What Are the Best Things to Do So My Lawn and Garden Thrive this Spring?

Now that winter has passed and you are starting to feel warmer temperatures, your lawn is coming out of its dormant state and requires some special care to be at its best as it enters the growing season.

And your lawn will be everything from stunning to just so-so depending on these spring lawn care steps.

You put in the hours in your yard to make it look great from the yard cleanups and weed control to fertilizer around the grass. Lawn Love does a lot more than just lawn mowing, so it is worth mentioning.

Bonus: You won’t have to rent an aerator or try to understand N-P-K fertilizer ratios or get your hands dirty yanking up weeds.

But if the DIY path is what you’d rather take, we’ve got you. This spring lawn care checklist will get your grass growing back stronger as the days get longer.

1. Clean Up Your Yard

Most locations in the U.S., yards taking a beating in the winter (stop being smug Florida!). Leftover dead leaves, branches and debris that pileup over the course of winter can stifle new grass from growing properly and provide a breeding ground for pests and diseases.

Your cleanup checklist:

• Clear leaves and twigs: Clear up leaves and twigs to allow air to circulate and prevent fungal diseases.
• Clear lawn clutter: Remove toys, garden tools and other outdoor items that may have flattened the grass.
• Treat for snow mold: If you see matted grass areas where snow mold has been, lightly rake the areas that look affected to help aid recovery. Matted grass can block new grass from growing.

2. Inspect Your Sprinkler System

• Automatic sprinklers sprays water over freshly cut grass
• Get your irrigation system up and running for spring by doing the following before the growing season begins:
• Execute the system and verify that even coverage is being obtained throughout all zones.
• Check for any visible leaks in sprinkler heads, pipes, or hoses.
• Make sure the sprinkler heads are properly aligned, or you might spray your sidewalk and your driveway.
• Replace broken sprinkler heads and damaged nozzles.

Sprinkler System Maintenance Checklist

• How Much Does Sprinkler Repair Cost?
• How to Choose the Right Type of Sprinkler for Your Lawn
• How to Create a DIY Sprinkler System for Your Lawn

3. Tune Up Your Mower, Grease Other Tools

A good lawn mower keeps your grass happy – or makes it work hard to stay that way. As spring comes around, take these maintenance steps:

• Sharpen mower blades: Blunt blades don’t cut grass well, they tear it, which weakens grass over time.
• Change oil and air filter: Old oil should be replaced, and the air filter should be cleaned or changed, to ensure peak mower performance.
• Check spark plugs: Worn spark plugs make it hard to get your mower to start, so replace any worn plugs.
• Check for tire pressure: If done incorrectly, the mower might be more difficult to push and cause uneven cuts. Replace damaged tires.
• Use good gas: My father always said cheap gas will ruin your mower. That’s because it has more impurities, which can lead to poor engine performance. It generally doesn’t burn as efficiently and leaves carbon deposits in the engine.

In addition to your lawn mower, it’s a good idea to check, clean and sharpen pruning shears, rakes, fertilizer spreaders and other lawn tools.

4. Dethatch

Thatch buildup prevents nutrients, water, and air from reaching the soil. The often leads to restricted root growth, diseases and bad curb appeal.

If your lawn holds more than ½ inch of thatch, you’re going to want to dethatch it. Rake it by hand or run a power dethatcher over it.

Dethatch when your grass is growing — to minimize stress and aid recovery: Warm-season grasses in late spring, and cool-season grasses in the fall or very early spring.

5. Aerate

What’s aeration and how does it work? What are the benefits of aerating soil?

Compacted soil can keep grass roots from latching on to air, water, and nutrients. Regular lawn aeration can prevent this problem.

Liquid, spike and core aeration all open up compacted soil, but core aeration is ideal if your lawn survives heavy traffic, the soil is heavily compacted, and drainage is poor. Liquid aeration does best on mildly compacted soils.

6. Test Your Soil

A soil test will help you know everything about your soil dump. This includes:

• pH level: The pH level shows how alkaline or acidic your soil is, on a scale from 0 to 14. If your soil test report indicates that your soil is too acidic or too alkaline, you can add amendments to adjust the pH level.
• Nutrients Level: it measures nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other micronutrients such as calcium, magnesium, and iron.
• Organic matter: Tells if decomposed plant material is in soil; helps to retain moisture and nutrients.
• Soil structure and texture: Determines how sandy, clay heavy, or loamy the soil is, which influences drainage and root growth.

Some lawn and garden centers sell soil test kits, but for the best analysis, send your soil samples to your local Extension office. They’ll tell you how to improve your soil and what it needs to work well.

