Hello everyone and happy Thursday to you! I'm sure most of you have noticed the slight dip in temperatures we've been enjoying these past few days. Looks like we've rounded the corner from 90+ degree hot summer days and can look forward to beautiful cooler weather instead. What a welcome relief! Could it be that fall is in the air?
Fall is the perfect time to be in the garden. It's sunny and warm, yet cool enough to work. And best of all, there's no bugs! Even though we're still a few weeks away from the true fall season, there's plenty we can be doing in the yard right now to get our gardens in top shape for next year. Now is a great time to start tackling lawn care and re-seeding projects. As soon as the night-time lows drop into the 60's, like they already have, it's time to get started. But before we talk about seed, we may need to tackle some nasty weed issues.
I don't know about you, but the weeds have really taken over my lawn this past month. Things were in pretty good shape, and suddenly the weeds have just exploded. That's because they just thrive in our hot and humid summers. I've got crab grass and chickweed as well as Bermuda grass, infiltrating my fescue sod. So if your lawn is anything like mine, you'll want to tackle those weeds before turning your thoughts towards reseeding.
If your grass is less than 50% weeds, we recommend treating the area with Weed Out with Q by Fertilome. This ready-to-spray treatment kills crabgrass, dandelion, clover, plus 200 other listed weeds. It kills even tough weeds-roots and all.
Fertilome Weed Out with Q spray contains three proven weed killers that target lawn weeds and crabgrass. This product enters the lawn weeds through their leaves and moves throughout the plant to provide control. Recommended for cool season turf-grass such as Kentucky bluegrass, rye-grass, tall fescue, and mixtures of cool season grasses containing fine fescues. Also for warm season turf-grasses such as bermuda, zoysia, and buffalo grass. Application to bermuda grass may cause temporary yellowing or discoloration, but full recovery can be expected.
Note that this product should be used only when daytime temperatures drop below 90 degrees (85 for bermuda grass). And since we're in the 80's now, go ahead and give your lawns an application or two of this. Once treated, let your lawn sit about 2 weeks before re-seeding. Be careful not to over-apply which may cause burning to the grass.
If your lawn area is more than 50% weeds, you'll need to go ahead and apply Round-Up to the entire area. And if you're like me and have bermuda grass coming up in your fescue lawn, you'll need to use Round-up on that, as well.
Now that we've talked about weeds, it's time to think re-seeding. Fall is the best time for re-seeding, and actually should be the only time you re-seed. Planting fescue seed in the fall allows the seed to fully root in and get established before the heat and stress of the summer hit again. Once night time temps dip into the 60's, like now, you can get started. And you can safely seed until mid November.
For fescue lawns, we recommend Shady Nook lawn seed mixture from Wyatt-Quarles. Shady Nook is locally blended so it is perfect for our Piedmont growing conditions. And it is tested here at NC State to provide a better blend with fewer weed seeds. It is also perfectly suited for full sun into part shade, giving you a better mixture of drought tolerance and wet growing conditions.
We offer Shady Nook in 25 lb. bags, as well as 5 lb. bags for smaller areas.
If you have areas of full shade, we recommend mixing Creeping Red Fescue in with your Shady Nook blend. Creeping Red Fescue is shade tolerant, and it's dark green color and finely textured blades will mix in perfectly with the rest of your lawn.
I hope these helpful hints will get you on your way to beautiful looking grass in no time. Remember, our helpful experts are on hand 7 days a week to answer all your lawn care and gardening questions. Stop by and pay us a visit! We're always happy to see you down at Garden Supply!