If you're in North Florida and care for your own grass, NOW is the time to giddy up on your grass procedures.
I started doing my own lawn for several reasons.
- Lawn services sometimes just stuff the bill in your mailbox. Most of us are working during the day and the lawn service comes during the day. Did they actually put anything down on the lawn?! It is a great way for them to cut expenses while they continue to collect revenues! Plus, the boss thinks the lawn guy is a super star since they care for so many more lawns. LOL
- If you have lots of weeds in your lawn, do you really think they want to kill those weeds? Customers would get mad because you killed their lawn! Most people have no clue what are weeds and what is grass. Lots of people have “Weed lawns”.
- What actually are they spraying on your lawn? Maybe it is just WATER. This could be classified as another one of those corporate expense saving programs. Remember... keep the revenues coming while decreasing expenses. As for the customer, the hell with them, we’re trying to bolster our P&L!
On a serious note, the beginning of the season for taking care of your St. Augustine grass in North Florida is when the azaleas start to bloom. The azaleas started to bloom last weekend. This means it is time to put down pre-emergent weed killer.
Pre-emergent weed killer will not kill weeds after they germinate (you use something else to do that). It kills weeds BEFORE they begin to grow. So, spreading pre-emergent weed killer is the first step in taking care of your lawn.
Two years ago, I ripped out my entire lawn (I had a weed lawn!) and laid a new one. That was a ball busting job (and back) that I don't want to repeat again. So last year, I did a lot of research on how to stay on top of my lawn and fight those nasty little (and big) weeds. It's really not too complicated. I've compiled my research in the attachment.
So get rid of those "fantom sprays", "drive by's" and "water sprays". It's not rocket science, Just read the information and get on a schedule. You can save a good deal of money and you will likely get much better results.
Be smart, be well-read, be aware and be successful.
