It’s a common question from my customers: “What are those hundreds and thousands of reddish seed heads popping up in my lawn in May and June? Is it goosegrass, quackgrass or crab grass?”

The answer is: “no”

If you are seeing that many seed heads coming up, then rest assured that it is just your Kentucky Bluegrass or Ryegrass attempting to reseed itself naturally. (see the picture of Bluegrass in seed) The key to knowing that it is just your regular grass, is in the shear numbers of seeds (lots and lots), the timing of late May or early June, and the overall size and height of the seed heads. (quackgrass seed heads are very tall) Lawn Tips don’t have to be difficult!

In addition, if you put down a pre-emergent fertilizer product this year (like Scott’s Turfbuilder with HALTS) then you can rest assured that you will be about 90% free from problem grasses this year.

Many people want to mulch their clippings during this time of year thinking the grass seeds will help to thicken the grass, but, sadly, they are not “ripe” and will not grow. In fact, if you were to try and get viable seed from these seed heads, you’d need to let them grow for weeks, wither and dry up, and then harvest the seeds.

It is a good idea to mulch during this time anyway, because those seed heads contain lots of good, natural nutrients that we DO want to recycle back to the soil.

In a future writing, I will show you some undesirable grasses in lawns so you can identify and treat them properly should you come across them.

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I read blogs on a regular basis. I subscribe to 12 blogs via Google reader and another 15 or so by email.

Most of these I visit daily and also leave comments and participate in the discussion. However, now that Spring is here, I will have very little free time to read other blogs for my own personal enrichment. With that in mind, I’d like to let my blogger friends know that I have not abandoned your blog, but I just have no time right now.

I have written about 12 posts for this blog that are time-stamped to appear over time, as well as I take time on Sundays to answer reader comments and questions and come up with new material for the DIYers. (Do It Your Selfers)

One of the most interesting things about lawn care is that your entire year’s revenue is pretty much decided by what you do in a short, 10-week window.

Thanks for your understanding!

–AL