lawn renovation

A Lawn Retrospective on the Summer of 2018: Looking Ahead to the Fall Season

Maryland Grows3 Comments
nutsedge and crabgrass in a lawn
Nutsedge and crabgrass have been particular challenges this year with all of the late summer rain.

It seems like ages ago, but during late spring and early summer we were in the midst of a long dry spell–and then things changed! It seems once the rain started it hardly ever stopped during late July and early August and all of this rain created its own set of problems. In particular, summer annual weeds and sedges were given new life with all of the wet conditions. For many homeowners, it has been a difficult summer keeping weeds like crabgrass, Japanese stiltgrass, kyllinga, and nutsedge at bay during the wet, humid weather. Even folks who had applied a second application of pre-emergent herbicide in late spring were seeing that product break down more rapidly with the inordinate amounts of rain the region experienced.

University of Maryland (UMD) research (and others) has indicated that the best way to deter crabgrass is to mow higher. Experiment plots mowed in the 3½-4” range have consistently had less crabgrass invasion than plots mowed at 2” or 3”. While this late summer weather has led to a lot of crabgrass and sedge invasion, homeowners can take solace in the fact that relief is in sight as far as the calendar is concerned. Late August/early September is the perfect time of year to re-seed with cool-season grasses like tall fescue to undertake a full-scale renovation or a lawn “rejuvenation.” Continue reading →

Fall Tips for Lawn Renovation: Next Steps

Maryland Grows2 Comments

Warm early October weather has extended the “overseeding window” for fall lawn care. While the first week in October is usually the traditional cutoff for establishing new lawns or rejuvenating existing lawns, the warm early October weather has extended the window by 1-2 weeks.

You can read my September blog post for more information on overseeding and you can still do it, but this follow-up post will deal more with a question that has been coming into the Home & Garden Information Center as of late: “I established a new lawn (or overseeded) in September and some weeds are starting to come up — now what?” Continue reading →

Get Your Lawn Back in Shape This September

Maryland Grows7 Comments

With summer winding down — nights are getting longer and days getting cooler — September is a perfect time to rejuvenate tall fescue lawns. Aerating and overseeding now in the fall will make your lawn stronger and better able to resist pests and weed encroachment for next season.

Here are a few points to remember when aerating and overseeding for a lawn rejuvenation this fall:

  • The aerator you use makes a difference. A heavier, more powerful (> 5 HP) aerator will be more forceful and more effective in creating deeper cores. Ideally, you should be able to aerify to a soil depth of at least 3-4”.  Equipment rental stores often have suitable aerating machines available. Remember not to go over the lawn too fast and allow the machine to just “bump” along. Travelling slowly and ensuring the area isn’t too dry will help encourage quality cores to be pulled from the soil.

    Lawn aerator
    Aerifying in fall provides more oxygen to the roots and protected holes for new seed to germinate.
  • If you have substantial areas of dead grass or crabgrass weeds, it is probably more effective to remove the dead grass leaves with a hard rake, a “power rake”, or a de-thatcher. The turf seed will need to have good soil contact in order to germinate and grow to provide better coverage. By seeding into an area with a lot of dead debris, the seed may germinate and then dry out – or not “take” at all.

Continue reading →