In the struggle to keep your lawn healthy and beautiful, spring may feel like a rare chance to rest. For once, the weather is perfect for grass growth. There’s enough sunlight for grass blades to expand out of the ground, but it’s not so hot that watering is a constant battle against evaporation. If you’re exhausted from constantly tending your lawn the rest of the year, spring may seem like the time to take a break.
As many benefits as spring has for lawn care, it’s no time to let your guard down. While increased sunlight and mild temperatures help plants grow, these factors also raise the risk of weeds and insects, as well as simple grass overgrowth. Your lawn may also need to recover from the effects of winter or it will not be able to take full advantage of all spring has to offer. It is thus essential for you to tend to your yard just as diligently in the spring as during any other part of the year. With the following spring lawn care tips from Senske Services, you can set your lawn on the path toward healthy, sustainable growth.
Spring Lawn Care Service
While spring is generally a good time for growth, not all parts of the season are the same. It’s critical to time your lawn care properly, varying your services during:
Early Spring- At the very beginning of the season, you should test your lawn’s pH. If it is not at the right level, apply lime or sulfur as needed. You should also identify areas of your lawn that are not healthy, remove dead or dying plants, and re-seed; then water and fertilize the new seeds. You can also take this opportunity to kill weeds, whether with herbicide or by picking them manually.
Mid Spring- By this point, your grass may have grown tall enough for you to start mowing it. Make sure not to cut it any shorter than 2.5 inches, as that it the minimum height necessary to ensure it will grow back healthily. As temperatures rise, you may need to start watering your lawn more; though specifics vary by climate, you should generally give it at least an inch of water per week. Mid spring is also the time to start treating thatch.
Late Spring- This is the best time to apply fertilizer in large quantities so your grass will have all the nutrients it needs to grow throughout the summer.
Senske Services times all of our lawn care carefully. In this way, we can ease your grass into the growing warmth, preparing it for even the hottest summers.
Spring Weed Control
With weed control, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The earlier you take action against invasive plants, the fewer opportunities they will have to take root.
At the beginning of spring, look for any mature weeds in your yard that have made it through the winter. As soon as you find them, pluck them out of the ground and dispose of them so that they won’t be able to spread their seeds on your lawn. Then fill in the holes in your lawn where they were growing with a mixture of grass seeds and soil. Do the same with any other holes, gaps, or bare patches in your yard. If your grass is already densely planted, there will be few opportunities for weeds to take root. Once the grass has begun to grow, apply a pre-emergent herbicide, which will kill weeds that are still in their infancy.
Besides killing the weeds directly, you can encourage your grass to crowd weeds out. By fertilizing and watering the lawn properly and setting your mower to a greater height, you give the plants you want the opportunity to effectively compete against those you don’t. Senske Services takes advantage of all possible weed control methods, tailoring them to the specific threats your lawn faces.
Spring Lawn Fertilizer
Winter saps your lawn of many key nutrients, leaving little left for plants to use in the spring. Thus even if you already fertilized your grass in the fall, you should do so again as the weather gets warmer.
While you can begin applying fertilizer at the start of spring, it’s best not to lay it on too heavy until the later part of the season. Fertilizing too much, too early will cause an excessive amount of top growth. While this will look lush at first, it detracts from the roots, making your grass less healthy in the long run. You should thus begin fertilizing lightly, and you should focus primarily on areas of your yard where you are trying to encourage more growth.
The best fertilizers for the spring are slow-acting nitrogen products, which gradually release the necessary nutrients into your soil. The specific requirements for spreading fertilizer vary based on where you live and what plants you are growing, but in general, don’t use more than a pound of nitrogen for every 1,000 square feet of your lawn. Senske Services can determine how best to fertilize your lawn, providing exactly the right amount in the right locations.
Spring Lawn Insect Control
Grass isn’t the only organism that flourishes in the spring. Insects and grubs also take advantage of this season, coming out of hibernation and feeding on your plants just as they begin to grow. If you don’t kill them early they can devastate your lawn.
The first step to spring insect control is to remove dead plants, which harbor insect eggs and other pests. You can then apply preventative pesticides to kill insects at an early stage. If pests remain a problem, you can use curative pesticides. Water your lawn so that the pesticide reaches every point that might harbor bugs.
With either preventative or curative pesticides, it’s important to make sure the product you use is suited for the type of insect that has invaded your yard. Products suited for crawling insects, for example, will control above-ground insects, but they have no effect on grubs, which eat your plants from below the soil. Senske keeps a variety of pesticides on hand and knows exactly which to use for your yard.
The Importance of Seasonal Lawn Care
Seasonal lawn care allows you to address the specific factors that affect your lawn at different times of the year. At the start of spring, for example, the soil in your yard will likely have become compact as a result of winter conditions. Densely packed soil makes it harder for grass to grow, giving an upper hand to weeds that thrive in harsh conditions. Senske Services can determine how dense your soil is. If it is packed too tightly, we can quickly loosen it up through aeration.
While these tips will give you a powerful head start on lawn care, there’s no substitute for professional lawn maintenance. Senske Services provides professional fertilization, weed control, and other lawn care throughout the year. For more information on keeping your yard green and healthy, contact us today at 877-944-4007.
