The Green View

Preventing broadleaf weeds

The GreenView Team — 2009-05-15T10:04:29-04:00

Defending your turf against the onslaught of broadleaf weeds isn’t easy. You might never be able to wipe them out forever, but you can control their growth and spread.

Our experts advise that before you treat, do a little investigation. The broadleaf weed can be a symptom as well as the problem.

To make sure the environment in which your turf grows is optimum for healthy grass, first, identify the weed, and you may uncover a deeper problem. For example, the presence of sheep sorrel may indicate low pH. Broadleaf plantain thrives in high pH, and if you see goosegrass, soil compaction is the likely issue. Legumes like clover can be a sign of low nitrogen and a lack of fertility. Quackgrass could be a sign of poor soil, so you might not have a healthy lawn, even if you get rid of these weeds. Moisture-rich soils will encourage the growth of sedges and algae, which means that you must pay attention to the drainage issues before you go any further.

Defending your turf means creating the most favorable conditions for its growth. Keeping your lawn dense and strong, by definition, will reduce all weed problems because the turf will take the space and block the light that the weeds need to germinate and thrive.

GreenView Broadleaf Weed Control plus Lawn Food 22-0-4 is your best defense against a weed invasion, because it does just that: It builds a dense, green lawn with deep roots, feeding your lawn for a full 8 weeks. It controls the weeds with this 2-step method. First, GreenView Broadleaf Weed Control plus Lawn Food contains Trimec® Herbicide. Trimec® controls a wide range of lawn weeds, including dandelion, chickweed, plantain, henbit, spurge and many others commonly found in home lawns. Second, a 22-0-4 fertilizer provides a supply of plant food to further encourage healthy growth and inhibit the germination of weeds.

Broadleaf weeds will grow where you let them. If your turf lacks a vigorous foundation and if you have bare spots in your lawn, you are sending out a formal invitation to the weed world. Excess foot traffic, a lack of fertilization, disease, insects, thatch, flooding and even improper mowing can weaken your turf and encourage those annoying weeds.

For every season, there’s a weed...

Depending on the climate zone in which you live, various broadleaf weeds are prevalent. For example, in Texas, cool season broadleaf weeds like dandelion, chickweed, henbit, burweed and clover wreak havoc in early spring. Mild temperatures stimulate amazing growth during winter and spring. Then, in summer, warm season broadleaf weeds including woodsorrel, spurge and buttonweed present a continuing problem.

In addition to fertilizing and strengthening your lawn against the onslaught of weeds, regular mowing and proper fertilization during late winter and spring will improve the appearance of your turf and reduce the competition weeds provide. Persistent control with nonselective herbicides in dormant bermudagrass or with selective herbicides in others will effectively remove weeds from the turfgrass.

And remember, our experts are always ready to share the best turf management practices with you. With GreenView’s arsenal of education and products, you’ll not only win the battle against broadleaf weeds every spring – you just might win the war!

Further reading

Texas A&M Broadleaf Weed Identifier

May checklist

The GreenView Team — 2009-05-01T15:37:16-04:00

Ah ... May.

It's the month gardeners in many U.S. climate zones dream about. We peek out our windows each morning, hoping to see dew instead of frost on our lawns and tender tulip petals. We revel in the brilliant color of forsythia and inhale deeply to enjoy the tantilizing scent of hyacinth. We clean and fill our birdfeeders and recover the bird bath from shed or garage. And while sipping our morning java, we reach for pencil and pad to plan the gardening tasks needed to make ours the best looking landscape in the neighborhood!

At first it can seem overwhelming, but fret not. We've got tips and a handy checklist.

Ready, Set, Go...

Ready: Think strategically. Before you clip one branch or pull one weed, gather your gardening tools from wherever you stored them over the winter months. If you get your ducks in a row first, you’ll save yourself a great deal of time and frustration as you move from task to task, avoiding the delay caused by “where’s my shovel, where’s my spade?”

