My Lawn Enemy Is Back: Wild Onions 2020

I was out in the far back of our yard yesterday and I saw some brand new, bright green growth.  I knew immediately what I was looking at:  the first instance of Wild Onions for the year.  I know it won't be the last.  If you've followed along, you know that Wild Onions in my yard are public enemy #1.  They've achieved that status due to their prolific nature (they are EVERYWHERE), the fact that I can combat them in early Spring when there isn't much else going on in the yard and they are a DIY project that doesn't involve herbicides (you have to dig them out).

I've chronicled my Wild Onion journey here on the blog starting with last Spring when I started to dig the clumps of Wild Onion bulbs out of the turf everywhere I could.  Once their season passed, I tried my best to make the soil less hospitable for them by applying Lime a few times.  I posted about them earlier this year when I saw this story about a potential spray (Bonide Burnout) that might work against them.

And in my 2020 lawn care plan post, I've included both Wild Onion removal but also multiple applications of lawn lime again this year.

Big Mid-March, I'm surprised that this first flush of Wild Onions have arrived in my yard - as they're about 3 or 4 weeks ahead of where things were last year. But, with the mild Winter we have, maybe everything will be accelerated this Spring.

Based on the data in the Greencast Soil Temperature tool, it seems that here in the Western Suburbs of Chicago in Zone 5b, we're well ahead of the historical averages.

Today's five-day average for our zip code is either 42 or 44 degrees. (The map shows 42.8, but the green bar chart shows 44.) Versus a 37 degree 5-year average and a 37 degree 10-year average.

Yesterday, I posted how it seemed that my application window for pre-emergent crabgrass preventer was going to be three weeks ahead of last year.  Guessing that the soil temperature referenced here is a big driver of that delta.