GREENTALK BLOG

Ken’s Quick Tip: Update on Armyworm Invasion of North Texas

A few weeks ago, my Quick Tip was about the armyworm invasion of North Texas. In today’s Quick Tip I’d like to share a quick update about them, and pass along a funny story.

If you read my last Quick Tip, you know that army worms can cause extensive damage to your lawn, but that damage is short term.

One of my neighbors doesn’t take care of his lawn. They don’t water, and certainly don’t have a fertilizer or weed control program in place, which is evident in what was a brown, thin, and weedy lawn. You might think I’m judging them, but in all honesty, I find it funny considering Village Green is my family business. They are also nice people, who are probably not as passionate as a health lawn as me (and they’ve obviously haven’t realized Village Green offers affordable lawn care plans.)

When the armyworms invaded a few weeks ago, their lawn was destroyed. The army worms stripped all the leaves on their bermuda grass (all the way to the stem.) It was some of the worst damage I saw during the army worm infestation.

The good news is your grass isn’t dead, just cut back, and it will grow back eventually. It may look bad for some time and the armyworms are very creepy, but there’s really no long term damage being done.

Fast forward to this week and the armyworms are gone (we’ve not seen any for a couple of weeks.) And my neighbors brown, thin, and weedy lawn? It’s actually bright green and healthy (check out the photo with this article.)

While I’m definitely not recommending armyworms as a way to have a healthy lawn, in the case of my neighbor’s lawn it worked! Their scalping cleared all the weeds and bad grass and allowed (with our recent rains) the grass to reestablish.

You may be wondering where all those armywarms went? Next time you are at a high school football game look up at the lights. The record breaking number of moths we’re seeing in our area are those grown up armyworms.

f you have a question regarding your lawn or landscape give us a call at 972-495-6990 or email Ken@VillageGreen-Inc.com. I love to answer your questions and they often become the subjects of my Quick Tips which help all our customers.

Ken’s Quick Tip: When Should We Plant a New Landscape?

A new or updated landscape is an investment in time and money which is why I’m often asked which time of the year Village Green recommends.

Village Green can install a landscape that will thrive any time of the year. That was born out of necessity since some customers don’t always have the luxury of choosing when they do the work. We are locally owned and operated and we know North Texas. Which plants to select. What to expect weather wise (although Mother Nature often keeps us on our toes!)

That being said there are certain seasons that are better than others for installing a new landscape. Below is my list from best to worst.

Fall
If you stop and think about it, fall makes a lot of sense in regard to installing a landscape. Plants are like people, and we typically have some of our nicest, most comfortable weather during our fall months. We have a decent amount of rain, cooler nights, and often warm, but not HOT days. This is why fall is the best time of the year to do a new landscape if you have the option. Another important reason is your plants have time to mature before summer (which with our heat and often dry conditions a tough time for new plants.)

Winter
Granted we can have some cold weather in North Texas during the winter months, but overall, it’s not that bad for new plants. If you make sure they are well watered, have some mulch, they’ll survive fine even during a North Texas cold snap. Another benefit of using Village Green for your landscape is that we know the plants that are well suited for our area, and we’ll make sure we help you pick ones that are going to thrive in both the fall and winter. And finally like fall, planting in the winter gives your plants enough time to mature a bit before they enter our brutal summer months.

Spring & Summer
Spring and summer are when most people are actively looking to install a new landscape. With longer days and warmer temps, it’s the time of the year we spend the most out doors often in our yards. The key to a successful planting in spring and summer is working with a local company who has a history in the area like Village Green because it is extremely important to select the right plants that are well suited to North Texas in the summer. A solid watering plan is also extremely important since the weather is so much warmer. The one thing we don’t advise in spring and summer is planting any large trees. They are always best planted in the fall or winter. Beyond that any season is right for installing a landscape when you have a solid plan in place and select the appropriate plants for North Texas.

Interested in a landscape? Check out a few of our landscape spotlights below to learn more about a few of our recent projects.

• A Question of Texas Plants for New York Transplant
• Made in the Shade
• Wide Open Spaces Revisited
• 20 Years in the Making

As always, if you have a question regarding your lawn or landscape give us a call at 972-495-6990 or email Ken@VillageGreen-Inc.com. I love to answer your questions and they often become the subjects of my Quick Tips which help all our customers.

Ken’s Quick Tip: How to Get Rid of Fall Weeds

Now that we are officially into fall I wanted to address crab grass and other weeds you may be seeing in your lawn. Having a great lawn next year starts with how you treat your lawn this fall and winter.

The good news about fall is that summer weeds have gone away (or soon will go away.) The bad news is these weeds have left their seeds in your lawn which means they will return next year unless you do something about them in the new few months.

That is why the Village Green Fertilization & Weed Control plan includes fall and winter visits. These treatments are some of the most important visits we make all year because we apply preventatives that keep these weed seeds from turning into weeds next year.

