5 Spring Lawn Care Tips To Help Your Yard Look Exceptional This Year

Spring is officially here, which means its time to put lawn care at the forefront of your mind. Beyond simply mowing regularly, there are plenty of things that you can do to keep your lawn looking its best.

Read over these spring lawn care tips to get a better sense of how to make your lawn look exceptional this year.

1. Prepare your equipment

The first step in doing any lawn care regimen is to make sure that your equipment is in decent shape. In spring, this mainly means giving your mower a tune-up. At the very least, this means changing out the oil, air filter, and spark plug. However, it’s best if you also take the time to lubricate any moving parts and sharpen the blade.

In addition to your mower, you should also check your hoses for any leaks and to look out for rust on your gardening tools. If anything you used last season needs to be replaced, now is the time to do it so that you have everything you need at your fingertips once you’re ready to start your lawn care regimen.

2. Clean up and start raking

Once your equipment is ready to go, you can get out there and start caring for your lawn. Before you do anything else, you should take the time to gather up any twigs, branches, or other debris that ended up on your lawn over the winter. It’s easier to take care of your lawn when you’re working with a clear surface.

After all the debris has been cleared, the next step is to rake your lawn deeply. Even though leaves aren’t falling right now, you still need to deal thatch, which is a layer of dead turfgrass tissue that builds up between your grass and its root system. Breaking this layer up by raking helps to keep your grass healthy.

3. Overseed any bare patches

Next, you can go about treating any bare patches. Bare patches on your lawn can be a result of anything from heavy foot traffic, to drought, disease, or a weed or insect infestation. While conventional wisdom may suggest that fall is the ideal time to plant new grass seed, if your bare patches are severe, it’s worth overseeding in the spring as well. You may just have to contend with some extra crabgrass.

As for how to go about fixing those bare patches, the answer is simple. You can either spread the seeds themselves or, use a product specifically for lawn patching, or get a seed germination blanket. Of those options, the lawn patch solution is likely the easiest option since these products combine mulch, seed, and fertilizer into one bag.

4. Add in some fertilizer

If, however, you decide not to use the lawn patch product after seeding, you will need to put down some fertilizer to encourage the seeds to grow. However, you’ll want to be careful of how much you use because, while fertilizer does help your grass grow, it can also make your lawn a breeding ground for weeds. A light coating should be sufficient.

When thinking about the best time to fertilize your lawn, it’s best to do it just before a short period of rainfall. Otherwise, you’re going to need to supply your lawn with at least a quarter-inch of water. Try not to do it before a true downpour though as that increases the risk of the fertilizer’s nutrients getting washed away.

Again, if you are concerned about chemicals, there are some great home remedies available that can help your lawn look its best. Leaving grass clippings in place instead of collecting them is a free alternative to bagged fertilizer. The next time your mower runs over them, it will help chop them up and redistribute them into the soil.

5. Think about treating weeds

Treating weeds is an important facet of spring lawn care. If you don’t act on them now, before they start to grow, it’s likely that you’ll have to spend your summer pulling them out. With that in mind, you may want to consider using a pre-emergent herbicide on your lawn, which will do its best to stop weeds in their tracks.

That said, if you’re opposed to using harsh chemicals on your lawn, there are alternative actions that you can take to help keep weeds under control. Believe it or not, cornmeal and vinegar are all home remedies that supposedly defend against weeds. Spreading newspaper over the weeds and covering it with mulch is also supposed to stop them from growing.

That said, the one caveat to this is these natural remedies are unable to differentiate between weeds and other plants, so it’s best to wait to use these solutions until you’ve already seeded and any new grass has matured.