When February peeps in, you know it is time to start getting ready for spring. You too have to prepare your lawn for spring. This is the time that many lawn owners call lawn service and landscaping companies for advice.
With the passage of winter, your plants will be left hungry and weak. Thus, if you want to have a bloom in spring and summer, now is the time to start getting ready. Lucky for you, we do not only offer grass cutting services at TCLS, but we also walk with our clients every step of the way, every season. It is quite possible to have a lawn that looks as if it popped out of a home improvement magazine, all seasons of the year.
Tips that lawn service and landscaping companies use for spring preparation
Clean the lawn and rake the grass to wakefulness
Spring is a happy time. Thus, you do not want it to find your lawn dirty and unprepared for the warm months. By cleaning, we mean just take an air blower and blow away the debris that collected over winter. Blow away the leaves. Well, you could rake the leaves away, but an air blower is faster, less tiring, and more effective. When you do not remove the debris, it will block the fertilizer from getting into the soil. You do not want the nutrients meant for your plants to go to waste.
However, while you are using the air blower for the debris, remember that you will still need to use a rake on the grass. A rake will do the job of waking up the grass, in readiness for the warm season. Many lawn care services advise you to rake the grass out of its slumber. A rake will also aerate the soil some so that the fertilizers can soak better.
Weeding the lawn
Any lawn care company will tell you that the approach of spring is the best time to do your weeding. If you skimp on that, you will give the weed a lot of leeway, and it may overwhelm your grass in the near future as it will usurp all the nutrients.
Now, there are weeds that you can control when they have already germinated. However, some, such as crabgrass are nasty customers. You want to get rid of them before they can germinate. Usually, crabgrass starts to germinate when the temperature of the soil reaches 55 degrees or thereabouts.
In southwest Louisiana, crabgrass is one of the most serious weed infestations. It can also be hard to control. At TCLS, we tell our clients to ensure that crabgrass does not get to germinate. This means using corn gluten meal, which is a pre-emergent organic controller.
Although this can take time to be effective, once it starts being effective, you may never have to deal with crabgrass again. There are more instant solutions to crabgrass that lawn service and landscaping companies can advise you on too.
Please also note that you should not use a pre-emergent weed controller if you plan to plant grass. It may prevent the grass from germinating. It is best to consult with a grass cutting and lawn care services provider because there is a lot of room for error in the use of weed control solutions.
It is time to trim your trees and shrubs
The trees and the shrubs do a good job of giving your lawn character, especially when they are nicely trimmed. Get them ready for summer by trimming them. This prepares the trees for another burst of growth. It could be hard to trim the trees and the shrubs just right, so get the assistance of landscape maintenance services.
If you do not have skill and experience, you may just trim off the new growth in your shrubs and trees. In some cases, you may want to wait until the shrubs start flowering so that you do not trim the seed bearing branches. That is why it is advisable to hire professionals for the job to eliminate all the guesswork.
Find out whether there is need to apply fertilizer
Lawn service and landscaping companies advise lawn owners to test their soil to determine whether the pH balance has been maintained. Most of the times, the melting snow might have changed the soil’s chemical balance. Even if you applied fertilizer to your lawn in fall, do carry out another test still to make sure that the soil is ready for new and accelerated growth in summer.
You may have to mulch the leaves
Although we advise to get rid of the leaves with an air blower, if the leaf cover is not too thick, you should mulch it back to the lawn with a lawn mower. Just ensure that you do not leave too much leaf cover that may hamper the growth or the greening of the grass.
Time to spread the mulch
When preparing your yard for spring, it is the right time for you to spread some mulch. You can spread some mulch, an inch or so thick around the trees and on the plant beds. The reason for adding mulch is to keep the plant roots cool in summer and to help the soil retain water. Make sure the mulch cover is not thicker than 3 inches.
You can see that there is quite a lot to do to your lawn to prepare for spring. We are among the top lawn service and landscaping companies in southwest Louisiana and we advise our clients to never take chances. By following the steps we’ve outlined above, you’ll be ready for new growth in spring and summer.
