The lawn looks great overfloater. There are probably thousands of weed seeds lurking in that top 1" of soil just waiting for the warmth to sprout. It's probably best to do a little prevention, then having to battle the potential weeds. On the other hand, it may not be bad battling them if you elect not to pre-emerge since the lawn is small.

Even though I pound my lawn with organics, I just can't stop from putting down pre-emergents 3 to 4 times a year as trying to hand pick weeds out on 11K sq. ft. is no fun.

I would recommend pre-emergent at least for the first year. After that, you are almost assured that any further seed load will be negligible. That may mean an app in spring and one early summer depending on pre-emergent choice.

If you have a dense turf and you are not watering more than once every 2-3 weeks in the spring, you should not have weeds. Of course Mother Nature might rain on that parade.

If you get a rain that lasts for a few days, that would be the time to apply a preem. The preem does not stop weeds from germinating, it stops the seedlings from developing a root system. The seeds need the rain to sprout, so apply when you get that continual rain for a couple days and your timing should be perfect.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

We tend to have wet Springs around here so chances are good that the weeds will get what they are wishing for. :) Therefore I think a pre-emergent is a good idea, at least for the first year as CDUB suggested.

The other factor is the fact that I have no idea what the turf will look like once all the this snow melts. It might be thinned out or in other worrying shape.

I left it at 3" for the Winter and I applied Urea in late November after top growth stopped so hopefully it should get going well once the weather starts warming up.

Should I cut it short for the first cut of the year? I read somewhere that it's a good idea to cut off all the dead top growth from the Winter.

What do you recommend for pre-emergent? Thanks.

Regards,
Robert