The first Dandelions of the season are a marker in the lawn care business.
I drove to a stop sign and saw some yellow flowers in the lawn across the road. Are those dandelions already? So I crossed the street to take a closer look.
Sure enough, they are dandelions. The first of the hordes have arrived. This piece of lawn is on a slope and faces south. So it means that this patch of lawn is in a warm and sunny spot.
The first blooms of dandelions are one way to tell if the season is early or late.
When first dandelions blooms are seen on the 27th of April - this means that this season is about 7-10 days later than normal. In some years, when the weather is earlier than normal, dandelions can be seen as early as mid April
Of course, it seems like it has been a long time since we have had a normal season.
For information about dandelion control
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Kathy has concerns about grub problems and whether to lay down a new back lawn.
Greg says, "I do not know what a spot or blanket treatment means."
Thanks Greg for asking that question. Blanket or spot refers to two different types of spray applications that are available used within lawn care programs. Generally, in reference to weed treatments.
A blanket spray - means the whole yard is treated,
A spot spray means that the areas with weeds are treated and not areas where there are no weeds.
With the organic products, the product cost is more. So, blanket treatments require a lot more product than spot sprays. If the lawn is in good shape, a spot spray is usually adequate. A very weedy lawn will likely need a blanket spray- at least to start.
In the past with the old pesticide the cost of product was not as much- in fact very insignificant. Spot spraying was not done because of cost but because people had issues with the use of pesticides.
Spot spraying originally was something that the lawn care industry instituted to meet the needs of the customers. When pesticides were used to control weeds, people would feel better if less pesticides could be used. So lawn care companies would spot spray lawns instead of blanket spraying the whole lawn whether it needed it or not.
Back then, spot spray programs would generally reduce pesticide use by 50% or more. In general, spot sprays would not do quite as good a job as a blanket spray, but people were willing to have a few weeds knowing that there was less pesticide used on their lawn. When spot spraying, the lawn care technician may not treat an area that appears to be weed free, but there may have been small weeds starting unseen below the grass.