Monday = Friday

tip-o-day

Did you finish raking? We finally did yesterday. Which is why tip-o-day has been delayed until today (plus a minor injury – which I will post about tomorrow).

Ok, so now that you are done raking you need to apply a crabgrass preventative to your lawn. I used to have doubts about the actual effectiveness of this stuff –until the year I didn’t apply it . wow. Does that stuff spread fast. But hey – if you like a low maintenance lawn that survives drought, disease, insects and rarely requires mowing because it’s growing sideways – they you may want to skip this step.

Crabgrass preventative forms a barrier on your soil to prevent crabgrass from germinating. This is why you need to rake first – so that this barrier is not disturbed.

Crabgrass preventative will not kill existing crabgrass, so it’s important to apply before the crabgrass germinates and establishes itself in your lawn. Luckily, during this time of year the little crabgrass seedlings that may give it a go on a warm day are killed off when the night temps still dip below freezing. Therefore, it’s a good idea to apply the preventative while this is still going on, so no crabgrass can get established.

I like the Scott’s products – they offer their version of crabgrass preventative – Halts – with a high nitrogen fertilizer. The nitrogen will boost leaf growth and green up your lawn faster.
Now remember – this product prevents germination, so if you want or need to overseed as well you will need to buy a special version of this product for new seed.