Month: March 2017

Temperatures will be warming up soon, and it’s a cause for celebration. Unfortunately, the weed seeds that are in your yard are also waiting for perfect weather. Before the weather is consistently warm, you should make sure that your lawn is protected against weeds and other undesirables, like insects and disease.

Weed seeds come from mature weed plants. As they come to the end of their life cycle, these plants produce seeds that fall into the soil and become dormant in the winter. Once spring rolls around, the seeds are ready to germinate. Soon, you’ll be seeing weeds in your yard and landscaping, because they’re remarkably persistent and can grow in many different places.

If you had pre-emergent weed control the previous year, it won’t last through the winter. You’ll find that more seeds have been delivered to your yard from wind, animals, and even on people’s shoes.

Pre-emergent Controls Keep Your Lawn Beautiful

Springtime seeds need only to wait until the soil temperature reach 55-60 degrees, and then they’re ready to grow. Applying pre-emergent control forms a barrier in your soil that will limit these plants before they can germinate.

A pre-emergent herbicide is also effective at controlling a wide variety of summer annuals. Just like the application for the spring weeds, the summer application timing is crucial to the health of your lawn.

Superior Lawn Care Provides Weed Control in the Spring and Summer

Superior Lawn Care offers our customers pre-emergent applications for spring and summer, with a second application that will lengthen the period of effectiveness through the summer months. This process will help to control these weeds along with later-germinating crabgrass.

We focus on keeping your lawn healthy through maintenance plans that provide custom-bended fertilizer, pre-emergent crabgrass control, broadleaf weed control, and surface insect control. Be sure to call or contact Superior Lawn Care soon, so you can protect your lawn from the weeds that are sure to surface once it starts getting warmer around the Pittsburgh area.

Snow mold is an unsightly fungus that affects your grass, typically in late winter or early spring, as the snow starts melting. It best develops under certain conditions, when there is a covering of snow early in the winter that doesn’t let your ground freeze. The fungus is able to develop when the ground is above freezing temperatures. The fungal growth is dormant in the summer and can live in hot temperatures in plant debris, meaning that it can come back year after year. You will see snow mold in the spring, after the snow melts.

What Does Snow Mold Look Like?

Snow mold is distinctive. It looks like circular, straw-colored patches in your grass and will start covering more and more of your lawn if the weather remains wet and cold during the spring. There are two different kinds of snow mold, pink and gray, with each caused by a different fungus. It will look brown to tan with either a gray or pink tint. In a normal winter, these patches usually damage only the leaf tissue of the grass plant and the grass usually recovers after the first few mowings. However, in some areas, permanent damage may occur.

These are several steps you can take to help your grass recover more quickly. Lightly raking the matted patches of grass will improve air circulation and aid recovery. Applying a fertilizer and crabgrass barrier will also help turf recover. If you have bare patches, then you should apply seed, but not until April, since seeding and crabgrass control shouldn’t be done at the same time.

How Can I Prevent Snow Mold?

You can prevent snow mold long before winter begins. A maintenance plan for your lawn will include custom fertilization to help fend off diseases and fungi.

You should make sure that the ground is ready for snow. Mow your lawn through the end of the fall so that it doesn’t continue to grow, making it an easy target for snow mold. If your yard has too much thatch, it should be cleared. If you or your neighbors have trees, pick up all fallen leaves before it begins to snow to eliminate a wet, not-quite-frozen ground. Additionally, fall core aeration will help to reduce the thatch that the fungus can live in.

If you are seeing patches of snow mold in your yard, or have noticed other lawn diseases, give Superior Lawn Care a call. We serve the entire southwestern PA region, including Indiana, Cranberry, Wexford, Moon Township, North Huntingdon, and Penn Township.