Tasks For Spring Lawn Care

Taking care of your lawn starts with a good foundation, which means getting a jump on lawn care in the spring, even before mowing season starts. By taking some time to do a little spring lawn care, you'll have a great lawn started by the time the weather turns truly warm. A lot of these tasks require a little more thought than simply mowing the lawn, so it's best to plan for your spring lawn care well beforehand. But by taking the time to perform the tasks of spring lawn care, you'll find yourself pleased with the results.

Removing Thatch And Aeration

There are two ways to remove thatch, which is the dead material between the grass and soil: one is by firm raking of the lawn, which can be time-consuming and difficult to do, but effective, and by aerating the soil, which should be done anyway. Either way, removing the thatch will help your lawn to grow better, by allowing water, nutrients, and sunlight to better hit your lawn. A good raking should also be done in the fall, which you should already be doing thanks to leaves dropping from the trees, but can also be incorporated into your spring lawn care routine.

Aeration provides benefits other than removing thatch, however. A plug aerator removes finger-sized cores of soil and other materials from your lawn, which helps air, water, nutrients, and even helpful animals like earthworms move through the soil easier. Without proper aeration, soil tends to become compacted, which inhibits growth. By punching holes in your lawn with a plug aerator, you help to correct some of that compaction. The removal of some of the thatch is mostly a side benefit, but nevertheless helpful.

Seeding

You'll get best results from seeding in the fall, but sometimes during your rounds of spring lawn care, you'll find that bare patches have still sprung up here and there. If you do have bare patches, a liberal coating of grass seed and nitrogen fertilizer should give you the grass that you need in those spots. The best time for doing this for spring lawn care is in March or April; otherwise you're better off just waiting until the fall. Keep in mind that new grass sprouts should receive water more often than you might give the rest of your lawn, but if you have rainy weather in the spring in your area, you should be okay.

Weed Control

One of the best times to take out the weeds is during your spring lawn care routine. By applying preemergent herbicides, which inhibit the growth of new seedlings, you'll stop the weeds before they start. The use of these herbicides will help to stop crabgrass and other plants from growing up too much, and keep you from having larger weeding chores later on. The best time to do this is after aeration, since aeration would remove the protective layer of herbicide. Also, be careful if you have to do any seeding, since most herbicides will also inhibit the growth of new grass; look for a brand that won't harm grass seedlings. However, if you remove thatch, aerate, and seed when needed every time you go through your spring lawn care routine, you'll end up with a beautiful lawn, year after year.