Simple Care Tips for Healthy and Green Lawn

Spring is one of the best seasons when nature comes to life and people start spending more time outdoor. However, before organizing your family barbecue, you have to prepare your lawn for these leisure activities. There’s nothing fancy in lawn care if you know some simple tips on how to get your home yard ready for spring:

#1. Be Careful with Raking
Raking helps remove fallen leaves and grass that haven’t survived winter. Otherwise, these dead plants become a thatch layer that doesn’t allow new grass to come up. But, it’s not all that simple: intensive raking may remove not only thatch but the soil layer holding down weed seeds. So, your raking should be more cosmetic than therapeutic. For this reason, it’s better to use a plastic rake because it’s softer than the metal one. Don’t be rush with raking. Wait until the lawn takes on life and becomes dry after winter.

#2. Feed Your Grass
Use fertilizer 3 weeks after grass starts greening (it usually happens after 2-3 mowing). Applying fertilizer too early may be harmful, as it triggers lush blade growth when the roots are not ready for this. When you decide which fertilizer to use, look at three numbers on its labels. They describe the amount of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium correspondingly – the basic nutrients needed for your healthy lawn. The 20-5-10 proportion will be a good choice for spring. Liquid kelp is also a perfect fertilizer containing useful elements that act as a magic sauce for your grass and plants. Avoid overfertilizing, as it creates salts in the soil and may cause the so-called fertilizer burn. When this happens, the grass becomes dry and changes its color to yellow or brown. Look at this Propertywerks healthy grass guide to get more lawn care ideas: https://www.propertywerks.ca/lawn-care.html

#3. Plant New Grass
Overseeding is necessary to fill bare or worn-out spots of grass. It’s better to plant warm-season grass in the late spring. If you live in cold regions, you can also plant cool-season grass as well. When planting new grass, don’t forget to apply slow-release nitrogen. Five weeks afterward, quick-release nitrogen is used to stimulate grass growth. Sometimes, bare grass spots should be treated in a special way. Addressing lawn care to professional services will help you deal with bad lawn conditions and make your yard look happy and green. If you want to have your lawn green and healthy, but don’t have enough time for doing it by yourself, think about local lawn care services. Whether you are at work, out of town or on vacation, be sure Propertywerks professionals will take care of your healthy and green yard.

#4. Aerate The Lawn
Aeration is important for a healthy lawn. It helps break up compacted soil and allows water and nutrients to get into the roots. Late spring or early summer is a perfect aeration time for warm-season grass, while cool-season grass requires aeration in the early spring or in autumn. The frequency of aeration depends on multiple factors, but primarily on the sort and condition of the soil. Aeration can be done simply by poking holes in the soil which is effective for superficial layers. Core aeration is a more profound procedure made by a lawn aerator that removes plugs of soil and thatch from a lawn.

#5. Mow and Water Regularly
It’s important to start mowing when the grass has enough length and the ground is dry. Mowing too low is not a good idea: there is a proper height for every type of grass and time of the year. Cutting the grass too short allows the sun to reach the soil and provokes weed seeds to germinate. The essential mowing rule is never removing more than ⅓ of the grass surface at one mowing. The watering regime varies depending on the season, region and weather conditions, like spring rains, flooding, etc. If you live in the mountain area, increase the amount of water as the temperature gets higher. In some regions, spring rains provide a sufficient amount of watering. In general, it’s necessary to provide your lawn with approximately 1.5 inches (3.81 cm) of water per week.