A healthy summer lawn starts in the spring. No doubt Old Man Winter has left your lawn bare and colorless. Early spring is the best time to examine your landscape and do some damage control.
Flower Beds
Start with a rake to remove leaves, dead foliage, and any snow mold. They can smother plants and harbor diseases. If you’ve applied a protective layer of mulch to your flower beds check to see if the ground is thawing. If the frost is gone then remove the mulch so your flowers can begin to grow.
Thin out crowded flower beds by transplanting perennials that are too close together and using them to fill in bare spots. Pull up dead annuals. This not only creates more space but allows air, water, and nutrients to circulate more easily.
Look for plants that have heaved over and secure them back into the ground. If necessary, replant them using a shovel. Now take that shovel and edge around flower beds to keep grass from growing into them.
This is a good time to add compost or a pelletized fertilizer to your flower beds. The pellets release their nutrients over time, so by applying it now your soil will be growth-friendly by late spring.
Lawn
After hibernating for the winter your lawn is hungry. Wake it up by applying a fertilizer. This feeds the soil and reduces weeds. Most fertilizers are best applied every two months throughout the season. When to begin applying fertilizer depends on the area you live, but generally you should start in March or April.
Crabgrass typically shows its ugly stems in late May, so apply a pre-emergent killer around May 1st. Again, it depends on where you live and how warm of a winter you’ve had. Apply it too early and the killer’s potency will drain out; too late and the crabgrass seeds will already have germinated.
Soil compaction is another problem that stunts growth and allows weeds to take over. Test your grass by sticking a garden fork in the ground. If it fails to penetrate two inches then the soil is too compacted. Aerating your lawn will loosen the soil and fix the problem.
Getting your yard into shape after winter does take a lot of effort, but once it’s over you’ll watch your lawn turn into something amazing the entire family will enjoy.
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