INDIANAPOLIS — Spring rain and reasonably cool nights have brought Hoosiers into full lawn care mode.
Pat Sullivan from Sullivan Hardware and Garden expects that homeowners will be performing the gamut of tasks in the grass, including weeding, seeding and, unfortunately, dealing with diseases that are cropping up "a little bit earlier than normal."
"The products that we use to control (lawn diseases) are actually protectants," Sullivan said. "It's hard to reverse (a disease) once it's on the lawn." A protectant may stop the spread of a fungus that is already present, but it will not reverse it.
But if your lawn is prone to diseases and fungi, now is the prime time to treat the lawn with a disease control product.
Sullivan also said moss control can be applied now.
"Moss is not killing the grass. There's not enough sunlight there, so when the grass dries out, moss moves in."
Moss control comes in granular and liquid spray for smaller applications.
"People ask all the time, 'Is it too late to seed my lawn?'" said Sullivan.
The short answer is no, you can seed throughout the growing season.
"It's just the amount of care you have to give it," Sullivan said.
Pat's trouble spot revisited
Sullivan has been trying to get grass to grow back in a trouble spot he accidentally burned with too much fertilizer while recording a previous segment for 13Sunrise.
"I was holding a bag of fertilizer that was leaking out the bottom," he said, "and the nitrogen created the bare spot."
Here's what the bare spot looked like in mid-March when Sullivan reseeded it for the first time in 2022:
The first seeding didn't take, so on the first week of June, Sullivan was at it again.
He put down a new layer of lawn soil, spread another round of seed that he "raked" into the soil with his hand, then covered the seeded area with peat moss and tamped it down with his feet before watering.
"Hopefully...finally, we're going to fix this spot," he said.
Watch Pat's full segment in the video player.