Lawn Care – Crabgrass Preventer & Fertilization

Early Spring Application

With this winter’s long-term snow cover, your lawn is most likely not looking its best. Heavy, long-term snow cover can cause patches of matted grass where Snow Molds were active under the snow. The good news is that, with time and your spring fertilization treatment, your lawn will most likely recover in a few weeks. For more information on Snow Molds and what you can do to help with recovery, visit www.greengianthc.com/blog/ .

This first application is important for the grass plants to revive and gain strength. Once the temperatures climb the grass will begin to green up and begin to mend itself. The crabgrass preventer will help to fight off any infestation trying to invade the thin or bare areas in the lawn. This application is one of the most important of the year & can help prevent up to 80% of the crabgrass in your lawn. If you are scheduled for the next lawn care application, you will be receiving a second crabgrass preventer application as well.

What was done?

Today we applied a granular application of Fertilizer with Crabgrass Preventer. Most lawns need some extra nourishment to start the growing season. The fertilizer contains Controlled Release Nitrogen to give your lawn an even feeding now until the second application (eliminating surge growth). The Crabgrass Preventer is applied now so it is in place to last through the major crabgrass germination period, preventing the plants from growing.

Crabgrass is most likely to invade the edges of a lawn – along sidewalks, planting beds, and in thin or bare areas of turf, despite the crabgrass preventer application.

Maintain at least a 3” mowing height, and please do not use a weed-eater to trim and define hard surfaces. These practices can create weed opportunities by breaking the crabgrass preventer barrier.
A complete fertilization program helps build turf density, which will decrease crabgrass problems. Customers with limited application programs may have higher populations of crabgrass. For more information on how to keep crabgrass out of your lawn, click here.

What you can expect:

The fertilizer will enhance your lawn’s spring green-up as the weather warms up. The crabgrass preventer will form an invisible barrier, which, with proper mowing, will prevent crabgrass from successfully emerging this spring. Control can often exceed 80% versus an untreated lawn. Read more about our Updated Crabgrass Program to find out what steps need to be taken to control crabgrass and what guarantees are included with this service.

What you can do to benefit most from today’s visit:

Do not rake the lawn after this treatment because it will disrupt the crabgrass barrier. Water the lawn if we do not get rain within one week (generally not necessary in the spring).

You are free to go on the lawn immediately following today’s application.

Small children and pets should remain off the lawn until the material has been watered in.
Broadleaf weeds will be targeted in the next application once soil temperatures are higher.

All of our programs are based on the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which is an environmentally friendly and effective approach to controlling damaging insects, diseases and invasive plants. For more information about IPM click here.