Happy 2023! We hope that everyone had a good holiday season and we’re sure everyone is eager to get back into their regular routine.
Over the holidays we were greeted with some cold winter weather including some freezes, and our landscape is a clear reflection of that. Most grasses have gone completely dormant now and many plants have been showing signs of frost damage.
If you didn’t apply rye grass this season, any green sections of the lawn are most likely weeds. The majority of weeds encountered this time of year are broadleaf, which are fairly manageable.
However, the main weed of concern this time of year is Poa Annua. Also known as annual bluegrass, Poa Annua is a grassy winter weed that often appears in clumps. It is very difficult to control post bloom if a pre-emergent was not applied in the fall.
As we get closer to summertime and our temperatures increase, the Poa Annua will die out.
When it comes to changes in your plants this time of year, we encourage everyone to be patient. These heavy freezes might have caused the leaves to turn brown on your plants. But don’t worry! Most plants will recover from this in the spring.
The brown leaves will need to be pruned off the plants, as they will not turn back to green, but the new growth should be healthy.
We recommend waiting until March to trim back the brown leaves in the event that we run into another heavy freeze. It is, after all, only January!
This time of year, not much maintenance is needed on the lawn. Make sure that airflow and sunlight remain adequate by keeping leaves and debris off the lawn.
If you plan to mulch leaves with a mower, I would leave the mower blade at or above recommended height to avoid scalping or root exposure.
As for watering, irrigation systems should remain off until temperatures warm back up around late March and early April. If we go an extended period without rainfall, you might want to run the irrigation system at a heavy rate for one day.
Mark Deloach is the owner of Lawn Doctor of Beaufort County.
