Start your lawn care in the spring with a pre-emergent herbicide, and you’ll have a much fuller, healthier, weed-free lawn.
For many people, spring is the most beautiful time of the year. Your lawn enters its “green-up” phase, and unless it has been severely neglected, it looks like you are a grass-growing expert.
But as spring continues into summer, your lack of lawn care will start to show itself. Bare patches may emerge, and weeds will sprout. It may suffer mold infections or pest infestation. Pretty soon, the lawn becomes an overwhelming mess, but this could have been prevented. Spring lawn prep essential to ensuring your grass remains thick, green, and gorgeous until winter returns – and a big part of this spring lawn care is weed prevention.
Pre-emergent Herbicide
Most weeds don’t emerge until spring, and there is a window of time before they sprout when pre-emergent herbicides can be applied. There are two types of herbicides that will kill or control weed growth. They are labeled as pre-emergent and post-emergent. Pre-emergent indicates the unwanted weed has not broken through the soil. Once it has, this type of weed preventer is no longer useful. For most residents in the Toronto area, this means applying pre-emergent herbicides in early or mid-April. Every year is a little different, and oftentimes lawn lovers will miss the date when it comes to the effective date of pre-emergent herbicide application. However, most of these products last for many months, so it is still okay to apply them even when a few weeds have already sprouted.
Post-emergent Herbicide
For the weeds that do avoid your pre-emergent herbicidal efforts, there is post-emergent herbicide. As the name suggests, this is for weeds that are already above the soil. These weed killers can be relatively immediate in their efforts, but they don’t last long. They generally break down within weeks to lessen the risk of long-term pollution. Many of today’s gardeners seek out environmentally-safe or organic options.
Of course, there are many weeds that are difficult to remove. Sometimes, the only thing one can do is pull them out with their own hands. Even the best lawn care enthusiasts can be seen manually removing a weed or two once in a while.
Start your lawn care in the spring and relax
If you start your lawn care in the spring with weed prevention efforts and other important lawn care tasks (overseeding, aeration, thatching, etc.), you will be able to relax your lawn care for the rest of the season. This is not to say that lawn care ever ends, but it is much easier if you start the year right. Preventing weeds before they begin to grow is the best way to control weed growth year-round because the weeds don’t have a chance to spread seeds.
Need some help with your lawn this season? Your lawn is our mission. Contact us for a quote on lawn cutting or lawn treatment services.