On our fall visits we apply a pre-emergent that prevents winter weeds from coming up along with a post-emergent for any broad-leaf weeds that have already sprouted. In late winter, around February and March, we apply a different type of pre-emergent to prevent spring weeds, such as henbit or poa-annua from growing.

All of this means when the lawn comes out of dormancy next April, it won’t have to compete with a bunch of weeds and will fill in quickly.

I wish I could tell you this prevents all weeds, but unfortunately it does not. There are three types of weeds: annuals (those that come back from seeds each year), biennial (those that have a two-year life cycle) and perennial (those that come back from their roots every year).

Pre-emergents only work on seeds so they are only effective on the annuals.  The other two, biennials such as dandelions or perennials, such as dalisgrass can’t be prevented and must be controlled after they have sprouted from their roots.

Preventing the annuals from growing is a great start though and allows us to focus on just the other two types the rest of the year.

I’m often told that some of the gardeners on the radio say a pre-emergent can only be applied in September and ask if our preventative will work when we apply it later.

Another big factor in the success of our fall and winter weed control depends on watering. We apply our pre-emergent in big droplets which makes it fall to the ground instead of misting and blowing around. Once the drops hit the ground they stay on top of the soil. The pre-emergent only starts working when you water the lawn. The water spreads the droplets out evenly across the ground and pushes it down in the soil where the seeds are waiting to come out. Without watering, it sits on top of the soil for a couple of weeks and then eventually disappears which doesn’t do any good.

They are right, what is available at nurseries is only effective during certain times of the year but what Village Green applies is much different. It is more effective than what is available at stores and is applied later in the season.

If you have any questions or concerns about your lawn or landscape give us a call at 972-495-6990 or email Ken@VillageGreen-Inc.com.

Ken’s Quick Tip: Armyworms Invading North Texas

Everything is bigger in Texas, as the saying goes, including our weather. When we have what I call Biblical type weather, think 109 degree heat followed by days with several inches of rain, it is usually following by a Biblical type ‘plague’. A few years back it was grasshoppers, another crickets, and this year has been more chinch bugs than I’ve seen in a long time followed by an epic march of armyworms invading North Texas.

For the record, in nearly forty years in the lawn and landscape business I have never seen an armyworm. In fact, I was talking with our commercial fertilizer supplier who has been around nearly as long, and says he usually only sees one or two yards each year that have armyworms.

He went on to tell me that last week he received a few calls about armyworms, but this week he’s receiving a call an hour about the invaders. It is so bad that some areas are seeing their lawns, streets, and sidewalks covered in them (if that’s not a plague, I don’t know what is!).

So, what caused them and what do all these armyworms do to lawns? Armyworms love late summer rains, which we’ve had plenty of this year. They cause short term damage to lawns and landscapes by chewing the leaves off of the plants. Armyworms don’t like St. Augustine but if they are in a bermuda lawn, they can leave it looking like it was scalped by a lawnmower on the lowest setting in a matter of days.

The good news is your grass isn’t dead, just cut back, and it will grow back eventually. It may look bad for some time and the armyworms are very creepy, but there’s really no long term damage being done.

The treatment for armyworms is to spray an insecticide such as Bifenthrin or just wait for them to pass. They typically move on pretty quickly, and the promised cold front next week should give them ample motivation to march out of North Texas.

If you see armyworms in your lawn or landscape and don’t want to DIY give us a call at 972-495-6990 or email Ken@VillageGreen-Inc.com.

Ken’s Quick Tip: Do You Have Brown Patch?

Each year there’s a surefire way I can tell it is fall in North Texas…we start getting calls about brown rings (or patches) in our customer’s lawns.

These brown rings are called Brown Patch and is a fungus that attacks St. Augustine in the fall (and spring.) The reason we experience so much Brown Patch during these two seasons is because our warm days and cool evenings mean your lawn never fully dries and Brown Patch thrives in these conditions.

To understand Brown Patch you need to consider that St. Augustine is a tropical plant and our North Texas summers of blistering heat coupled with cold winter days put far more stress on it than in places like Houston or Orlando, Florida.

The stress of summer followed by fall-like condition of warm days and cool nights create the perfect environment for Brown Patch.

The truth is that for the most part Brown Patch is just unsightly (it will go away after our first frost.) The risk is if we have a cold enough winter, these weakened areas might suffer freeze damage.

If you want to avoid or treat Brown Patch I recommend watering your lawn in the morning so it has the best chance to dry during the day. You can also cut back your watering in shady areas. Instead of 30 minutes per week, try 10 or 15 minutes in those areas.

Another thing to note if you are doing your own fertilization is that Brown Patch feeds on nitrogen. You need to avoid high-nitrogen fertilizers in St. Augustine lawns during early spring and fall. At Village Green we use a 5-10-31 ratio fertilizer.

Finally, if you see signs of Brown Patch you should treat the areas with Propiconazole. This isn’t going to make the Brown Patch go away, but it will stop the spread into other areas of your lawn.

If you have questions or need help give us a call at 972-495-6990 or email Ken@VillageGreen-Inc.com.