AboutLong Island Gardener Expertise How to grow the Perfect Lawn? If you live in the Northeast/Atlantic Coast, I have intelligent answers on grass selection, fertilizers, soil care, weed control, and lawnmowers. Although I have degrees in related fields, a person's real gardening skills are learned from trial and error. More important, I am strict about not using chemicals in the garden. Organic gardening is not just earth friendly and healthier for you, your children and your pets. It's less expensive and easier. You read that right. Less expensive and easier.
Experience Homeowner for 15 years, 30 years of gardening for personal pleasure, college credits in horticulture and botany, volunteer docent at the local botanical gardens, and a whole library of gardening and landscaping books at home some 100 years old.
Question It's May 17th on Cape Cod. Is it too late put down something that will prevent crabgrass? Or broadleaf weeds? I had a huge problem last year and I don't want a repeat performance.
Answer Pre-emergent, organic or not, must be applied at the time seeds are sprouting. Too late.
At this point, your best plan of defense is to grow really good Grass: Watering well, fertilize VERY carefully, and MOW STRATEGICALLY. This is your best weapon for weed control:
Note please the precise heights for mowing -- these were tested and tested and tested. Cool season grass especially has growth patterns that are very different from annual Weeds like Crabgrass, or even Dandelions (which are perennial).
Don't over-fertilize -- you'll only overstimulate tender leaf tissue, while under-feeding them (due to lack of a strengthened root system to support the extra growth). This weakens the Grass. And that's asking for trouble. It's the opposite of what you want.
In mid-Summer, shift gears. Don't figure that the Grass is a little sluggish so you can back off. Weeds rev up for mid-Summer heat. Their chlorophyll works COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY; they are ready to rock and roll, just as Cool Season Grass is kicking back. Adjust your mowing (see above) and keep the lawn care going and going, ESPECIALLY on those days when the thermometer is pushing 90 and no one wants to mow the Grass.
Don't mow it wet, or in the morning when it's covered with dew. That weakens Grass too and that is good for annual and perennial Weeds.
When it comes to Dandelions, dig 'em up. This may not be sexy, but it works. Get it up by the tap root and it will never bloom, seed or grow in your Lawn again. They slow down by mid-Summer and you will be so glad that work was done early on.
If you have Compost, a slow release Milorganite treatment or Humus will feed Earthworms and aerate and enrich your Soil. That's better than any fast food you can give you Lawn.
These cool days are made for growing Grass. I don't know if you're getting the same chilly weather up there as we have down here on L.I., but the damp, cool temps make for the most dazzling Green Lawns later on. Any questions?
