Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District 11

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

Previous month in review

Just like last year, January once again delivered some extremes regarding moisture and cold. Hopefully, you took the necessary precautions, took care of any cold-sensitive plants, and protected your external pipes. Backflow preventers can be susceptible to cracking even when drained, so check those out in the next month or two and deal with any issues before the heat of summer sets in.

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

Garden

Feb 14 is our “average last frost day” for the greater Houston area, with northern parts of Harris County and Montgomery County et al. seeing that date push back toward the end of the month. If you’re a home gardener, these dates are the jumping-off point for the spring garden. There are plenty of cool-season crops that you can begin working with now, and by the end of the month, you will also be working toward some warm-season plantings. Check out this chart for a handy resource for the best time to plant different crops.

 

At my house, we will start potatoes any day now. Lettuce will be seeded on a weekly basis for us; it is far superior to what you buy at the store. Tomatoes will go in the ground in the middle of the month if the 10-day forecast keeps us above freezing and there are no “arctic blasts” in the long-range prediction models. Then, March will see us transition toward warm-season crops in full earnest.

Lawn and Landscape

Despite 3” snow on the ground Tuesday and persisting in places for a few days. I am seeing green Bermudagrass at ground level already. This month is forecasted to kick off with days in the 70-degree range. The nights will still be cool, limiting the major seasonal shift from winter to spring in our lawns and landscape. However, don’t be surprised to see some color return to your brown dormant lawn this month. With all this said, the steps below will give your turf a strong start to the year.

Barricade or Dimension Pre-emergent is essential now to keep broadleaf and grassy weeds away. This treatment and another in 75-90 days will make a big difference if you have crabgrass.
If you have clover, it probably looked like the freeze knocked it out, but it will rebound quickly. I will have the Clover control plan at the end of this newsletter.

Fast-acting 15-5-10 fertilizer will get your yard greened up and strong early. Nitro Phos Imperial 15-5-10 is widely available and our choice here; they also make an organic alternative called “sweet green,” which is a good choice if you’re looking for that. Skip the “weed and feed.”

If you want to put down a pre-emergent in your landscape beds like “Preen,” now is the time to get it out and dress with fresh hardwood mulch.

Before you refresh that mulch, complete your landscape pruning. We want to prune the roses and crape myrtles in the middle of the month.

Stay Warm and Dry,

Hunter Soape

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Clover action plan-

Identification

 

Control methods-

We need to use different chemicals depending on what lawn grass you have.

Saint Augustine

Broadleaf, large stolons (stems) above ground, in the majority of residential lawns

St Augustine Controls-

Spectracide Weedstop for St. Augustine lawns – Purple Label

Bermuda Grass

A fine-textured leaf (1/8” across or less) with a very fine stem/runner has increased in popularity in the past 5-10 years but is a small portion of suburban residential lawns.

Zoysia grass- looks much like Bermuda and falls into the same chemical families to be used.

Treatment—You can use hose-end sprayers (the most straightforward method) or mix in a pump-up sprayer to treat. I have provided links to products at Lowe’s Hardware, but they can be found in many other stores.

Spectracide Weed Stop -Yellow Top

Ortho Weed Clear- Orange top

Now is the time to treat your clover. You need a 4-hour window without rain and preferably some sun. Don’t be surprised to see signs of plant stress in under 24 hours after treatment.

Also, treating while your grass is dormant is preferred; it is dormant right now and will be for at least the first few weeks of February. When your turf grass breaks dormancy as the temperatures warm, it is under much stress, and adding a herbicide adds more stress. Zoysia is very susceptible to herbicide stress in that stage. Cleaning up the clover now will improve the uniformity of your lawn in the spring, as the turf grass has less variability of sunlight and soil warming.