7. Seed, Overseed, And Sod

Your spring lawn care schedule should also include seeding, overseeding or sodding. Whether you want to establish a new lawn, repair winter damage or just need thicker grass, these steps are critical.

Seeding is best for establishing a new lawn, though you can use it to fill in bare spots, too. It’s inexpensive but takes a little time and consistency. You can either dry seed your lawn by hand or with a spreader, or use hydroseed for faster results.

Excessively overseeding the lawn helps thicken it, which introduces more resilient varieties of grass. This helps in preventing weeds by reducing open spaces in the turf.

Sodding produces immediate results and aids in erosion control, but it is a costlier alternative than the others.

If you wish to apply pre-emergent and plant grass in the same season, I advise applying the herbicide in early spring and waiting to seed or sod until later. This allows new grass to grow undamaged. With pre-emergent, seed or sod a warm-season turf in late spring or a cool-season turf in the fall.

8. Fertilize

Like all living things, your lawn requires three essential nutrients to grow robustly this spring — nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). FertilizersRecognized as N-P-K with figures, for example, 10-10-10, that show the level of every nutrient.

• Nitrogen (N) promotes lush green growth.
• Phosphorus (P) supports root development.
• Potassium (K) helps with disease resistance and drought tolerance.

To green up and grow your lawn this spring, use a fertilizer high in nitrogen, like a 30-0-10 or 20-5-10. But don’t forget to check your soil test results first to learn what nutrients your lawn needs. If you fertilize in the fall, add only slow-release fertilizer or compost to prevent overloading your grass.

9. Control weeds

Apply pre-emergent herbicides

Pre-emergent herbicides deny weed seeds nutrients and form a chemical barrier at the soil’s surface. This hinders root system expansion and plant establishment.

In order to know when to put down pre-emergent, determine what weeds are in your yard and when they grow. Put down your pre-emergent 2 to 3 weeks ahead of their appearance.

Apply Post-emergent herbicides

Postemergent herbicides are chemicals that kill visible weeds that are already established. They’re typically used on weeds that are hard to remove by hand or using organic weed killers.

10. Water your lawn

Continued watering blunders can crumple your lawn. But too much water isn’t better; dry conditions stress your grass.

When overwatering, roots grow longer, but what the plant is actually doing is easily getting water, so the roots don’t have to look for it deep down in the soil. It can also trigger fungal diseases.

Following are some tips for watering your lawn:

• Aim to water your lawn between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. Avoid watering during the hottest part of the day and in the late day.
• Water only when your grass is thirsty. Not sure? Step on the grass. When it doesn’t bounce back and lays flat, you need to water it.

11. Mow Your Lawn

Mowing is pretty straightforward, but these next few tips will help shield that lawn:

Cut just one-third of your grass blades at any time to avoid stressing your grass.

To prevent weed seeds from germinating, mow your grass to a little higher than normal (but still within the recommended height range). It creates shade that prevents weeds from germinating.

Avoid mowing grass that is wet; it can clog your mower.

Change it up and mow in a different direction each time to avoid a pattern from developing in the grass.

12. Treat Lawn Diseases

Fungal lawn diseases can result from cool temperatures and spring rain. Here are a few typical ones you may come across this spring:

• Fairy ring
• Necrotic ring spot
• Dollar spot
• Pink snow mold
• Gray snow mold
• Anthracnose
• Melting out and leaf spot
• Rust

These maladies can leave your grass blotchy, discolored and patchy. Some induce foreign bodies to emerge from your turf, in the manner of mushrooms, cobwebby mycelium or fruiting bodies.

Good lawn management, especially avoiding overwatering, can save you from most diseases. Other helpful things to do:

1. Get rid of affected grass and don’t compost it, as this spreads the spores.
2. Improve lawn drainage so water doesn’t collect on the lawn.
3. Mow your lawn correctly.
4. Manage thatch so you aren’t creating a breeding ground for fungi.
5. Use the right fertilizer.

Trim trees and shrubs to encourage good air circulation. This helps in drying the grass faster and decreases the likelihood of fungal growth.

If a disease is out of control, use a fungicide or hire a professional to do it.

13. Treat lawn pests

Wasps coming and going from underground nest in lawn on wet day

Sod webworms, chinch bugs, ticks and aphids are just a few of the pests that make an appearance with the arrival of spring. But the most infamous culprits to be feared are grubs, which emerge in late spring.

There are many ways to approach pest control:

Introduce natural predators: Biological pest control methods by introducing beneficial insects, such as ladybugs and predatory beetles, parasitic wasps that feed on aphids or caterpillars, and others. Birds help, too, so try to set up feeders to attract birds.