The spring is coming and it’s time you took care of your lawn to get some lush green grass growing all over. Let’s start it!
Rake Deeply
This is the first thing you need to do when you’re planning to prepare your lawn for this spring. You need to do it not only to remove leaves or other light scattered things but also to remove thatches. Thatch is a loose, organic layer of shoots, stems, and roots. It is an overlooked and stealthy layer in your lawn that develops between the green grasses and the surface of the soil.
The interesting thing is that the thatch layer until it’s less than half inches thick, is beneficial for your lawn’s soil and grass. When it gets thicker it prevents water and sunlight to penetrate through and keeps the grasses in malnutrition.
And this is when and why you need to rake deeply.
There is another reason for your raking. Matted patches of lawn. New grasses cannot grow up through these patches. Raking is the only solution.
But don’t rake too much. It’ll rather damage your lawn because you may destroy the shallow grassroots and stolons by raking too much.
Try Your Lawn Mower Out there
You might need some servicing. Or it may be only some tightening of the bolts or replacing of some nuts. Whatever it is, see if your land mower is good to go.
If you think of buying a new one, here are the best electric lawn mowers available on the market. There are some excellent features that make them really worth buying:
- It can cover more area than usual at a stretch (3/4 acre)
- It can handle heavy loads
- You can easily remove the bags.
- It is much more durable and you can store it easily.
- Naturally, it creates less sound than gas mowers
There are a few things you should remember when you start mowing:
- Let your grass develop strong and healthy roots before you start mowing.
- You start mowing after the grasses grow to 2 inches tall.
- If you have applied fertiliser you have to wait until it is absorbed and the grasses are well nutritioned.
- The best time to start mowing is late spring (April-May)
- Once you have started moving you’ll need to continue it every 3-5 days to maintain a better look.
Aerate if You Need
When your lawn has heavy traffic, i.e., there is so much playing and jumping and running around the same place, the soil can get compacted and grass shoots from the seeds cannot penetrate through the hardened soil. This is when you need to aerate. This breaks up the soil making it sort of spongy and allows water and fertiliser to reach down to root level.
Spring is not at all the suitable time to aerate for the summer grasses because aeration this time provokes the weeds to grow faster. So you can select a time after weeds have already started growing.
Acidic Soil?
If you see mosses growing and coating the ground there is a probability that your soil is acidic and you need to neutralise it by adding lime to it. This process takes time before making the soil free from the acidic property.
Before doing the neutralization you would better send some sample soil to your nearest soil pH test centre. Alkaline soil, on the other hand, maybe another problem for your grasses. So you need to be careful to use lime on your ground.
Overseeding
Some of your lawn areas may have bare patches due to heavy traffic or dog spots. Dog spots are created when dogs jump and roll frequently. Here you need to overseed. It is a simple process of spreading seeds over existing grass.
First, you need to apply slow-release nitrogen fertiliser. Then, after the seeds give outshoots, wait for five weeks, and apply quick-release nitrogen fertiliser. Remember, it’s not spring but fall which is the best season to overseed. Nevertheless, you can overseed if you are really sure you need it.
Fertilise your Lawn
Now comes the question of fertilising.
There are basically two types of fertiliser, as you know: natural or organic and chemical. Natural fertilisers are far better and safer for a number of reasons. The major two reasons are that they are less costly and you don’t need to apply the natural fertiliser in an accurate quantity. An approximate amount always gives the same result.
You can fertilise organically with compost and mulching mower. Leaving the tiny pieces of mulch and letting the lawn get ready nutrients from them is a very natural process and saves you a lot of paid fertilisers.
If you are willing to use chemical fertilisers you must have proper knowledge of the detailed process of applying them. You must maintain a specific time, exact amount, and other rules of applying chemical fertiliser. If you fertilise too much, however, it will promote weeds and some grass diseases.
Herbicides
Probably the greatest resentment during taking care of the lawn is weed. They are of various kinds and types. Some are annual. Others are perennial. You need to apply pre-emergent or post-emergent herbicide depending upon what kind of weeds they are. For annual weeds, you generally use pre-emergent herbicides. And for the perennial ones post-emergent herbicides are perfect.
Using pre-emergent herbicide, however, has some drawbacks. It often prevents grass seeds from germinating and even kills tender grasses. So you’ll need to apply pre-emergents after the grasses have grown to be strong enough.
Meanwhile, some of the weeds will show up and you need to deal with them in other ways. Pre-emergent herbicide and core aeration don’t go together. You cannot go for core aeration before fall or you’ll break up the shield and indirectly work against the effectiveness of the weed killers
Final words
There are a lot more tips that you’ll find on the net. But most of the tips are stilted and lacking naturalness. We have tried to compile only those points that are needed in reality. Looking for more lawn care and gardening tips? Check out our gardening blog!