Replace, clean, sharpen and repair your garden tools before you start to work, then place them in areas of the yard where you’ll need them most.

Set: Set up your work areas to reduce the walking and dragging back and forth to retrieve gardening materials and plants. Too much of that will have you huffing and puffing unnecessarily; it’s better to save your strength for the serious work. Connected your hose or fill your watering can. Place Preen, mulch, soil and fertilizer near your work area.

Go: Prune, plant, weed, treat, and fertilize.

Prune and trim. Before the planting begins, tidy things up a bit with pruning and trimming. Prune early spring-flowering trees and shrubs. The more blooms you remove now, the more flowers you will see next year!
Plant. Wait until frost season is past before you plant those delicate annuals and perennials or bulbs, such as cannas, gladiolus, dahlias, tuberous begonias and caladiums. Make sure you harden off new annual plants before planting them outside. (“Hardening off” is a method for transitioning plants grown indoors or in a greenhouse by gradually exposing the tender plants to wind, sun and rain to toughen them up. This helps prevent transplant shock.) Don’t forget to mulch to minimize weed germination and moderate soil temperature.
Protect and defend. Remove any garden pests you see by hand or with earth-friendly treatments. Overseed where your lawn is thin or dead patches appear and treat your lawn now to enjoy the lush green expanse of turfgrass all summer long. To prevent crabgrass and broadleaf weeds from invading your turf, choose a product like Greenway Fairway Formula Broadleaf Weed Control plus Lawn Food or Greenview Fairway Formula Spring Fertilizer Weed & Feed with Crabgrass Preventer 24-2-8.

Protect your lilies and tulips from deer, rabbits or other pesky animals that would love to devour the buds just before they bloom. There are many organic repellents on the market today or try a mixture of eggs, garlic and hot sauce diluted in water. It works pretty well as long as you spray the plants after every rain.
Weed and Feed. In your perennial garden, weed gingerly now, taking special care not to disturb the roots of perennials that surely don’t deserve the punishment! Beware…the weeds will wrap around them and become more enmeshed later on, so the more weeds you can remove now, the better. I’ve read that hot vinegar and water is a solution that will kill the roots of stubborn garden weeds.
For your lawn: Mow your lawn at 2 to 2-1/2 inches, removing one-third or less of the leaf blade. Leaf clippings return nutrients to the soil, so leave them, or if they are thick and wet, add them to your compost heap. If you are applying grass seed, don’t use a pre-emergent weed killer in the same area.

Fertilize your lawn by mid-May with GreenView Fairway Formula Lawn Fertilizers. There’s a formula for every purpose and our spring fertilizer feeds your lawn for the entire spring season—up to 16 weeks! Use a preventative formula for weeds or keep an eye out for them and hand pull or spot treat accordingly.

For the love of dogs!

The GreenView Team — 2009-04-13T10:05:11-04:00

We all have interests and passions that sometimes conflict. You love your lawn and garden. Nothing compares to the satisfaction of a beautiful green lawn peppered with shrubs and gardens after hours of planting, fertilizing and watering.

Then there’s Scooter, or Jake, or Toto - and don’t forget Princess, your cat. Face it: You love your pets just as much as you love your tulips! But can your passions coexist? Can Jake learn to love your garden as much as you?

The answer, of course, is yes. Let's get started.

First, let’s look at the potential damage. Even if your dog is better behaved than the now-famous “Marley,” most dogs dig and all dogs deposit urine and feces, usually wherever they can. Dogs mark their territory so that all competing canines in the neighborhood will be advised. The high nitrogen of the urine can leave those ugly brown spots that pock-mark the turf wherever your best friend may squat. Female canines tend to eliminate urine all at once, while the males mark here, there and everywhere. Cats, on the other hand will deposit a much smaller volume of feline urine and generally mark bushes or trees as scent posts or bury their waste in your garden rather than eliminate on the lawn. So while your cat may ruin your newly planted annual bed, the family dog is more likely to decimate the lawn you worked so hard to grow so green.

