In the Weeds – February 2025

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.

Image credit- Texas AgriLife Extension, Harris County office

Image credit- Texas AgriLife Extension, Harris County office

 

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


Clover action plan-

Identification

Photo credit- Texas AgriLife

Photo credit- Texas AgriLife

 

Dark green patches are clover.

Dark green patches are clover.

Control methods-

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

Saint Augustine

Image Southern Lawn RTS

Image Southern Lawn RTS

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

Bermuda Grass

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.

In the Weeds – January 2025

December and 2024 in review

December had something for everyone weather wise. If you like it cold there was a few days of that, if you like it warmer there was a lot of that too. We saw some needed rainfall, but nothing extremely heavy or persistent.

2024 was the best year in terms of rainfall and less extreme summer heat and dry spells in at least the last 5 years.

What to expect in January

Home gardeners, it is the month to stay warm, and if you start your own tomatoes from seed it is time to start. If you have winter crops in the ground good for you.   My indeterminate tomatoes I have talked about every month finally succumbed to a frost on January 6th. Seeing as I planted them about March 1 of 2024 that is a pretty good run. I really do think the fall/winter crop was better than the spring. On Sunday as we were preparing for the incoming weather, we picked gallons of both ripe tomatoes we made sauce with and green tomatoes to be fried up. If I would have had more time, we could have pickled some of those green tomatoes too.

Lawn maintenance should be minimal this month.  The frost and cold overnight temps the week of Jan 6th will keep most growth but a few weeds to an absolute minimum.

Action Items

Ants are showing up nearly everywhere-

  • 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 it must be applied by a professional licensed applicator. 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.
  • Option 3 – I have been trying out a new product in some areas that I didn’t apply Fipronil to at my own home and have been impressed. “Tarrow” is a Borax solution you apply to a piece of cardboard and the workers carry the poison down to the colony.

Municipal Drainage Happenings

December weather was fair, but the early January cold snap has cemented turf grass into dormancy for a while. We are mowing once a month with tractors and twice monthly on shortgrass.

Hunter Soape

In the Weeds – December 2024

November in Review

November weather returned us to our normally scheduled programming after the extended warm spell. By that I mean many days in the 70s with a few bounces back into the 80s. Also, we saw some sporadic rain which helped us recover from that weird fall dry period.

What to Expect in December

Home gardeners, you should be starting to benefit from your fall planted cool season crops.  My indeterminate tomatoes are producing the most they have all season; we discussed how to do this a few months back. The frost will take them out sometime, maybe tomorrow maybe in January. I am going to grow my homegrown tomatoes until they do, and when frost is eminent, we will make fried green tomatoes with the unripe fruit.

Tired of mowing your lawn? You should get a good break now; our grasses are not dormant since we have not had a frost yet. But they know it is time to shut it down for the season. You may need a cut every 2 weeks to deal with some weeds but the weekly mowings are certainly done for a bit.

Action Items

  • Enjoy fires in the fireplace or outdoor fire pit on cold evenings.
  • Hot chocolate
  • Relax and enjoy this holiday season
  • Watch out for reindeer droppings in your yard following Christmas day

Municipal Drainage Happenings

November brought a break in the drought and perked up our turf since we had moderately warm temperatures. We are mowing once a month with tractors and twice monthly on shortgrass.

Districts that were treated with a pre-emergent herbicide look clean, those that did not elect for that have noticeably more weed pressure.

Overall, this has been the best year for turf in the past 5 years. No extreme freezes, consistent moisture for most of the year. Only a 45–50-day dry period and it was during 90-degree temps of September and not 100+ temps of July or August.

I am looking forward to another great year in 2025

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Hunter Soape