Installing a New Lawn in the Springtime
Installing a new lawn is never easy, and spring installations can make it even tougher. Luckily, this year has had a lot of rain to help new seed. However, a typical year will have the yards in the Akron area dried out and new seed and grass struggling to take hold.
In addition to the weather conditions, a crabgrass pre-emergent cannot be applied. Without a pre-emergent, there will be crabgrass as you see in the picture above. This is not a problem, other than the appearance in the first year, for the lawn.Notice that there are little or no broadleaf weeds (this yard is on a treatment program). When temperatures drop below freezing and the crabgrass dies off the new healthy grass will be left.
Although it may appear that the “crabgrass has taken over”, this is not quite the case. The crabgrass will not cause problems with the new lawn. The second year, a lawn like this should look beautiful. Below you can see a picture of a lawn installed in the same manner 2 years later.
Seeding in the spring has advantage and disadvantages. It is up to the homeowner to decide if a year of crabgrass is worth a spring seeding, or if the optimal conditions of fall better suits their wants.