outlook_g81d_bannerIn the most recent National Gardening Association “What Gardeners Think” Study, the number one problem/challenge cited among all generations, is weeds. Weeds frustrate all ages from the Older Boomers to the Millennials. This has been a consistent theme now, for years. So, helping guide your customers on how to fight the battle against lawn weeds, can pay big dividends. Be sure to have good information and great product on hand to make the job easy – so they can get on with enjoying their yards and their lives.

Turn your back for a second, and it’s astonishing how fast weeds can gain a foothold in the lawn. From those early-spring patches of speedwell to May’s golden fields of dandelions to the fat leaves of summer plantain, Mother Nature has a varied lineup to fill any bare soil.

Different weeds germinate at different times throughout a growing season – including winter in much of America. Some of them come and go with each season (annuals), while others are perennial weeds that come back from their roots year to year.

Almost all of them hit peak growth in spring when the soil warms.

If you let them grow – between the annuals reseeding themselves and the perennials spreading, weeds outcompete the grass. When that happens, the solution is to level the playing field by first eliminating the invaders.

Spring is prime time to do that because that’s not only when weeds are actively growing, it’s when they’re most vulnerable to weed-killers. A well timed spring application of a granular weed-killer such as GreenView with GreenSmart Broadleaf Weed Control plus Lawn Food can clean up the bulk of a weed infestation in one treatment. That timing kills annual weeds such as henbit, hairy bittercress and speedwell that germinated in winter and hit the ground running in spring. It also kills newly germinated annual weeds, such as mustards, mallow, prickly lettuce and pigweed. And it kills existing perennials, such as plantain, bindweed, ground ivy, and dandelions. In all, the three herbicides in GreenView with GreenSmart Broadleaf Weed Control kill more than 250 kinds of broadleaf weeds. The long-acting, zero-phosphorus fertilizer in the product also feeds turfgrass for up to 8 weeks. Granular broadleaf weed-killers work best when applied right after a rain or early in the morning when the granules stick best to damp leaves. They also can be reapplied in early fall to clean up any survivor weeds or to kill off new weeds that germinated over the summer.

If grassy weeds such as crabgrass, goosegrass and foxtail are also a problem, these are best controlled by preventing them in the first place with a granular product such as GreenView with GreenSmart Crabgrass Control plus Lawn Food.

It’s important to let customers know, most weed and feeds on the market – do NOT control crabgrass. This requires a special formulation, so that the weed is prevented from emerging. Informed customers know crabgrass is an annual weed – so just because you didn’t have it last year, doesn’t mean that it won’t sneak up again this year! It can be a constant battle.

Crabgrass preventers should be applied early in the season, just before annual grassy weeds germinate. Timing is everything! That timing ranges from as early as mid-January to late May, depending on climate. There are also some fertilizer formulations, like the GreenView Crabgrass Control, that also provide post-emergent control of crabgrass – killing it while still in the seedling stage up to 4-weeks after it emerges. This allows your customers a little extra time to get it on the lawn to beat the crabgrass.

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