Prepping Your Yard for the Spring
Prepping Your Yard
Many northern states are still shrouded in a heavy blanket of freezing cold temperatures, but by February people in the warmer southern states are stashing away their sweaters and lining sandals by the door. Spring is just around the corner, and in addition to cleaning your house and revising your wardrobe, you also need to remember to prepare your yard for the new season. The milder your winter, the easier this process will be.
Clean Up Leftovers
Winter has a way of leaving signs that it came through, so before anything else you want to clean winter debris like twigs, leave, broken tree limbs and anything else unsightly. Since debris can get stuck in your lawn mower and block fertilizers from being absorbed, it’s important to clear everything away as step one.
Apply a Combination of Fertilizers
The more preventative action you take on your lawn, the better it will look during the summer and fall. This is why it’s so important to apply a strategic combination of fertilizers to feed your grass and keep unwanted weeds at bay. In the early spring, apply a safe and healthy fertilizer to give your grass the nutrition it needs, then switch to a pre-emergent herbicide designed to prevent crabgrass. Crabgrass is a pesky weed that is nearly impossible to eliminate once it sprouts, so prevention is the best method. Complete this process again in late spring for best results.
Mow More in the Spring
You might think you can get away with infrequent mowing in the spring since the grass is not in full growth mode yet, but the opposite is actually true. Allowing your grass to grow too high and only cutting it once a week or biweekly will actually stunt the roots and make it harder for them to reproduce properly. It is for this reason that you should mow every five or six days during the beginning of spring. Your extra work will pay off when you have a thicker, fuller, greener lawn to boast to your neighbors.
Call In the Landscapers
Mulching, tree trimming, and other plant maintenance can be directed toward your professional landscaping company. It’s important to select a high quality, heavy mulch that provides plants with the nutrition they really need. Tree trimming, on the other hand, can be a tricky and even dangerous task that is best left to the experts.
With just a bit of springtime maintenance, your lawn will be the best on the block by summer.