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What to Do When You have Lawn Care & Get Weeds Between Visits

7 min read

Weeds are often one of the most common reasons why homeowners sign up for a lawn care service. 

But what if you’ve already hired lawn care services in Cincinnati, Dayton, OH, and Northern Kentucky and you have weeds breaking through between visits? What is your best course of action?

The way that you handle weeds between visits can have an impact on your overall results.

Make Sure You’ve Waited Ample Time

First and foremost, it’s important to realize that some breakthrough is going to happen even with the very best lawn care program. Realistic expectations are important when it comes to addressing weeds.

Oasis customer review from Google

For one, you have to give professional weed control products time to work. You should wait at least 10 to 14 days following an application before contacting your lawn care company about breakthrough. Certain weeds can take longer than others to die. The more actively that weeds are growing (during prime growing season), the quicker control products will work. But during other times of the year, growth and results could slow down.

When you do call your lawn care service, be sure to provide the specifics of what you’re dealing with. A good lawn care company is going to want as much information as possible. After all, they might be there every 5 to 7 weeks but you are there every day. A lawn care company that cares about getting you the best possible results will also believe in partnering with you to keep ongoing eyes on your property. 

Oasis lawn care technician spraying lawn

Any information that you provide over the phone will then be passed along to your technician. At Oasis Turf & Tree, we include service calls into our program because we understand that breakthrough happens. It is absolutely no bother to us, but instead is necessary in certain situations, such as when there is excess rain or specific weeds are growing actively.

What Not to Do for Breakthrough Weeds

Although some homeowners have the best intentions when taking matters into their own hands, the most important advice that we can offer is: Do not pull or treat your own weeds

lawn care customer pulling weeds

Sometimes homeowners tell us they went out and pulled a couple weeds because they didn’t want to “bother us” between visits. Others say that they just didn’t want to wait and figured they’d simply address it themselves. But, pulling your own weeds can actually lead to more problems.

We can only treat the weeds that we see. If you’ve pulled up a grassy weed like Nutsedge in between your lawn care service visits, then the technician has no way of knowing that you even had that weed pop up—and they now can’t treat it or coordinate a plan to address it going forward. You’ll quickly find yourself in an ongoing game of the weed continually coming back—and are you going to just keep pulling it yourself? It’s important to realize that pulling certain species of weeds actually stimulates more growth. But treating with a liquid, systemic product helps to control the whole weed.

Of course, we certainly aren’t advocating that you spray your own weeds, either. Sometimes homeowners purchase the wrong product or spray too much. These types of mistakes can even negatively impact your next professional treatment. If you’re paying for a professional lawn care service, why risk compromising it?

The bottom line: It’s always better that you leave any weeds that pop up to be dealt with by a professional.

What May Be Causing Breakthrough?

As we mentioned, some breakthrough is normal. There is no lawn care program that will completely eradicate weeds forever. However, if you feel like you’re experiencing more breakthrough than you have in the past, then there could be a reason this is happening. 

Here are some of the most common causes.

Mowing Height and Habits

Homeowners don’t always realize that mowing can play a big role in weed breakthrough. For one, when a lawn is mowed too short, you create an environment that is more prone to weed growth. We recommend a mowing height of at least 3.5 inches, but the taller the turf, the better when it comes to choking out weeds.

If you’re using a professional mowing service, then they could also be responsible for bringing weed seeds onto your property and spurring growth. When professional mowing companies don’t clean their mowing decks between properties, they can potentially bring weeds from one property to another.

Trimming Habits

Crabgrass breakthrough is more likely to occur around driveways and other paved areas when they are scalped by poor string trimming habits. When this grass is cut too short, crabgrass pressure increases dramatically. 

Crabgrass along edge of driveway

When cutting grass around hardscaped areas, utilizing the vertical blade of an edger, versus scalping it with a slanted horizontal trimmer string, can make a difference.

Changing Seasons

Sometimes weed breakthrough is just a matter of natural season changes. Homeowners might think that their lawn looked fantastic in the spring but when summer rolled around they suddenly had a bunch of weeds they didn’t have before.

It’s important to recognize that when weather conditions change dramatically, so can weed growth. Since there are different weeds that are problems at different times of the year, seasonal changes can lead to weed changes, too. Some properties are just plagued with some really tough weed varieties that only appear during certain times of the year—or during certain weather conditions. 

But if you’re already working with a professional lawn care service, they’re going to be prepared for these changes. Of course, it’s important that you are working with a company that switches up their program, using different control products at different times of the year in order to fully address seasonal changes.

When It’s a Lawn Care Service Problem

While we’ve mentioned that it’s important to have at least some tolerance for some level of weed breakthrough, if you find yourself continually calling your lawn care service and receiving nothing but excuses all of the time, then maybe your weed problem really is related to the company that you’re using.

Just be sure that you give them the benefit of the doubt. In other words, allow them the chance to fix the problem—maybe they didn’t even realize it.

Oasis Turf & Tree Google review

But if you’ve done that and they’re giving you a lot of runaround (or saying they can’t do anything to fix breakthrough), then it may be time to switch lawn care companies. Although there’s a propensity to believe that all lawn care companies (or lawn care programs) are the same, some really are better at services like weed control than others. Even good companies sometimes have poor program set-ups which take a minimal and ultimately inferior approach to weed control. 

Working with Oasis to Eliminate Weed Worries

At Oasis Turf & Tree, we take weed control seriously. We understand it’s homeowners #1 complaint when it comes to lawn problems and we don’t take that lightly. That’s why we have a proactive plan that includes using different products during different times of the year. That includes specialty products for those tough-to-control weed varieties that many of our customers are faced with.

We are also happy to address breakthrough with free service calls in between visits. If you’ve waited 10 to 14 days after a visit but are dealing with breakthrough, we want to know. We always want you to call us and tell us exactly what you’re dealing with rather than try to address it yourself.

Google review about Oasis Turf & Tree

After all, our customers hire us to take away their worries—and that’s exactly what we aim to do. If you’re investing in professional lawn care services then you shouldn’t have to be worried about breakthrough. You should feel confident that your lawn care pro has got you covered.

Want to learn more about professional lawn care services for your Cincinnati, Dayton, Ohio, or Northern Kentucky home? Request your quote, choose the lawn care program that’s right for you, and then sit back and relax as the pros help you get the lawn of your dreams!

Check Out Our Lawn Care Programs & Costs!

 

Review Source: google reviews

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