This week Gardenalia continues to bring you the luxury landscaping and organic home lifestyle with our series on home and garden tips. This week we look at some top ways to get rid of crabgrass!

Home Owner vs. Crabgrass

Ah, yes the joy of owning property, the thrill of coming back to your carefully curated garden, a lush, green lawn and oh…wait a second, WHAT is that? Is that crabgrass? According to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, this seasonal headache is the bane of many homeowners. It possesses allelopathic behaviors, poisoning nearby plants and on TOP of that Rodale’s organic states that crabgrass “inhabits your soil for up to three years, germinating whenever the temperature rises above 55 degrees, and the sunshine reaches moist soil“.

Timing = Everything

Right after your second mowing in the spring, (or our second mowing if you’ve got us on speed dial to handle your maintenance!), is the best time to consider actions against this pesky plant. Mow high and mow often all while making sure 100% that you don’t let any of the crabgrass seeds hit the ground. Typically when it comes to organic lawn care clippings are our friends, but if you have a lot of crabgrass seed, not so much. Be sure to bag your clippings properly when you mow the crabgrass this time of year, to gather those seeds, and put them out to trash and off property.

Gardenalia tip: Start early, cut high, clean up often.

Pull = Toss

So if you’re coming into this crabgrass game late in the season and the lawn is established and fertile, the giveaway here will be those ugly light green blades tarnishing an otherwise verdant view. If you catch the blade early enough, manually pulling is an effective, albeit back-breaking way to get rid of crabgrass. Keep a cautious and EAGLE eye on those blades! When resolving a riddled crabgrass area, it’s quite easy to resow your lawn accidentally with their seeds.

Reseed = Make It Work

So you’ve gone through another season of pulling, mowing and tossing, and the question remains: NOW what? The answer is reseeding. Early Fall is the best time to re-seed because of the shorter days, cooler temps, and more dew density. A good rule of thumb is to seed either two weeks before or after Labor Day. Doing this gives new seedlings time to build strong roots before the winter. In other words, the end of Summer or the very beginning of Fall is the best time to reseed. Since this is a busy time for most and the back-breaking work only adds to the stress, let Gardenalia help! We discuss tips and fine gardening & maintenance services during our first consultation.

Gardenalia Tip: Here are a few other ways we keep gardens weed-free and landscapes sustainable.