As the 2021 lawn season comes to an end, I find myself reflecting not only on the season's completion but the 2020 year as well.
Although the two are strikingly different---2020 had record breaking heat and drought. 2021 had excessive rain and frequent fluctuations between cool and heat---the fact remains, the two years were not so far apart by the end.
Crabgrass and chinch bugs were right on schedule, and although the levels of infestation were less in '21, they remained problematic all the same. The new product, Bio Titan for chinch, had little to no effect as a pre or post-emergent, and crabgrass?...It's the same old song and dance with that weed in the post pesticide era---wait for the fall and this annual dies-off then reseed the affected area (rinse, repeat every year.)
2021 also saw an increase in turf disease, most notably rust, due to the flip-flop between cool and humid temperatures, and all the rain made controlling weeds more difficult.
I can't remember a year where so much work had to be moved to another day due to rain or heat. But this is lawncare. It is a profession that must adapt to the changing climate as much as the degree of difficulty in issues and the seemingly less effective products to address both.
The law of diminishing returns indeed!
