Taking care of our lawn is important throughout the whole year. Springtime brings gorgeous green lawns when cared for properly. You should always take care of your lawn to help maintain a beautiful, green lawn all year round. I am excited to have partnered with the Mom It Forward Influencer Network and Grass Seed USA to share these spring lawn care tips.
Spring is the best time for us to repair and revive our lawns. We have a very large lawn and enjoy maintaining the natural beauty of it. These five easy tips for spring lawn care will ensure you’ll have a fantastic, summer ready lawn.
Step 1: Rake – Rake your lawn to remove dead grass, old leaves and any other debris that accumulated over the winter. Raking enables you to see any bare or worn areas that need attention, and it also increases soil contact when seeding and allows new young grass to grow more easily.
Get your kids involved when raking your lawn. My son loves raking the leaves in a pile and then jumping in them like the video above. It was taken a few years ago but it’s always fun to watch. It’s fun for your kids and they learn how to start helping you care for the lawn your family enjoys.
Step 2: Aerate – Lawns that are heavily trafficked or buried under large piles of snow for a significant amount of time can suffer from soil compaction. You can hire a professional to aerate your lawn for you, or you can rent a core aerator, whose hollow tines will pull small plugs of soil out of the ground, allowing increased movement of water, nutrients and oxygen into the soil. Aeration can also increase the soil contact with seeds and promote new growth.
This is also true with springtime rain. I noticed a portion of our yard where my son was playing basketball in the rain. The grass is completely compacted in the soil. It’s definitely going to be aerated to help with grass growth.
Though just about every lawn in America could benefit from aeration at any given time of the year, proper timing will help you achieve the best results. Northern, cool-season grasses fair better when aeration is performed during the fall. Whereas in Birmingham, Alabama (where homeowners have warm-season grasses) for example, the best time of the year to aerate the lawn is early spring.
Step 3: Seed – Spring is the ideal time to reseed thin or bare patches in existing lawns or to establish new lawn spaces. Seeding now to repair winter-damaged areas will allow the grass to grow in healthy and strong before summer, when the lawn will likely experience the heaviest use. Talk to a turf specialist at a garden store or your local university extension office to help you select the right seed for your area. The specialist will be able to identify a seed that is similar to your existing lawn, or suggest an alternative choice if you’ve experienced recurring problems. After you plant the new seed, water lightly but regularly to make sure the reseeded areas stay damp until the new grass grows in.
We always reseed sections of our yard every spring. We use our own seeder. It’s so simple and easy to do. It’s especially great if you’re expecting rain to get that seed on your yard so the new grass will begin to grow in.
Step 4: Control weeds – If your lawn has been overrun with crabgrass or dandelions in the past, you may want to consider applying a pre-emergent herbicide in the spring before the weeds emerge. A healthy, lush lawn will squeeze out weeds, but a damaged lawn may need some help. Talk to a local garden specialist about which herbicide is right for your lawn and the best way to apply it. Herbicides can kill grass seeds, so if you’ve applied seed you’ll want to make sure you use a product that will not affect the new growth.
Our goats were always great weed eaters. They enjoy the weeds better than the grass itself. I hate having weeds and we spend a lot of time getting them out of fence rows and other areas on the farm. We have a lot of animals on the farm that are also great for giving us natural fertilizer!
Step 5: Tune up your lawn mower – Get ready for the first mow by giving your lawn mower an annual service that includes changing the oil, changing the spark plug, swapping out or cleaning the air filter, and sharpening the blade. Most lawns are ready to be mowed when the grass reaches a height of 3 inches, although newly seeded areas or recently overseeded existing lawns should be mowed closer to 2 inches until the new grass is established. Remember to mow with a frequency that allows you to cut less than one-third the height of the grass. An easy-to-follow rule is to let it grow no taller than 3 inches and cut it to no shorter than 2 inches.
Our yard will be ready for the first mowing as soon as it dries up. It had been so dry here but we got some much needed rain this past week. The ponds are filling up and the grass is getting greener. I love to mow the yard even though it takes about 3 hours on our riding mower. My parents have a huge yard as well, as you can see in the picture below. I get a lot of great tips from them on how to best care for our yard. It is so peaceful being outdoors with nature taking care of our lawns and animals.
About Grass Seed USA
Grass Seed USA is a national coalition of grass seed farmers and academic turf specialists with a wealth of experience in studying, growing and harvesting grass and grass seed. The coalition seeks to inform and educate residential and commercial customers about the benefits of grass and best practices for responsibly growing and maintaining healthy turf. For more information, visit www.weseedamerica.com.
What’s your spring lawn care tips? Comment below and share with us how you maintain your lawn!
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11 responses to “5 Spring Lawn Care Tips”
These are some great lawn care tips, thanks for sharing!! I am so jealous of both of your huge yards! I would love to have that someday. 🙂
Thank you so much! We do really enjoy them 🙂
Great tips! Love the ducks!
We have so many leaves in our yard! It’s always fun raking them with the kids and watching them jump in the piles!
I’d love to have a large lawn like you! I bet it takes a lot of time to keep the grass looking so pretty!
I love getting out in the yard this time of year!
I would love to have some ducks and chickens! They look like so much fun!
I love mowing the yard. Seems like we mows ours nearly every week here.
The kitties are so pretty in the grass! I love having cats too!
We took our lawn mower to get serviced recently. Always a great idea to do in the spring and keep it in tip top shape.
Great information for establishing a lawn in Australia. As we are planning to lay our new turf in our backyard, our turf supplier recommends Zoysia grass for our yard which is best to grow in both shade and sunlight with less maintenance, I prefer Empire Zoysia turf. Here I got ideas of Zoysia turf to use for the various purpose and soil types. Thanks for Sharing.