Fertilization & Pest Control | Plantscape Solutions

Keep your lawn free of Fire Ants, Chinks, and Grubs with these application schedules.

Recommended Application Schedule

FIRE ANTS

We use a great product called Top Choice by Bayer that will keep the fire ants out of your landscape for an entire year with just one application. The active ingredient Fipronil used in Top Choice is so mild that it’s also used by companies like Front Line for use on pets for flea and tick control.

…it can cost as little as 25 cents a day to protect your children, pets, and family from being attacked by fire ants.

As a beneficial side effect the Top Choice also helps control any flea and tick issues you have in your landscape for up to 30 days. If you go to the Top Choice Rebate page there is often a $15 rebate available from Bayer. Depending on the size of your landscape it can cost as little as 25 cents a day to protect your children, pets, and family from being attacked by fire ants. Chasing mounds yourself with over the counter products is a total waste of time and ends up adding way more chemicals to our environment then is necessary.

JANUARY THRU APRIL

Lawn Top Dressing: We strongly recommend adding some organics to any application schedule by starting the year with an application of lawn top dressing.

You can read more about this in our Lawn Top Dressing section.

MARCH

Before warm season weeds get a chance to germinate fertilizer with preemergent is applied. The preemergent helps prevent the need for dealing with weeds as much later in the spring by neutralizing many types of weed seeds before they can germinate and become weeds.

The fertilizer part of the application helps get the lawn jump started faster then it would otherwise. We only use well balanced slow release fertilizers that contain Iron, Sulfur, and a micro nutrient component. By getting the grass to come out of dormancy like a lion instead of a lamb the lawn is able to get a jump on lawn weeds and put more pressure on them before the weeds get a chance to invade.

MAY

A well balanced fertilizer is applied to get the lawn ready for the coming of a hot Texas summer. Allectus by Bayer is also applied which helps control the pesky grubs that eat the roots off your lawn and bedding plants. The other problem with grubs is they attract armadillos, skunks, and raccoons that will dig up the lawn and beds.

Armadillos and other critters can smell the grubs that attract them to your landscape. By controlling the grubs you not only protect your landscape plantings roots from damage but it also keeps the unwanted critters from being attracted to your landscape to begin with. For St. Augustine lawns the Allectus will also help take care of any juvenile Chinch Bugs that may be active.

JULY

Because of the always present water restrictions the mid summer fertilization application is an organic application of Earthworks 8-2-2 that has no burn risk. Dylox by Bayer is also applied to the bedding areas to keep the grub population numbers to a minimum.

If we have a really dry spring and summer in progress we may suggest treating the lawn with Dylox as well. During really dry periods Armadillos can be much more attracted to lawn areas to forage for grubs. It’s more work to dig up a lawn versus a flower bed, so armadillos don’t start tearing up lawns unless a dry year has caused food to become more scarce.

The goal with our application schedule is keep applications to a minimum so if we think we can get away with doing less we do. For St. Augustine & Celebration Bermuda lawns we also apply Talstar with Bifenthrin for Chinch Bug control since mid summer is prime time for Chinch Bugs to start devouring lawns.

SEPTEMBER

The March fertilizer with pre-emergent application is repeated in early September but the fertilizer is a winterizer mix with very little nitrogen. Instead the fertilizer blend has more Potash which promotes root growth and winter hardiness. The preemergent helps prevent Thistle, Henbit, Clover, and other pesky winter weeds.

If you chose to take the organic only approach, we only do the Lawn Top Dressing and two applications of the Earthworks 8-2-2 organic fertilizer.

CHOOSE YOUR PLAN

Customers can follow the recommendations or pick and choose the applications they want. From everything to nothing and everything in between a plan can be customized for your needs.