Spring Lawn Care Tips to Prepare Your Grass for Summer

Any season where extreme temperatures are present is rough on your grass, and summer is no exception. In many parts of the nation summer is the harshest season for grass, and if you aren’t careful you could have a dry and brown lawn by fall. Thankfully there are some spring lawn care practices that can give your lawn a much better shot at summer survival.

Perform a late-spring feeding

Fertilizing your lawn is important all year long, but the most important time to apply a fertilization treatment is at the end of spring. Lawn care practices like fertilization take some getting used to, but with a little bit of research it can be an easy process. There are two important parts of any fertilization treatment: Timing and product.

Using the wrong type of fertilizer can do some serious damage to your lawn. Certain types of fertilizers contain elements that can alter the pH balance of your soil. This can be good if your soil contains too much acidity or alkalinity, but if your soil is already balanced you could be doing unneeded damage. By performing a pH test before you fertilize, you can make an educated decision about the type of product to use.

If your pH level contains too much alkalinity, a fertilizer with sulfur elements is your best bet. This will naturally add acidity to your soil, giving grass and other plants a better shot at survival. To remove acidity from your soil a lime-based fertilizer treatment is recommended. Most plants thrive in soil that is slightly acidic, so be very cautious when performing lime treatments in your lawn.

Improve nutrient absorption with aeration

Aeration is the process of removing plugs of soil from your lawn. This has many benefits, including preventing impaction and increasing air and water flow to your soil. This allow your yard to absorb all of the nutrients that it receives, resulting in beautiful green grass. If you’ve never aerated your lawn before it is probably long overdue. Here are some tips for successful aeration:

• Water your lawn one day prior to performing aeration. Moist soil will make the practice much easier, but if the ground is too wet aeration will do nothing but make a mess.
• Flag hard to see items within your yard, like sprinklers and edging. This way you won’t accidentally hit them during aeration, which could cause damage to both your aeration device and the items in your lawn.
• Avoid spike aerators, while they are certainly more affordable than core-based devices they are not nearly as effective. Core aerators remove plugs of soil from your lawn, whereas spiked versions simply push the soil down. This is okay in the short-term, but over time it can lead to the compaction that the process is supposed to remove. Aeration shoes should also be avoided, they work in the same fashion as spike aerators but are even less effective.

Spring lawn care doesn’t have to be hard

If you’re overwhelmed by preparing your lawn for the summer it may be time to find some additional help. There are many types of help available, a great first step is to ask advice from someone who knows your area. The employees in the gardening section of your local home improvement store are normally well-versed in local conditions and the type of products that are best for lawns in your city.

If you’re uneasy about attempting spring lawn care practices on your own, your best bet is to get in touch with a lawn care company that has experience in your area. This way you can be sure that all local conditions are being taken into consideration. Many of these companies allow you to select just the services that you want, this way you never have to worry about paying for unneeded lawn treatments.