Weed Control and Fertilization

Stopping weed seed from establishing and dealing with weeds that are already growing are separate pieces of work, done at different points in the year.  A program that only ever does the second one is always playing catch-up.

Prevention is about the window before the seed germinates.  It is timing-led work: too early and it has faded before the seed moves, too late and the weed is already up and the moment has gone.  That window shifts with soil temperature, so it is not the same date every year and it is not the same date on a shaded lot as on an open one.

Treating what is already visible is the other half.  That is done to the weed in front of you, and what is appropriate depends on what it is, what it is growing in, how established it is and what is growing next to it.  Broadleaf weeds in turf, bramble along a fence line and vines through a bed are three different problems.

This is why the programs are written around a season rather than sold as a visit.  One application cannot cover a window that has not opened yet, and no single treatment leaves a lawn permanently weed free: seed arrives on the wind, on machinery, on animals and from every neighboring lot, every year.

The three numbers on a bag of fertilizer are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.  In broad terms nitrogen drives leaf growth and green color, phosphorus supports roots and establishment, and potassium supports the general hardiness of the plant.

Nitrogen is the one people notice, because it is the one that turns a lawn green and pushes top growth.  It is also the one most easily overdone.  Too much nitrogen produces fast, soft, weak growth: a lawn that looks impressive for a fortnight, needs cutting constantly, and is more attractive to disease and insects than a steadier one would have been.  Excess also does not stay put, and what the plant does not use can leave the soil with the next heavy rain.

Phosphorus is associated with root development and with getting young plants established.  Many established lawns already hold enough of it, which is one of the practical arguments for testing rather than assuming.

Potassium is the least visible of the three and is generally associated with the plant coping: with drought, with cold, with traffic and with recovering from stress.  It does not produce a dramatic color change, which is exactly why it gets forgotten.

What a particular lawn needs, and when, depends on the turf type, the time of year, the condition of the soil and how much rain has actually fallen.  Feeding warm-season grass hard as it is heading into dormancy is not the same proposition as feeding it as it comes out of it.

A single application can knock back what is growing at the time.  It cannot make a lawn permanently weed free, and any program that is sold that way is being sold on something it cannot deliver.

Seed arrives every year from outside the property, dormant seed already in the soil can germinate seasons later, and different weeds appear at different points in the year.  Control is a maintained state rather than a finished job, in the same way that a lawn is mowed rather than cut once.

What a program is intended to do is keep the pressure low enough that turf stays the stronger plant, and deal with each flush as it appears rather than after it has set seed.  Results vary with the property, the weather and how long the problem has been running.  A fence line that has been left to bramble for three years is a different proposition from a lawn with clover in it.

Everything applied is handled by the crew, at the rates and timings the product and the site call for.  If you want to talk through what is on your property before committing to anything, that is what the free estimate is for.