If you struggled with your lawn in 2019, you aren’t alone. Many people in the Middle Tennessee area saw several turf problems last year due to the temperatures, weeds and disease in the region. But 2020 is a new year, and it’s time to take control of your lawn. With the help of our lawn specialists, this year may be your yard’s best ever.
This past October we saw highs into the high 90’s earlier in the month and our first hard freeze on November 13th. This can pose severe issues to lawns since this period of time is crucial for all newly planted turf-grasses to slowly mature and grow as the soil temperatures slowly get colder. Unfortunately the grass stopped maturing and germinating and everything was at a standstill. Fast forward to the week of Christmas we starting seeing things warm up and got up into the 70’s which was a great thing. More grass started to mature, new grass seeds were germinating and we were making up for some lost time.
During this time of growth we also saw many winter weeds start to pop up. These include henbit, chickweed, bittercrest and more. While these weeds are easy to kill, some grasses may not be mature enough to handle a dosage of herbicide while the grass is maturing. At Advanced Lawn Solutions, we are recommending for our clients to hold out as long as possible (mid February to early March) and we will start the winter weed clean up on all of our properties. This treatment will also be the first cycle of pre-emerge to the lawn to help prevent spring annuals and summer crabgrass from emerging.
Last year we also saw a huge rise in turf disease. This included brown patch, dollar spot, even some pythium in several cool season lawns. These are all cultural conditions that spike when humidity levels and temperatures rise. These diseases can be treated through preventive or curative measures, depending on the severity of the disease. It’s crucial to make sure that browning in the lawn is due to drought stress when adding additional irrigation to the lawn. A lot of times this can be early stages of disease in the lawn and when misdiagnosed, adding water can only fuel the fire. We offer several options for treatment of these diseases and also can make recommendations for some box store products you can apply to help keep diseases under control. If you have questions about turf disease, contact us today.
To add to Middle Tennessee’s turf problems we also found our first diagnosed grub infestations in home lawns in 2019. While everyone has grubs living in the soil, temperatures and weather patterns can keep these insects in the ground for longer periods of time. This causes those insects to mature in the soil and feed on the turf-grass crowns and roots. We see this a lot more in northern states where they apply annual grub treatments to lawns. We never suggested it here because we haven’t seen too many cases of it. In 2020, we would suggest that everyone keeps an eye out for damage in the turf. Whether you see damage at the surface or if you notice an unusual amount of grubs while digging or doing any planting around your home, let your lawn specialist know. Just like with turf disease there are commercial applications that we can spray for you or there are options that we can recommend from the box store to help you manage the problems as well.
Make 2020 the year that you take care of your lawn. Pretty soon, you could have the best yard on the block! Contact us today to get started!
