After spring thaws the snow and the bitter cold is on the way way out, it’s time to prepares your lawn for the summer! Here are four tips to care for your yard before the heat of summer hits. You’ll have a thriving, healthy lawn in summer by performing these spring lawn care tasks.
Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning isn’t always inside your home. You can spring clean on the outside, too. Removing weeds and using preventative weed control techniques will help your lawn stay healthy all year long. During spring, your plants begin to grow a little faster, so consider supporting the process with lawn fertilization. If you have a few brown spots or bare patches, throw out some grass seed to help fill those spots (as long as pre-emergent has not been applied).
Remove Thatch
Your grass has three zones that affect the way it lives. The first is the blades, which is what you see, and the second is the roots. The third layer is the thatch that lies between the blades and the roots.
The thatch consists of living and dead stems, stolons, and rhizomes that aren’t breaking down. Sometimes this layer of thatch grows too thick before it breaks down. Removing the thatch is a critical part of lawn care. To remove thatch, rake your grass with a specially designed dethatching rake, or hire a professional lawn service to make this process as simple as possible.
Aerate the Soil
Plants need four things to grow: water, fertilizer, sunlight, and air. Foot traffic, thatch buildup, and vehicles push the soil down, removing space for oxygen underground. Without proper oxygenation, the grass’s vascular system doesn’t work, and worms, bugs, and other organisms die.
To aerate your soil, many will roll a spiked wheel across their lawn or wear shoe spikes while walking throughout. This is counterproductive and can cause more soil compaction and harm your grass. Lawn aeration is best performed by a professional that uses an aerator that mechanically removes cores of soil, roots and grass then deposits them back on the surface to allow the core to break down with adequate watering. Doing so will provide your lawn with additional nutrients while reducing compaction and increasing root strength.
Proper Mowing Technique
A lawn should be mowed once per week throughout the growing season. The height at which a lawn is cut should be determined based on weather conditions, if hot and dry weather is expected its best to cut at a taller height so that no more than 1/3 of the grass blade is cut during each service.
To save time this spring, summer and fall, skip the DIY yard work and contact Premier Property Maintenance today by filling out our online quote request form for top-rated lawn care company in the eastern Twin Cities metro area.