Even though the growing season is over, winter lawn care is an important part of overall lawn health. In my youth, winter always meant no yard work. As an adult I learned I was wrong. Not all the way wrong but wrong enough. Lawns should be watered during long dry periods. This also applies to trees and shrubs. The good news is the National Weather Service is predicting above average rainfall this winter. They did the same thing last winter. They just missed it by 2 months.
Now is the time for the second application of the grassy weed pre-emergent that is called Dimension. This will get you through until the February/March time frame. Then it will be time to apply the spring application.
I talked about this a couple years ago but it needs repeating. Lawn equipment and ethanol-blended gas do not work and play together. Ethanol absorbs moisture at an astounding rate and there are no products (that I can find) that will stop this process. So, before you put the urban farm equipment away for the winter, run all the fuel from the tank and carburetor (this includes 2 strokes). Any leftover (non-mixed) fuel can be poured into the tank of your car. 2-stroke fuel should be disposed in a proper and legal manner. In Plano call (972)-769-4150 for disposal information.
Even with most of the federal funds exhausted, ethanol blended gas is here to stay. Most of the lawn equipment manufacturers have made the adjustment to ethanol gas. Though the machines last longer the fuel doesn’t. So how do we live with it? Don’t buy more than you can use in a month or two. Use fuel stabilizers like STA-BIL and Star Tron to help with life expectancy issues. There are replacement fuels on the market but they seem pricey. Alternatives to ethanol-blend gas are propane (did you know we sell propane?) and electric with both batteries and cords. I’m a big fan of the batteries in specific applications.
