Does the early Spring hurt?

What does the lack of winter and the early spring mean for my lawn and landscape?

Most lawns are greening up and once it warms up enough many will need the first mowing. The week of temperatures in the 70’s and low 80’s pushed most lawns out of dormancy while it also caused many early flowering trees to give us an extremely early show of color. 

Although temperatures have returned to more normal levels it looks like lawns and landscapes are running as much as 2-3 weeks ahead of “schedule”. Some lawns are slow to green and that could be due to the specific turf-grass variety (some are slow to green every spring but make up for it with amazing color the rest of the season). The open winter may have caused lawns to brown more than normal because of possible breakdown of chlorophyll in the plants. Without snow the grass plants were open to prolonged exposure to the sun during a time they are dormant and can’t replace the chlorophyll production which is what makes the leaf green.  With normal spring rain and temperatures in the coming weeks, along with our spring feeding, we expect lawns should all “catch up” and start growing in nicely.  

 And of course if you have Zoysia-grass in your lawn it will likely be mid to late May before it  greens up and blends in. It's a terrific grass in the middle of the summer but that straw color that hangs out late into spring and returns with the first frost is frustrating for those of us who love a season-long green lawn! Unfortunately there is no easy way to get rid of it. Zoysia is a warm season grass with incredible roots that just don't want to quit.

The good thing is everything will be greening up over the next few weeks. Remember it’s only the beginning of April! Last year there was still snow on lawns at this time!!