Having a perfectly green and luscious front lawn is no longer just the American dream. Homeowners from all over the world devote their gardening hours to this project, and the results speak for themselves. If you have been planning on joining their ranks, here is how you should pursue the task according to each season of the year.
A Four Season Guide to Lawn Care
In this article, we’ll look at how to care for your lawn in all four seasons in order to get the most luscious, full, beautiful grass you can get. We’ll look at the first steps you’ll want to accomplish before you start to think about treating your lawn, and then go into each season.
First Steps
If you want a healthy lawn, the first step is to test your soil to see what its nutrient makeup is and determine which fertilizer(s) will work best for your lawn.
Test Your Soil
If you just start throwing fertilizer down willy-nilly, you may not be accomplishing much. Instead, find out exactly what your lawn needs, and apply the proper fertilizer tailored to your specific lawn’s deficiencies.
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Consider a Moisture Meter
A garden moisture meter will help tell you if your soil is too wet, too dry, if the pH level is off, and if there is adequate sunlight. While less important than the soil test, a garden moisture meter can be a helpful tool in lawn and plant care as well.
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Spring
Spring is the most important season of the year as far as lawn care is concerned. How you handle matters during the crucial months of March, April, and early May determine how your yard will look for the rest of the year. Thus, you need to start raking and polishing it as sun as the ground dries down after the thaw of winter.
If you find any raised areas, now’s the time to even them out. The lack of a flat surface causes poor drainage, which will diminish the quality of your turf over time. A lawn roller may be quite helpful in getting an even yard.
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Next, reseed any parts of the yard that have become bare or brown, and fertilize the soil. If you don’t have much space to fill in, a grass patch kit can work wonders and is quite easy to manage. However, it may be wise to check that the patch kit has similar grass seed to what you have; otherwise, your patch may look strange.
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For fertilizer, once you have your soil test, you can determine the best fertilizer for your needs. We like liquid fertilizers quite a bit, and the Liquid Kelp Fertilizer is a great place to start. Spring formulas tend to be richer in nitrogen for softer growth, which is not desirable during the fall and winter.
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Additionally, it might be necessary to address the underlying issues that caused these bald patches in the first place.
Spring is also the perfect time to invest in new equipment. A smart sprinkler controller will help you keep your personal meadow nourished throughout the year, and a brand new lawnmower will greatly ease the task of trimming and primping the grounds.
If you don’t want to make this purchase, at least try to perform some spring-cleaning and maintenance on your old machine.
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Summer
As far as your lawn is concerned, summertime is all about constant mowing and watering. After you’ve done the necessary prepping until May, there is little else that needs to be completed during the warmer months of the year.
In fact, it’s best to stop doing some tasks altogether come June, such as fertilizing.
You should cease adding manure to the soil 30 days before high temperatures arrive in your area, give or take.
Moreover, remember that the grass on your property requires at least one inch of water per week. When the heat is severe, you will need to supplement that quantity even more.
Keep your warm season grass at a height of 3 inches and your cool season grass at 4 inches.
Autumn
In September, your turf is up for a well-deserved revitalization after the scorching heat of summer has passed.
However, it’s best to wait for the first serious rainfall of the season before starting to eradicate moss and rake the surface layer of thatch that might have formed due to mowing and other activities.
This is also the perfect moment to tackle any drainage problems that might have been caused by foot traffic over the summer. This usually happens in popular areas on your property, such as those where you host barbecues or garden parties, or the children like to play.
To take care of the issue swiftly, push a garden fork into the soil and wiggle it around to create air channels.
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Finally, give the lawn a final fertilization session. Make sure to use a mixture that is autumn-appropriate, with the right fertilizer formula for your specific environment.
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Generally, fall fertilizers use phosphates and potassium to encourage the development of strong roots and vigorous leaves that can withstand harsher weather conditions.
Winter
During winter, all that’s left to do for your lawn is to engage in some aftercare. Seek out dry days to go outside and scrape any fallen leaves that might have gathered on top of the verdure.
This layer will smother the plants if you ignore it, which will cause them to wither away and die. Thus, to keep them alive through the cold season, it’s essential to pay attention.
Once it gets really icy out there, avoid stepping on the grass if it is frosted. This will damage it, and you will find a lot of bald patches come spring. Of course, you also need to keep in mind that winter is an unpredictable season even when you are well aware of the climate in your region.
Don’t beat yourself up too hard over snowstorms ruining the turf.
Conclusion
Lawn care strategies vary from season to season. Spring is the time for rebirth, and you should concentrate most of your revitalization efforts during these months. Come summer, you won’t need to do much else other than water and mow the turf. Autumn is the time to prepare for winter, and then all else is aftercare.
So, are you ready to face the weather and make your personal meadow the finest in the neighborhood?
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