How to Get Rid of Crabgrass in Lawn

Look familiar? Do you have crabgrass in your New York or Connecticut lawn?

Want to know how to get rid of crabgrass in your landscape? First, it helps to know what you’re up against locally.

The most prevalent types of crabgrass in New York and Connecticut are large crabgrass — also known as hairy crabgrass, summer grass or crowfoot grass — and smooth crabgrass. Despite these two types of crabgrass plants having a different appearance, rest assured they’re both highly invasive grassy weeds that can be a real pain to control once you’ve got them!

Which means that learning how to get rid of crabgrass is actually all about prevention. Caring for your healthy lawn and applying the proper chemicals is the best way to prevent crabgrass from even occurring in the first place!

Here’s a look at a few steps you can take to get rid of crabgrass before it’s even a glimmer in your landscape’s eye.

In the Spring: Use Pre-Emergent Herbicides

You’ll want to apply a pre-emergent herbicide to your entire lawn in the early spring. A pre-emergent is exactly what it sounds like: It strikes before the crabgrass seeds germinate, before the new grass emerges. Some pre-emergents will even control small crabgrass seedlings and stop them from growing any larger.

A word to the wise: There’s a specific time to put down a crabgrass preventer — if you don’t use them right, you’ll definitely kill the crabgrass, but you’ll also kill the healthy grass around it. And you don’t want that! The landscape and lawn care maintenance professionals at Neave Group will be able to help you decide when it’s best to apply pre-emergents and protect your New York or Connecticut landscape from crabgrass plants.

In the Fall: Overseed and Core Aerate

After the warmest part of the year, kill crabgrass before it goes to produce seeds and begins the process all over again — otherwise each plant will drop up to 150,000 crabgrass seeds!

Overseed in the fall to create a thick lawn that helps control lawn weeds. (Added bonus: You also won’t have to water as often next spring!)

Use a core aerator to punch holes in the ground and pull out plugs of turf, which helps reduce compaction and allows water, nutrients and oxygen to get down to your lawn’s deeper roots. Using an aerator also helps get rid of thatch, which can be a good breeding environment for pests and disease.

Overall: Care for Your Lawn Year Round

If you’re really wondering how to get rid of existing crabgrass, the answer is this: Follow a comprehensive turf care program to keep your lawn grass healthy in every way. You can address little problems one by one, or you can get into the habit of preventive maintenance and holistic lawn care from the very start!

The lawn care service experts at Neave Group can show you how to get rid of crabgrass — and a lot of other issues, too — by tailoring one of our comprehensive turf care programs to your needs and budget. If you’re interested in ridding your lawn of actively growing crabgrass and other weeds call us at (845) 463-0592, or fill out the contact form at the right. We’ll give you a call as soon as possible to start discussing how to keep your landscape beautiful all year round!

image credit (top): Matt Lavin