But you don’t have to give up one to have the other. Your lawn and gardens should be for all the family to enjoy, not just for your Sunday afternoon naps, but also for Frisbee with Fido. So don’t give up. You don’t have to choose between a nice lawn or a happy pet. Here’s what you can do to keep your lawn healthy while allowing pets to romp and roll.

Prevention

As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” but we understand….sometimes timing isn’t on your side. To prevent pet damage to your lawn, the best policy is to do some planning and positive training. Providing a separate area for dogs to play and eliminate is surely the best way to prevent lawn damage. Training your dog to eliminate in designated areas will also contain the waste so poop scooping will be more efficient. If you have the space, a fenced-in area in a corner of your yard will allow your pup to play safely, away from the neighbor’s property and traffic, and away from your lawn and gardens. Using positive training techniques, even the most avid diggers can be trained to stop that destructive habit and giving your dog lots of exercise is usually the key. Cats are usually litter-trained very easily, and your cat will be happier and safer, and the birds of the air will be safer too, if you keep “Princess” indoors!

Don’t forget that dogs are creatures of habit, so if you establish a healthy routine of walking your dog in a park or field a short distance away from your home, most of your problem is solved. You and your dog gain the benefits of exercise and your lawn is spared and the green maintained.

Urine is a bigger problem for lawns than feces because it is concentrated, whereas feces slowly release the waste products over time. But your pup’s stools are usually solid, so you can remove the waste yourself or hire a commercial pooper-scooper business. If you remove the feces frequently, there is less time for the nitrogen by-products to dissolve and therefore less damage. So, get out there and scoop the poop! To keep neighbors’ dogs from soiling your lawn, an obvious solution is a fence, or you might try advising dog owners about leash laws.

From your lawn’s perspective, you can also address the problem by planting grasses that are more resistant to the effects of urine deposits. A. Wayne Allard, DVM, a Colorado veterinarian, examined numerous variations in dog urine and its effects on several common lawn grasses. Of the four grasses he tested, Festuca sp var Kentucky (fescue) and Lolium perrene (fine-bladed rye) were the most resistant to urine effects. In fact, he said, “urine routinely produced a fertilizer effect on these grasses at diluted concentrations. Poa pretensis (Kentucky bluegrass) and Cynodon sp var fairway (Bermuda grass) were very sensitive to urine concentration and severe burns, persisting longer than 30 days after initial exposure to even 4 oz of dilute urine. Even on the most urine-resistant grass that was tested (fescue), urine concentration was a larger problem than urine volume. Concentrated urine with volumes of as little as 30 cc (1 oz) caused lawn burn, even on fescue grasses.”

The Cure (or, “Oops, too late”).

Because the brown spots that result from urine deposits are caused by concentrated nitrogen deposits, water is your friend. Pour a bucket of water where your dog just eliminated and you will dilute the chemicals that cause the grass to yellow. It’s an inexpensive way to “spot-treat” the problem. You say you have no time to follow your dog around the yard with buckets of water? Then check with your vet about products that can reduce the Ph level in your pet’s urine or you might want to go with an organic treatment for your lawn that prevents yellow spots, available at most pet stores.

While most burn spots can recover with time and re-growth, if the damage is severe, you will have to reseed or sod. Homeowners who are also dog lovers may have to find a good balance between their love of the dog and a well-manicured lawn, until you can develop a prevention plan. Lawn burn, when mild, will repair itself in time, especially in the case of warm-season turf grasses that spread by stolons and rhizomes. Dark green spots and taller grasses may remain for several weeks. Installing turf grass sod can patch severely damaged areas that would otherwise be invaded by weeds.

And remember, a strong and healthy lawn grows in good soil quality. So the more you care for your lawn and the healthier it is, the faster it will recover from any “oops” pet mistakes.

So don’t keep your dog in the doghouse! Enjoy your pets and your lawn by taking some preventative measures. If all else fails, repair and re-train!

