The Inland Empire in California is a geographically large area with many micro climates throughout that can make maintaining beautiful landscapes an exciting challenge. Our winters can be severely cold and our summers extremely hot and dry. After many years of intense drought, we were fortunate to receive some significant rainfall this past winter. As a result, managing weeds in the landscape is a huge focus right now. Many long-dormant weed seeds appreciated the rainfall as much as our thirsty landscapes did.

We recommend starting with an application of a pre-emergent herbicide. Pre-emergent herbicides stop the weed seeds from sprouting and growing. In addition, weeds we pre-emergently control do not have the opportunity to produce seeds and so we are able to break the cycle in the landscape.

After the pre-emergent is applied, we then recommend applying a 2-3″ layer of plant-based mulch such as wood chips or bark. Our customers are looking for us to create and manage beautiful landscapes in extreme environments. Mulching is one best practice that we consider a win-win. Not only does mulch increase the aesthetics and health of any landscape but it also helps prevent weed seeds from germinating and allows us to help our customers conserve water.

We wish everyone a happy Lawn & Garden Month! We look forward to seeing some beautiful spring landscapes this April!

-Nicole Hill, Branch Manager Inland Empire

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