Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District 11

TLDR – Too long, didn’t read:

• Enjoy nice weather this month, the heat is coming
• Ants are in full force- PG 2, second bullet point
• Feed your lawn and plants, treat weeds before they get worse
• Mow frequently

March in review

The winter and spring were quite soggy, but March brought a change of pace, with some weeks experiencing no rain. If you have applied fertilizer and granular herbicide as recommended, it may have been watered in just recently, but that’s still okay. If your grass is not green and your landscape is not blooming, it’s time to take a close look at what’s going wrong and consider seeking help.

April – Action items for your lawn, landscape, and garden

This is likely our last pleasant and mild weather month for a while to work on your lawn, garden, and landscape. Hopefully, rainfall will continue to be moderate and timely.

Garden

If you’re a home gardener, this is the month you’re expecting to see some of your first harvest. Furthermore, it is a big month for planting more heat-tolerant plants. If you have drip irrigation systems in place (I highly recommend), you should be checking for problems this month before the May heat kicks in.

Lawn

• Mowing – It’s time to get back to weekly cuttings. Remember, we don’t want to cut more than one-third of the grass height at a time when we mow. I know I recommended cutting your lawn close on your first mow for the spring, now it’s time to raise that mower deck back up to at least 3 inches. I mow mine even higher where I have St. Augustine. The higher mower setting will allow the grass to naturally suppress weeds by shading them out and help maintain soil moisture.
• Fertilization – the question of when to fertilize is based on when you fertilized previously
  • “I can’t remember the last time I fertilized, or I haven’t fertilized” – then fertilize NOW!
  • “The last time I fertilized was in February or March” – we want to fertilize 45-60 following your last application with Nitro Phos 10-4-10 Super Turf.

Do not forget to feed your roses monthly. If you haven’t fertilized your shrubs and trees yet this spring, now is the time. 1 pound of fertilizer for 1” of trunk diameter.

• Herbicide – If you have applied a pre-emergent herbicide, you should not be experiencing many weeds at this point. However, it will not give you 100% control. I recommend using a spot treatment with a sprayer for any weeds that appear. Here are a few options that come ready to use Spectracide Weed stop  or Bioadvanced All in One. Either of those will treat weeds and crabgrass. Wait 2-3 days after you mow to treat, and don’t mow for 2-3 days after treating.
• Pest- Ants are the worst, right? They seem to have multiplied over winter at my house and probably yours too. Fire ants will become more active with warmer weather and pop up new mounds after every coming rain, it seems like. Three approaches have proven successful for me.
  • Option 1- Fipronil is a chemical that provides 12 months of protection. It both kills active mounds quickly and remains active for a long time. The downside is that a professional licensed applicator must apply it. This also treats for fleas and ticks, so if you have pets, there is another benefit.
  • Option 2- Apply a DIY granule insecticide like Amdro, Extinguish Plus, or Once and Done. Then follow up with mound treatment with a dust or liquid. The granule is slow to kill, but it acts as a great preventative. The mound treatment gives you fast results.
  • Option 3- “Tarrow” is a Borax solution you apply to a piece of cardboard, and the workers carry the poison down to the colony. I have observed significantly higher kill rates compared to many of the mound treatments, where you see some dead ants on top of the mound, followed by a new mound 5 feet away. It is cheap as well, and you pick up the cardboard with the chemical on it and discard it a day or two later, and you are not leaving ant poison in your yard. I really like this option if you have children or animals you don’t want to expose to the chemical pesticides used in other treatments.

Spring rains and green grass,

Hunter Soape

TLDR – Too Long Didn’t Read

• Spring has sprung, get started with your lawn and landscape NOW for a beautiful yard. Action items are listed as bullet points below.
• Watch out for Fire ants, and have a plan to control- Page 2, 1st bullet point
• Your landscape would also like to be fed.- Page 2- Landscape section

February in review

In the past month, we experienced a wide range of temperatures, but rainfall was consistent on a weekly basis. If you read carefully last month, we discussed February 14^th being the average last frost date, but to look at the 10-day forecast before planting any sensitive plants. Well, we had that frost and even freeze, but it was well predicted by the 14^th, so hopefully, you heeded the advice in last month’s article.

March – Action items for your lawn, landscape, and garden

Our average last frost date has passed, while something unexpected could happen the long-range forecast doesn’t signal any fronts coming. However, for the record the latest spring freeze in Houston was on April 10.

Garden

If you are starting a garden, take the risk, and get your tomatoes in the ground as soon as possible to increase yield before the summer heat prevents fruit set. The February article has a planting chart to help you know the best dates to seed or transplant most garden plants. Here is a link to that chart.

Lawn

If you did not get down a fertilization and/or pre-emergent herbicide in February, there is still time, but hurry. Warm nighttime weather will cause weeds to germinate and begin to emerge; the principle of a pre-emergent is that the seeds do not germinate.

• Mowing – The start of the season is a good time to ensure your blades are sharp. While I advocate for mowing your lawn around 3 inches or more throughout the season, an initial shorter cut can help clean up the brown dormant leaves on top. Some physical removal of the clippings may be required.
• Fertilization – We want to switch to Nitro Phos 19-4-10 Super Turf. This is a slower-release nitrogen fertilizer with extra Iron to get that dark green color. If you put down a February fertilizer as recommended, wait 45 days from that application for this one. If you did not use fertilizer in February, now is the time.
• Herbicide – Barricade or Dimension pre-emergent is my choice, as they help control crabgrass and broadleaf weeds. You probably won’t find it at the big box store, but most nurseries or Tru Value / Ace Hardware will carry it.
  • AVOID “WEED AND FEED”!! – The herbicides used in this are not very safe in a granule form. They are very toxic to trees and shrubs.
• Pests – Fire ants will become more active with warmer weather and pop-up new mounds after every coming rain it seems like. There are 2 approaches that are successful.
  • Option 1 – Fipronil is a chemical that provides 12 months of protection. It both kills active mounds quickly and remains active for a long time. The downside is a professional licensed applicator must apply it. This also treats for fleas and ticks, so if you have pets, that’s another benefit.
  • Option 2 – Apply a DIY granule insecticide like Amdro, Extinguish Plus, or Once and Done. Then, follow up with mound treatment with a dust or liquid. The granule is slow to kill but acts as a great preventative. The mound treatment gives you fast results.
• Irrigation – While we may not need to turn on the irrigation for a month or 2 still, check that everything is working correctly now. We had a couple of hard freezes and back flow preventers are very susceptible to freeze damage.

Landscape – If you have not already, get to pruning dead vegetation and pruning back any plants that have become overgrown.

• Roses – March is the month to start feeding roses. A quality rose fertilizer is all you need, but skip the Miracle Grow and go with Osmocote or Nitro-Phos rose fertilizers.
• Shrubs and Growing Trees – These plants can benefit from a spring fertilizer application; our rule of thumb is 1 pound per 1” of trunk diameter.
• Seasonal color – Now that the risk of freeze is diminishing, you can start changing seasonal colors.

Hunter Soape
hsoape@cdcltd.com
CDC Unlimited, LLC