't get all of those leaves up, try to find a mild day and do so, excessive leaf covers can smother the turf, which can cause discoloration or injury to the turf.

In the meantime, here's a valuable resource to whet your appetite for spring.  Virtually anything you'd like to learn about your Southeastern PA lawn is on this page.  If we missed something, drop us a line.

Your Lawn Can't Breathe!!

Core aeration is one of the most important things you can do for your lawn all year besides keeping it fed. During the process, hollow coring tines are rolled over the lawn using specialized equipment, puncturing the surface of the turf and removing cores of soil and thatch.

Watch our aeration video HERE. 

 

Benefits Include:

Alleviated soil compaction Enhanced heat and drought-stress tolerance Improved movement of air, water, and nutrients Better resiliency and cushioning Stronger, healthier turfgrass roots Reduced thatch layer

When is the Best Time to Aerate?

• Lawns in Southeastern PA grow in heavy clay soils; an annual aeration will help alleviate the extreme soil compaction of our region.
  
• If you have cool season turfgrass, such as Kentucky bluegrass or perennial ryegrass, spring and fall are ideal times to aerate.
  
• Aerating before or at the time of late season fertilization enhances root development and improves spring greenup and growth.

Core aeration can help reduce thatch and revitalize your turf. The result? A thicker, healthier lawn that is more tolerant to weeds, disease, insects, and drought.

Grubs...coming soon!

 Last year was one of the most devastating years for grubs in recent memory throughout Montgomery County.  Lawns in Collegeville that typically never had a grub issue, we're literally destroyed in a matter of weeks.  From Willow Grove to Phoenixville, the grub activity was abundant!

Grubs are the larva of several types of beetles that enjoy feeding on the roots of you lawn's grass roots.  Throughout the summer, they mature and continue their underground feeding. Applying a preventative is the ideal approach to controlling these pests.  While most stores carry grub preventatives, the most effective products are available through licensed lawn care providers.  They understand proper timing, rates to apply of these products to ensure the product will work as promised. 

See more tips on our full feature story on the proper ways to reduce the likelihood of grub activity.

Control Crabgrass Not By Calendar Alone

It’s a delayed spring weather-wise throughout Montgomery and Chester Counties this year.  From Abington to Pottstown, the cool weather has slowed the spring green-up in turf as well as delayed the germination of weeds, such as dandelions.  This also opens the window for wider timing with your application of pre-emergent crabgrass control.

                Crabgrass doesn’t have a calendar, it will germinate in mid-late May based upon soil temperature.  Properly timed application of a pre-emergent crabgrass control will help reduce the likelihood of breakthrough later this summer.  Furthermore, the product the professionals at Weed Man plan to use includes a post emergent crabgrass control as well for better control of small, germinated crabgrass that conventional pre-emergent products will not control.

Crabgrass early after germination will quickly fill in thin spots in open sun

                Here are some additional tips:

• Crabgrass is very difficult to identify early in spring since only plant skeletons are present at this time.
• Crabgrass is best identified in summer or fall for control in fall or the following spring.
• Crabgrass cannot be controlled with broadleaf weed control products.
• Crabgrass favors sandy, sunny locations in a weakened condition. Areas damaged by insects or along sidewalks and driveways are prime targets for crabgrass attack.
• A strong, healthy, properly fertilized, mowed and watered lawn provides the strongest defense against crabgrass. Thick, lush, insect and weed-free lawns allow few open sites for crabgrass to establish.