September 2018 Newsletter

Can you believe we were talking about drought conditions last September?!

Clearly that is not the case this September or this YEAR for that matter.  We have set records for rainfall in May, June, July, and September!  We are also on pace in the D.C. (and much of MD) area to have one of the wettest years in history.

With this insane amount of wet weather it has brought a whole new set of issues for us at BAMS that we have never faced before.  Such as:

a) Lack of working days…obviously.  We are estimating as much as 30% of our normal working hours have been slashed throughout the season this year.  We saw some rainfall streaks last up to a week with grounds extremely soggy a few days after causing extreme delays in routine and scheduled services.  Even adding in Saturdays to our crews we could not recover the immense amount of hours lost to mother nature.

b) Decreased effectiveness of pre-emergent herbicides!  We confirmed this with UMD extension office and more information can be found here in their most recent IPM report about the weathers impact on herbicides on the lawn and gardens.

c) Increased presence of turf diseases and fungi.  Wet/humid weather in combination with heat during the summer time is an ideal breeding ground for turf and shrub diseases such as ‘Brown Patch’ and ‘Dollar Spot’.

d) Grumpy Attitudes & Wet Socks.  These two may be correlated… Our crews are the friendliest in town but sometimes even landscapers just need a little sun to lift their spirits after days and days of overcast weather! (or Vitamin D pills)

GOOD NEWS is that the law of averages should predict that this abnormal weather must come to an end…and soon!