Further Reading

The Turfgrass Resource Center is funded by Turfgrass Producers International (TPI), a 37-year-old, independent, not-for-profit association. For additional information, visit www.TurfGrassSod.org.

Allan, A.W. Lawn hum and dog urine. Canine Pract 8(2):26-52, 1981.

Veterinary Forum, July 2004 "Dog-On-It" Lawn Problems Revisited, By Steve Thompson, DVM, DABVP; Dr. Thompson is director of the Pet Wellness Clinic/Community Practice, Companion Animal Medicine and Behavior, Purdue University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, West Lafayette, Indiana.

Make your yard a bird oasis

The GreenView Team — 2009-04-03T14:52:55-04:00

Warmer temperatures and the sunny disposition of spring welcome Mother Nature’s best-dressed and most talented performers: her birds.

If you’re lucky, they will migrate to your yard bringing endless hours of entertainment in song, dance and color, seeking only food, water and shelter in return. If you plan it right, they might make their backyard their home, feathering their nests with materials you provide in your garden and landscape, to produce a new generation of talent for many seasons to come.

So what can you do to make your yard an oasis for birds? Lyric Wild Bird Food is a great place to start. But the answer is more than bird feeders, bird houses and birdbaths. A more effective (and natural) approach is to plan for their arrival from the ground up!

Take a bird’s eye view of the situation. Try to picture your yard as birds view a potential habitat from above. As humans build more housing developments with paved roads and driveways, shopping malls and airports, birds must fly over acres and acres of land searching for that perfect oasis. What are they searching for? They seek nest sites and plants, bushes and trees containing nest material and adequate cover and protection from predators. They also look for food sources like fruit bearing trees, seeds, and insects. When birds find all of this plus a nearby stream or pond to quench their thirst, they hit the jackpot!

Now that you see things from the bird’s perspective, let’s do some landscape planning:

If you draw it on paper or in your mind’s eye, keep it natural. Birds are a bit intimidated by straight lines and manicured edges. So don’t be so neat! Let some hollow logs and dead trees linger, consider creating a little mess on the edge—a brush pile or two as a source of nest material and insects for chickadees, woodpeckers and nuthatches.

Spring is prime time to plant new, bird-friendly décor. Trees and shrubs, called “ornamentals” in the business, are the perfect perches for bids. Check with your local nursery for ornamentals indigenous to your part of the country. And be sure to plant a variety to attract many different species of birds.

Not everyone can have a creek or stream outback. For the rest of us, a birdbath placed near feeding and nesting areas is most suitable to our feathered friends. Finally, you’re your birds safe from the elements and predators. Consider growing vines over fences and other spots where birds can hide and perch.

Take it to the next level...

Lyric®
Delite Mix

Once you plan for the basics, consider taking your landscaping art to the next level, making it absolutely irresistible to birds and attracting specific species with special talents. For example, hummingbirds feed by sight on regularly-followed routes. This is called traplining, and they are “food detectives.” They will zoom in on any possible new source of food. Because they have almost no sense of smell, they look for bright colors and the presence of nectar. In your garden, plant butterfly bushes, honeysuckle and trumpet creeper to attract them, and of course, hummingbird feeders in all shapes and designs are a welcome addition to any perennial garden and bird-friendly landscape. For other birds, mixes are a perfect meal. Stocking your feeders with colorful, hardy mixes like Lyric Delite is a sure-fire way to draw a variety of species.

Instead of or in addition to installing a decorative bird bath, consider adding a shallow pond or fountain. Dripping water is especially irresistible to bluebirds, mockingbirds, goldfinches and more. And hummingbirds love misters. Add lots of water, and these birds will give you hours of entertainment as they sip and bathe, flapping wings and splashing with delight!

Creating and preserving a habitat for birds is rewarding on so many levels. The beauty of your landscape takes on new dimension and meaning. You get the satisfaction of knowing you are satisfying the birds’ nutritional needs and providing a shelter to allow them to reproduce. And you are rewarded again with the brilliant color and song of the many varieties and species of birds that call your yard home year after year.