Indianapolis lawns are appearing through the snow.

The snow is mostly gone -- only a few lone piles remain. And that is a great thing. It means temperatures are increasing and soon lawns will wake up from their long winter nap. When your lawn wakes up, it will be hungry. Very hungry. It has been dormant for several months and just like a hibernating bear, the first thing your lawn will want is food. That is why we are gearing up to start treating lawns. We will be out in the next few days starting our first round applications. This includes a slow-release fertilizer, so even if your lawn isn't fully awake when we arrive, the fertilizer will last quite a while so that your lawn has a meal as soon as it does wake up. Our first round application will not include weed control. This is important for you to know and understand. The reason is that many homeowners like to fill in bare spots with grass seed in the spring and weed control will prevent grass seed from germinating. We hold off with the weed control to allow grass to germinate. Then we hit our lawns with pre-emergent weed control for crabgrass. Crabgrass can only be prevented...it's tough to kill once it germinates, late spring or early summer. Our late spring applications will also help control broadleaf weeds like dandelions. We'll continue to treat weeds all summer long and into the fall. Weed control takes all season and cannot be accomplished with a single treatment. Our 7-app program provides the best coverage of fertilizer and weed control -- that is because it gives us more opportunities to fight weeds and provide controlled doses of fertilizer. 1, 2, or even 4 treatments don't allow us to provide the weed control that most homeowners desire. The best way to fight weeds is to do it consistently over the entire season.