Close your eyes for a second and imagine…on second thought don’t do that because you won’t know when to open them.
Imagine it is Febraury 4, after six weeks the clouds of Northeast Ohio have broken and it is sunny. It also happens to be the first day temperatures have risen to 65 degrees. Forget spring, summer is here! At least it seems like it for us. If you are like so many good northeast Ohioans, you make it a point to go outside on days like this. As gardeners we like to look around at our plants.
It is at this point that you notice something. You notice something that wasn’t in your garden in the fall (or so you thought). You see weeds! You gasp and exclaim, “where did all these come from!?” That is a great question and is one that we get regularly in the spring.
I am no weed expert by any means. I have learned some things over the years and have studied how to best control weeds in a landscape setting to better manage our collections at Secrest. However, I do know that winter annuals are starting to appear now. Just last night I found hairy bittercress, mouse ear chickweed, and annual bluegrass in my own landscape.
Winter annuals are starting to germinate and will continue to do so through the fall. This means that if you want to get good control of winter annuals you need to start now. If you wait until that first warm day in February to do something about them it can be too late. According to the University of Tennessee Extension, “Control measures implemented in the fall are often more effective than those applied in the spring once flowering has initiated.”
Start managing the weeds now. We are doing this at Secrest. Application of a pre and post emergent herbicide can give you good control into the late fall. Also, hand pulling is also effective this time of year. If you start now you can save yourself the surprise and additional work in the spring.
Hairy bittercress, annual bluegrass, and mouse ear chickweed. 8.24.17 in the Snyder landscape.
Happy gardening!
-Paul