Use your Garden Rewards Points before the weekend is over.
Hello, again!
Dad always said a weed is simply a plant out of place. Any seedling allowed to grow where it’s not wanted can not only take up space meant for our desirable plants, but also compete for nutrients and moisture.
I remember a bike ride several years ago in Montana along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. The little-used trail up Fleecer Ridge is steep and remote - the kind of climb where you walk your bike up to the summit. It’s a 13-mile trek up 2,000’ starting where the route goes under I-15 at 5,800’ to almost 8,000’. That year, after good moisture, the entire ridge was covered in dandelions and delphiniums. The hillsides glowed yellow and blue against the big Montana sky. There wasn’t a manicured lawn in sight - just native grasses and wildflowers thriving exactly where they were meant to be. Many times these plants are considered weeds, but in that setting, those naturalized plants were certainly plants in their happy place.
Back home, however, dandelions and their weedy friends popping up in the middle of a carefully tended lawn are usually not part of the plan.
With the adequate moisture we’ve had this winter and the recent warm temperatures, our broadleaf weeds are already on the move. I’ve seen dandelions, henbit and chickweed plants not far from blooming and producing seed.
ferti-lome’s Weed Free Zone is an excellent product to use in these cooler conditions. Available as a concentrate to mix in your own sprayer or as a convenient ready-to-spray hose-end sprayer, this professional-strength formula is a quick-working broadleaf weed killer and is strong enough to control mature weeds in your lawn. It controls over 80 of the toughest broadleaf weeds, including clover, bindweed, spurge, chickweed, dandelion, henbit, oxalis, poison ivy, purslane, shepherd’s purse, thistle, black medic and wild onion. It is safe for use on fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, Bermudagrass, zoysia, and buffalograss lawns.
If you’re interested in fertilizing and controlling broadleaf weeds in one simple step, consider ferti-lome’s Weed-Out Plus Lawn Fertilizer. This post-emergent product is designed to be applied after weeds have sprouted. While controlling weed growth, Weed-Out Plus Lawn Fertilizer also provides a dose of nitrogen to help get your lawn off to a strong start this spring.
Later this month will be an ideal time to apply ferti-lome For All Seasons II Lawn Food Plus Crabgrass & Weed Preventer for prevention of crabgrass and many other grassy and broadleaf weeds. In fact, it’s the first step in our fescue Lawn Care Program.
The easiest way to manage your lawn for the entire year is to sign up for our ferti-lome 5-Step Lawn Care Program for cool- or warm-season lawns. Each program is tailored to your lawn’s specific needs. Visit with one of our lawn care professionals, and we’ll help develop a plan for the entire season. We’ll even store the products for you and have them ready when you need them.
Thinking back to that climb, once I was at the top of the back side of Fleecer Ridge, it was like walking off the edge of the earth. It was breathtaking. Wherever you experience nature this spring - in your own backyard, on the trail or somewhere in between - I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Your friend in the garden,
Marty Johnson Owner - Johnson's Garden Centers
P.S. - Garden Rewards Points redemption ends this Sunday. If you have points, use them in store to get ready for spring!
