The holidays are just around the corner, but as any homeowner knows, that just means that it's time to start planning for your spring lawn care!
Keeping your lawn healthy and looking its best requires special care for each season, and since the spring time is one of the most important seasons for your lawn, it’s best to start thinking about it early.
The following are some essential spring lawn care tips specially tailored for readers living in the Northeast.
Tip #1: Rake your snow
Rake–yes, rake!–the remaining snow on your lawn in the early spring; this will help distribute the snow more evenly throughout the lawn, while speeding up the melting process.
When snow piles up heavily in one part of the yard but not the other, this can lead to uneven growth due to certain parts of the lawn being trapped under the snow.If you don’t have a rake, you can use a shovel, but be gentle and do not scoop the snow.
Tip #2: Get your mower tuned
You definitely don’t want to wait until springtime to give your mower a good inspection. Make sure that your mower is checked over and tuned up so that it is ready to go as soon as possible in the springtime.
Remember, spring will be the busy season for lawn mower repairs, so service people and mower parts will be in higher demand.
Tip #3: Keep the kids (and adults!) off the lawn
One of the most important factors in ensuring that your lawn starts off strong in the spring is keeping people off the lawn during that grey period in between winter and spring.
During this period, your lawn will become soggy from melting winter snow; if it gets trod upon, this will increase the risk of damaging and even compacting the grass and turf.
If you need to, put up some fencing or another barrier to keep people from walking across the grass until all the snow has melted and your lawn is stronger.
Tip #4: Get your weed control ready
As anyone in the Northeast knows, crabgrass and weeds love to pop up in earnest during the spring. You will need to make sure that you have your weed control ready for springtime so that you can apply it once in April and again during the middle of May.
As with making sure you’re lawnmower is in good shape, it’s best to get your weed control squared away in wintertime.
Tip #5: Fertilize at the proper time
If you are going to fertilize your lawn in the spring, you must remember to avoid fertilizing if there is a chance that your lawn will encounter a late spring frost. In the Northeast, this means waiting until about mid-May to apply your fertilizer. If you plan to use any compost, a mid-May application is ideal as well.
