Spring

Getting Your Yard Ready for SpringtimeSpring is an important time for your lawn. The work you do early in the spring will keep your lawn looking great all summer. The grass is just beginning to come out of dormancy when it starts to get warm. This also means that the weeds also are waking up. By nurturing your lawn and addressing problems early, you’ll have healthier, greener grass that is more resistant to drought and diseases.Our Spring Lawn Application is applied during the months of March – mid May. The spring application consists of balanced time-release fertilizer, which includes a pre-emergent control for crabgrass and other weed grasses. Broadleaf weed control is applied when the weeds become active, which is usually mid April.During the spring, we have a large window of opportunity to apply this application because crabgrass will not germinate until sometime in June.You may notice wide bladed grasses in your lawn in the spring, this is either tall fescue or quack grass.These two are often mistaken for crabgrass.They are part of the perennial grass family (like bluegrass), and cannot be controlled like crabgrass, which is a summer annual.

Core Aeration
Spring is a good time to aerate your lawn. To grow strong roots, grass requires aerated soil. Compaction prevents water from soaking into the ground, which is detrimental to the root system. High-traffic areas and lawns with heavy soil are susceptible to this condition. Ideally, you should aerate your lawn once a year, but once every other year is good too. This process removes plugs of soil and grass to invigorate the lawn and allows water and fertilizer to reach the roots. Aeration can be done usually until the end of May, depending on weather conditions. If you would like us to aerate your lawn and you have an underground sprinkler system, we will ask you to mark all the sprinkler heads for us before we can aerate. This will prevent our machines from breaking any of the sprinkler heads.

De-thatching
Spring is an excellent time to inspect your lawn and de-thatch it if necessary. Thatch is the straw-like debris that accumulates at the base of the turf. Not every lawn needs to be dethatched. If you are unsure if this is something that needs to be done, please feel free to ask us to check your lawn.

Mowing
The earlier in the spring the lawn is cut, the faster it will respond to sunlight and warm temperatures. First thing is to make sure the mower blade is sharp. Cut the lawn short for the first mowing. It may not look like it needs to be mowed, but you will cut off the brown winter top growth. Removal of this top growth, will help your lawn to green up faster. This early mowing will not start the lawn growing, so do not worry about having to cut it every week from this point on. The grass will not start growing until soil and air temperatures reach a consistent fifty degrees. After your first cutting, raise the mower up to a 3” cutting height, and leave it there for the remainder of the season. See our Mowing section for more information.

Watering
During the spring there should be sufficient rainfall to aid the grass to its full potential. However, there have been times when we do not receive enough rainfall, and water will be needed. It is important that your lawn does not dry out too badly during the spring because this is the time for new grass plants to fill in those thin areas, as well as extending their root system. Approximately 1” of water per week is sufficient if there is no rainfall. See our Watering section for more information.

Raking & Seeding
Try to get out in late March or early April to lightly rake out any matted down areas or debris left over from the winter. By using a leaf rake, just rake away anything that gradually pulls away from the soil. Do not force any grass out of the ground. This will open up those areas and allow new growth to fill in. If these areas do not fill in once the growing season has begun, you may have to put some seed in the areas. See our Seeding section for more helpful hints.