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Spring is kind of like Christmas for landscapers and those of us who love our yards. But it’s even better because instead of one day or presents if you pay attention, your yard gives you new gifts almost daily. Your flowers sprout fresh blossoms, the bees and birds play, and your lawn fills back out. But it’s not all wine and roses. It’s also whining and weeds. That’s why post-emergents and other weed control measures are part of our Spring property management routine. If you haven’t seen any weeds in your Austin property yet, you either already have Progreen caring for it, you’re fortunate, or they are on the way. Here’s how to keep your property weed-free or at least weed-inhospitable.
We Know What Weeds Like
Weeds like you. Or, we should say, weeds like your property when you give it water and sunlight. That’s a little tricky because it’s not as if you can deprive the rest of your plant life of those things. So what can you do to ensure your property is healthy for flowers and grass but less so for weeds?
Keep Your Plants Healthy!
Even though weeds like many of the same things your other plants do, they don’t like competing with them. That means that if you keep your grass and flowers healthy and robust, it makes weeds’ lives more difficult. To use a metaphor, what would you choose if you were going to the grocery store and there was one lane with no one in line and one with a line to the back of the store? When you fill your landscape with healthy plants, there’s less room for weeds to grow.Feed and Water
Here’s some good news. Even though weeds need water as much as your other plants do, often, they don’t want the same nutrients. That means if you feed your flowers and grass what it needs to be healthy, you’ll also make the environment less healthy for weeds. Of course, the inverse is also true. If you don’t keep your grass healthy, it’s a good target for invasive weed species.Keep Away Pests
Pest control directly influences your yard by preventing unwanted insects like grubworms and chinch bugs from eating what you’ve worked so hard to grow. But it also has an indirect positive effect. Unhealthy plants have a target on their back for weeds. So when grass gets eaten and sick, it makes it easier for weeds to grow. When you keep away pests, your grass is more likely to stay healthy and keep out weeds.Mulching
Crowding your yard with healthy plants is easy for your lawn but not as ideal for your flower beds. That’s because, with flowers, part of the aesthetic appeal is the negative space between the flowers. Remember, landscaping is about contrast! Unfortunately, that negative space looks like a cheap home in an excellent neighborhood to weeds. So how do you keep them out? The answer is one of our very favorite landscaping tools: mulch!Direct Weed Control
Of course, passive methods aren’t always enough to keep weeds at bay. That is why Progreen uses preemergent and post-emergent lawn treatments to prevent and remove weeds.Preemergents
We’re actually past the point in the year to apply preemergents, but we include them here for educational purposes. Preemergents are great because they prevent weeds from growing. They target plants at the stage before they grow, hence their name. We apply preemergent earlier in the year when you already have established, healthy plants. It’s essential not to use preemergents where you are trying to grow something new from seeds because they don’t target a particular plant but the growth stage. That means they will prevent all your plants from emerging.Post Emergents
We saved post emergents for last. Reasonable can agree or disagree if that’s because they’re “best,” but they’re certainly the star of the weed reduction show this time of the year. Most of the weed control you’re familiar with, like what you buy in giant spray bottles at the hardware, fall into this category.
We use post emergents to kill weeds that are already there. They are ideal for now because we’re past the point where we can prevent them. They also work in places where you can’t use preemergents because you’re trying to start something new.