05/06/2022 April showers bring May flowers!
As we depart from April showers into better growing weather you may start to see different plants within your landscape evolve. One such plant that does well at this time of year is a grassy weed known as annual bluegrass. Contrary to the color in its name, this weed appears in patches of light green and has the tendency to grow faster and earlier than the rest of your lawn, thriving in compacted soil areas. It will eventually display visible white seed heads which will drop to the soil as the warm weather causes them to lie dormant and re germinate once cooler weather returns in the late summer to mid-fall.
The best defense for annual bluegrass or any weed for that matter is again to ensure a healthy lawn year-round that is mowed frequently and watered properly. For the prevention of any annual plant that starts from seed, it is so important to have a thick lawn mowed at 3” to prevent needed sunlight from reaching the soil interface where the weed seed lays in waiting ready for germination. Frequent overwatering is also a problem for any weed that needs to germinate from seed. By ensuring you are watering deeply and infrequently no more than 1-2 times per week, providing roughly 1 inch of water each time to the lawn will greatly reduce the chance of seed germination as well.
So while there is little that can be done at this time of year, as the rest of your lawn catches up, it will blend in. Unlike crabgrass, it doesn’t cause a significant problem within home lawns. Knowing that it starts its journey in the fall along with a few other weeds like dandelions will help in your management of dealing with it.
Please feel free to connect with our team should you have any questions about this or any of your other lawn inquiries.
