Gardening

We are coming to the end of January here in San Antonio and February is typically our last month of cold. With spring coming up it’s a great time to prepare by doing some yard maintenance and getting lawn care materials.

First check when it’s best to trim your trees. Mine do best getting trimmed in the winter, so I have taken care of that.

Next while the lawn is dormant it’s a great time to expand any flower beds or planters you might have. I like to slowly expand my bricks around my tree ring every year as an example.

The next thing you might look at is getting a balanced fertilizer and some composted manure to place down at the end of winter/beginning of spring. I like the Andersons PGF Balanced and Black Kow composted manure. They are both gentle balanced products great for bringing the yard back to life.

On your water bill you see a thing that is referencing your sewer bill. But how do they figure that out? During the late fall to early spring SAWS takes what is called a winter average. This is taken by averaging your water usage during these moths So to control your water bill year round, all you have to do is reduce your water usage during those months. Typically lawns go dormant during this time so watering them is a waste and not watering is one easy area to save your water usage.

Keep mowing your lawn. Grass growth will slow so you may only need to mow 1-2 a month for the grass itself. Mowing more often might be necessary if your lawn is primarily weeds.

Apply a fall fertilizer to help your lawn recover. I like a ratio of 16-4-8 in a liquid format before rain or watering the lawn. If using granular’s last month was really the last to apply one as they last several months and you don’t want the fertilizer to just feed winter weeds when you lawn goes dorment as it gets colder.

Apply a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent winter weeds. Check the label to make sure the weeds you had last year in your yard are on the label. Crabgrass, dandelions, thistle, nutsedge, and annual bluegrass are common.

If you have weeds that need to be removed, apply a liquid post-emergent herbicide like Spectracide, Bayer Advanced, or Image. This will kill anything existing prior to our pre-emergent applications. I find Spectracide works best on broad leaf weeds, Bayer Advaced works best on Crabgrass, and Image is the best at killing Nutsedge. Spectricide is the cheapest but it’s worth paying for one of the others if you have a particular issue with crab grass or Nutsedge. Also look at the ten day forecast when you do this and make sure it’s dry for a few days so that the herbicide isn’t immediately washed out.

I like to trim my trees later in the winter so now is also the time I inspect growth and decide which branches I want remove later to lift the canopy or help promote future growth in the right areas.

The winter weeds are trying to go to seed before the heat kills them. Keep the lawn mowed every week to reduce production of the weed seeds for next winter. Yes I know this can often be easier said than done when we have a rainy May.

You will be stuck with the weekly watering recommendation provided by SAWS. https://www.saws.org/the-drought-continues-and-so-do-stage-2-watering-rules/ Make sure to check the SAWS website for the latest watering schedule based on the aquifer level.

San Antonio lawn care schedule