How to Prepare Your Lawn for Spring

Clean the ground and rake the leaves
Clean the ground and rake the leaves

Prepare your lawn soon so when the spring comes, things are ready to proceed. Grass needs time to recover and grow back to its best condition after the winter session. But with some novices, they are confused because of many tasks and don’t know where to start. 

Having a green, verdant lawn garden can leverage your house’s outlook. If you know the step-by-step guide below, preparing lawn for the spring will be very easy.

Clean the ground and rake the leaves
Clean the ground and rake the leaves

Before you do anything with your lawn, cleaning is the priority. Collect all the rocks, branches, twigs, leaves, and debris and throw them out of your lawn. These things can barrier in the mower and decrease the lawn-mowing effectiveness. It can also block fertilizers and chemicals to absorb to the grass.

Raking is also recommended to do from the previous fall to control the thatch. Sometimes when spring comes, there’s a disease that appears in the leaves called “snow mold”. Rake the leaves can help to improve this issue. The best time to rake is when the snow time ends.

Use chemicals to kill weed

Use chemicals in the early spring so you don’t have to wait for the absorbability later. Feed your lawn with fertilizers and remove the weed from the herbicide. Wait till 6 to 8 weeks later to use them both together again with a weed killer. This step will prevent you from struggling with the crabgrass for the next year. As a novice, you can confuse different weed’s conditions and fighting manners.

One good thing is some lawn care brands have produced 2in1 products that mix pre-emergent and weed killers together. You can buy these kinds of products to save your budget and time.

Experts have warned homeowners should mow their lawn more often before it grows too high. If you cut the grass too less, it will take more time to reproduce. In the first 6 weeks of the spring, mow every 5 days to guarantee a perfect, beautiful lawn.

Apply the lime

If you see the moss appear on the lawn, you can add lime to balance the acidity in the soil.  To ensure, you can send your soil sample to the local county to test the acidity. You can also ask for advice on how much lime you should use per square foot. You may need a spreader to apply fertilizer.

If your soil is in good condition that does not contain too much acidity, don’t add lime. When you apply too much lime, the soil can be alkaline to harm your lawn.

Replace the mulch

To help your lawn grow marvelously, you can replace the mulch after trimming the dead twigs. Experts suggest using hardwood bark for the mulches instead of the groundwood chips.

Seeding in the fall

Not all the lawns are perfect with any flaws. It usually has some brown patches caused by heavy traffic and dog spots. Sow the seed is a solution to fill the patches with new grass. Besides, the seed cannot be germinated when you apply pre-emergent and weed killer together.

The right way to overseed is to add slow-release nitrogen fertilizers and wait for 5 weeks later to reapply quick-release fertilizers. Remember to overseed in the fall instead of the spring. Fall is the ideal time for the lawn to get rid of crabgrass.

Fertilize the lawn

Some lawns are hard to grow well with natural fertilizer. Then using chemical fertilizers are the proper alternative. But when you use chemicals, stick with the right routine schedule. The tip is to add the light one in the spring and add the heavy one in the late fall.

Use post-emergent herbicides

When you find some first yellow flowers appear from the ground, you have two choices. You can let it stay to keep growing or you can dig its roots for the growth stimulation. After doing that, apply post-emergent herbicides in the fall time.

When you own a lawn garden, a lawn mower is an indispensable device to help you take care of your lawn. If you’re still struggling to find out a suitable lawn mower for small yards, go for these under $100 lawn mowers

Tune-up your mower

No equipment can run smoothly all the time without upgrade processes. When your mower shows the signs of low functions, tune-up the device once a year. The good news is you don’t have to spend a huge budget for the upgrade because there are simple tricks for you to do it by yourself.

You can keep the same watering routine from the previous winter season. Changing the amount of water up to the rising weather and the spring rainfalls. Only watering when needed to let the grass grow naturally. 

Besides these steps above, keep an eye on important garden things such as irrigation systems and lightings. Make a quick check to see if they’re still in good condition. If it’s not, clean up, repair, and upgrade them are your must-have tasks to do.

Novices can underestimate the mowing process because of a lack of information. When you prepare your lawn for the spring, pay attention to weed and leave removal. The roles of chemicals such as lime, weed killers, and pre/post-emergent herbicides are important for grass growth. 

A recommendation to make you look like a pro is knowing the right seeding time. Never seed until the fall comes. By taking steps by steps, you’re going to get the best result.