A Time For Growth:
Spring is a lush season! After a season of cold and damp weather conditions, the earth bursts to life with an abundance of colors, smells, and spectacular beauty. The grass is multiplying, the flowers are blooming, and the trees are stretching their limbs skyward in a striking display of photosynthesis in action.
Among the plants present in Spring is something we all never want to see: weeds. Dollarweed, Dandelions, and Thistles are all the usual suspects and can invade en masse.
Proper weed mitigation practices are critical in humid climates like Florida. Weed defense requires a holistic approach and demands a level of collaboration between the landscaper and the homeowner. Many things affect the growth of weeds including soil acidity, humidity, weather patterns, and more. Proper weed control depends on a few critical variables including watering schedule (homeowner-controlled), weed and feed, and replace and resod.
Watering Schedule:
Maintaining a watering schedule is critical to not giving weeds a chance to take over your lawn.
How Much To Water: Overwatering your lawn is one of the most common ways to incur widespread issues. Overwatering specifically leads to the growth of dollarweed. In Central Florida, Maverick’s recommends a watering schedule based around a daily-savings schedule. As of publishing this article, this plan is in line with local municipalities and city irrigation regulations.*
When clocks move forward an hour: homeowners should water two days a week. Local municipalities will specify which days of the week you should water. These days are based on your address.
When clocks move back an hour: homeowners should water one day a week. Local municipalities will specify this day to homeowners as well.
Coverage: Each zone should cover the affected area with a minimum of 1 inch per hour of watering. Running at a higher frequency is acceptable, however running below this rate will be detrimental to the lawn. Running at lower rates essentially keeps too little water on the lawn. Running a little, for longer periods, and/or watering daily is poor practice.
Inspecting What You Expect: snowbirds are often caught by surprise in unseasonably rainy times as their best-laid plans result in oversaturation of irrigation and a bumper crop of weeds. Hurricanes and rainy seasons will obviously impact your schedule and will require adjustments.
High Heat: During times of high heat and lower humidity, we recommend adjusting your watering schedule to increase run times per zone to prevent hot spots.
Weed and Feed:
Maverick’s follows a science-based approach to weed and feed and soil nutrition. Great landscaping and greenery begin in the soil therefore we test the soil using a third-party laboratory to determine the exact mixtures needed to help your sod thrive.
Using too much or too little herbicides and treatments can kill your sod. We then design our weed and feed to be all-inclusive and discourage homeowners from adding additional nutrients, chemicals, and treatments to their lawns as it can burn the sod out. We cannot ensure positive outcomes once overtreatment occurs.
Maverick’s Science-Based Weed and Feed Schedule:
January: Liquid Feed
March: Ornamental Feed
May: Insecticide
July: Fungicide / Feed / Insecticide
September: Feed / Fungicide / and more if needed
November: Feed / and more if needed
Replace and Resod:
Your lawn, like everything in life, is affected by age. The older sod gets, the more susceptible it is to disease, damage, and ultimately death. Sod that is older than 15 years is very vulnerable to these negative factors which allow weeds to expand and grow exponentially. At the 8-10 years point in a yard’s life we begin discussing resod plans to allow for all-new growth to bloom. If you are ready to start with a fresh slate and ‘reboot and refresh’ your yard, please reach out today and we can provide a competitive quote on your resod.
We hope this Maverick’s Blog provided valuable information about weed control and Maverick’s science-based approach to caring for your lawn.
As always, we hope you enjoy your landscaping projects and that they bring you, your family, and your friends together.
Wishing you great growth.
-Team Mavericks
*Always check local municipalities and city regulations to ensure compliance and mandated irrigation schedules.