We were really confounded
this year by the amount of crab grass present in the rear yard of a customer.
Though we have talked about crab grass recently our conclusion of how this
infestation occurred is important to keep in mind.
Last year, when there was
some crab grass spread to the rear yard, we blamed it on our mowing practices.
This year we changed up how we mowed the lawn and were far more aware of weed
transference due to a dirty lawn mower. We cleaned the lawn mower more regularly and
noted more closely what the machine was used for. We were of course diligent to
get the crab grass out before it turned to seed so we knew that there should
have been less this year. What we ended
up with was more crab grass and it was really confounding.
On further inspection it was
recognized that there was some new construction of a walk in the rear yard.
This meant that foreign materials were brought to the rear yard and amongst
this material was sand and screening. The latter two materials are notorious
for having tons of crab grass seed present and are as bad or worse than the
road sand used by the city. One bucket of material spilled or, if there was
just a bit left over, it was spread out to "top dress the lawn". This
would have been enough to create this year's infestation. Just a note, I too would likely have done the
same thing or one of my workers may have. It really is not a bad practice
depending on the volume of material.
The conclusion was again
proven to be the likely cause when we experienced a huge infestation of a
customers year who had just installed a pool and new deck. The infestation was all around the perimeter of
the construction site. The quote from us for getting rid of the weeds was quite
high and as this was a country property he had resources to kill them city
folks don't have. My worry is is that unless you get rid of every seed head
that was formed and actually pull them out before you pick up mature seeds with
shoes and lawn mowers this infestation will not end. This will become a yearly
event of spraying and then reseeding the lawn. Pull them out folks.
