Why Crabgrass Loves Your Driveway & Sidewalk Edges
As late summer heat sets in, you may notice stubborn crabgrass showing up. Crabgrass starts to grow, especially along concrete edges like sidewalks, driveways, and curbs. This isn’t a coincidence.
What Causes Crabgrass
Concrete absorbs and radiates heat, creating soil temperatures much higher than the rest of your lawn. Crabgrass thrives in these hot, dry conditions where your cool-season grass struggles. By late summer, the conditions are perfect for crabgrass plants to germinate and spread along those borders.
What This Means for Your Lawn
- Pre-emergent herbicide breakdown: The barrier we apply in spring naturally breaks down over time due to sunlight, microbial activity, and especially heat. Along concrete edges, soil temperatures can be 10–15°F higher than the rest of the lawn, which speeds up that breakdown. By late summer, the protection in these “hot zones” is often much weaker or gone.
- Open space for crabgrass: As the pre-emergent fades and grass along the edges is stressed by heat and dryness, crabgrass seeds which can remain viable in soil for years have the perfect conditions to germinate.
- Rapid spread risk: Once established along edges, crabgrass can spread inward into healthier turf, setting up a larger problem for the following year.
How We’re Addressing Crabgrass
Our late-summer treatments focus on reducing crabgrass competition and supporting your lawn’s recovery. We’ll target these high-stress edge areas, encourage healthy turf growth, and help prepare your lawn for a strong fall.
How You Can Prevent Crabgrass
- Watering Your Lawn during hot spells to reduce stress, especially the edges.
- Maintain a sharp mowing edge without scalping grass next to concrete.
- Avoid disturbing the soil along edges, as this can bring dormant seeds to the surface.
Together, we can control crabgrass and set you up for a healthy lawn.
