Continued from Yes Virginia- It’s Time For Your Lawn! on preparing your cool season fescue lawn for fall cultivation…

When using any chemicals, i.e. herbicides, to knock down weeds prior to seeding or sodding a lawn, be sure to follow manufacturer’s instructions and read the package label carefully, depending on how you’re using the herbicide. For instance, do you want to kill all vegetation and take an area down to bare ground, or do you just want to kill the weeds in the lawn.  Different products do different things. Don’t do what my hubby did one year and kill a portion of the perfectly good lawn by using the wrong product, haha! Not funny at the time though!

Read labels carefully- products may look similar but do very different things!

To reduce the environmental impact of using herbicides, always check a forecast and don’t apply if there is a potential for rain within 24 hours or so. You’ll be wasting your money and effort, and the runoff will carry the product eventually into nearby streams, or in our case in central Virginia, into the Chesapeake Bay. Not good…

More on herbicides… Many brand name products such as “Round-up” have been around for some time and have lost their patent. So it’s no longer necessary to pay extra for the name brand. I look at labels for active ingredients and concentration, and then check competitors for pricing comparisons. I actually alternate products as well, as many new effective choices are on the market, and weeds can develop resistance to a product used repeatedly.

I stress again- read and follow the manufacturer’s instructions to the letter for your safety and the that of our environment. Also check to be sure the product will do what it is you’re specifically trying to accomplish.

It’s always best to use any herbicide or insecticide only on a specific and as-needed bases. Applying at dusk is best, so that critters will be returning to wherever it is that they go at night and will have reduced exposure the following am.

Ok, off my soap box!

Next post… on to the fun part of creating a beautiful fall lawn…

Related posts:

Yes Virginia, It’s Time For Your Lawn! part 3 Yes Virginia- It’s Time For Your Lawn! Yes Virginia, It’s Time For Grass Seed! Yes Virginia- Fertilize Your Lawn!