Are weeds worse this year, or is it just me? (house, living in)

[starla]

I've noticed a lot more weeds this year than I did last year, which makes sense considering there was a drought last summer. However, I think this year's weed problem is worse than the year before as well, and there was no drought then. Do other people notice this, or is it just me? Also, is there a reason for it? My boyfriend and I were hypothesizing that perhaps everyone got lazy about yard work after last year's drought.

[mkal]

We are first time home owners. Ever since we moved into our house end of may, weeds have been a problem. Its gotten out of hand. Husband and i constantly pluck them by hand, but we can't seem to keep up with them. :-(

[lamishra]

We have noticed them being bad this year too. I wonder if a bunch of weeds went dormant last last year during the drought and came back with a vengance this year with the decent rainfall.

We basically nuke our yard weekly and they're still everywhere. Make sure you get some pre-emergent next year in late winter/early spring.

[starla]

Oh yes. I didn't put down any pre-emergent this year because I had basically given up on my yard. Weeds won last year, I couldn't even compete. However, the problem is even in the flower beds and curb strip this year. Maybe it's my own fault for not putting down pre-emergent. Or maybe all the good stuff was weakened from the drought, leaving an opening for the weeds to flourish.

[HappyNCGirl]

How ironic you should pose this question. I just read in a magazine article that the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is linked to increase of weeds. Supposedly this will have a big impact on farmers. Could this be true?

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Originally Posted by starla

Oh yes. I didn't put down any pre-emergent this year because I had basically given up on my yard. Weeds won last year, I couldn't even compete. However, the problem is even in the flower beds and curb strip this year. Maybe it's my own fault for not putting down pre-emergent. Or maybe all the good stuff was weakened from the drought, leaving an opening for the weeds to flourish.

I too have noticed an increase of weeds in my yard this year. I think it is because I wasn't very diligent with pre-emergent and broad leaf weed applications. I also didn't overseed in the fall which left a lot of bare spots and prevented a thick lush lawn from shadowing out the weeds.

FWIW, I would avoid putting any kind of pre-emergent in flower beds as they could have a negative impact on anything you plant in the bed. A good mulch cover and a little elbow grease should keep most of the weeds from invading your beds.

[dianeh]

I have never seen such stubborn & gnarly crabgrass as I've seen this year! When you pull it out your pulling have your yard up with it. Seems to root very deep & spread fast in short amount of time. YUCK!

[Caddyshack]

Yes, way more weeds here in rural Chatham Co. this year. Are some of you living in town that see this too? I live out in the country and thought that the weeds were kept more in check in suburban areas with people using more chemicals, and having a lot more paved areas.

Next year I will be doing a major dose of pre-emergent and hope for the best. It doesn't help that I have not kept up with weed and feed in the grass areas and allowed them to grow there.

[lamishra]

Originally Posted by dianeh

I have never seen such stubborn & gnarly crabgrass as I've seen this year! When you pull it out your pulling have your yard up with it. Seems to root very deep & spread fast in short amount of time. YUCK!

Yep, same here. I've never even HAD crabgrass and wiregrass before and this year my yard is covered with it. It is curious though because we use EPM lawncare and they stick their treatment schedule drought or not. So I KNOW we had pre-emergent put down.
I'm in the process of killing all the crabgrass and wiregrass now so I can overseed later next month and hope it takes care of the issue. It seems to have sprouted up in bare patches (although we over seeded last fall too!)
My yard isn't looking too great right now!

[cary native]

For those of you that used a pre-emergent this year part of the problem was that when the first application was applied in late Feb. or early Mar. it was still dry. For most granular pre-emergent herbicides to work they need to be watered in in a reasonable amount of time (within a week or so). Remember, we still could not use irrigation this spring. Alot of the herbicide that was applied layed on the ground and the sun degraded the chemical rendering it ineffective, which made your lawns the same as those that didn't use any pre-emergent.
For those of you that did not use a pre-emergent, after the summer got under way, we were fortunate enough to get some water via thunderstorms. That, coupled with bare spots left over from last summer was just what the crabgrass wanted and poof, a bumper crop of crabgrass was born.

All that is usually enough to make a lawn care company owner pull their hair out !