With March just around the corner I thought I’d share some tips about prepping your California Buffalograss lawn for a season of loveliness!

•  In early spring, mow your buffalograss to a height of 1 inch. This will remove the old grass debris and allow the sun to warm the soil faster so your buffalograss will green up earlier.
• Apply a pre-emergent or a fertilizer with crabgrass and/or annual grassy weed control at this time. Any product available at your garden center should be okay to use. Read and follow the label.
• Repeat this application at a ½ rate in 6-8 weeks for season long control.

And if you’re looking to install California Buffalograss for the first time this spring I can’t stress enough to you how important it is to properly prep your space before you plant!

• It is extremely important to treat your space prior to installation to make sure that an exisiting weeds, plants or lawns have been killed off so that they do not overtake your young plugs when they are establishing. Take extra time and extra care to make sure you’ve killed off everything before you install your plugs and save yourself some major stress!
• Often, this is a 3-4 week process. After killing off your existing lawn or weeds with a product such as Round-Up, you will want to wait several days and then begin to regularly water your space to encourage existing weeds and grass to come up.
• Apply another application of Round-Up to anything that pops up.
• Repeat this process until everything is eradicated.

Taking the time to do this before installation will save you from the headache of having isolate the weeds or old grass from the establishing California Buffalograss plugs. Here is a list of helpful advice from the Lazy Gardens blog on what to do before your installation!