Get Ready for Summer: It All Starts with Spring Grass Care

22

NOVEMBER, 2017

Lawn Care
Maintenance

A good summer lawn starts with good spring grass care.

Summer can be a tough time for both you and your lawn. Your lawn is dealing with the heat while also growing vigorously, and you’re having to balance the maintenance for your lawn. Doing what you can now will make an enormous difference in how you spend your summer days.

The first thing on the list is to pull out the mower that’s been sitting dormant over winter. By tuning it up now, you’ll find mowing much easier throughout summer.

For a good tune-up, you should change the fuel, oil and spark plug as well as consider sharpening the blades. If you’d rather a home-mechanic did it for you, jump in now before the seasonal rush.

Hopefully, by now, your lawn will already be clear of the weeds that crept in over winter. A healthy lawn should be able to choke the weeds out by itself, but if they persist, you will need to take care of them yourself.

Try pulling them out by hand, making sure to get all of the roots, or you can mow them down so your lawn can do the rest. But if it’s a bigger or more difficult job, you can try treating them with weed killer.

One of the best things you can do for your lawn at this time of year is to aerate it. Aerating your lawn will help with compaction and thatch build-up. It increases the amount of air, water and nutrients that can reach the soil. For high traffic areas, aerating should be done annually.

To aerate the soil, you can simply use your garden fork, aeration sandals or hire a coring machine for bigger areas.

If you haven’t already, now is the time to fertilise. Give your lawn a kickstart into summer with a light fertiliser. The warm days and nights will already boost growth, but the fertiliser will provide your lawn with some much-needed nutrients. But, be sure that all the weeds are gone first as you may encourage their growth as well.

Finally, adjusting your water habits. Depending on your soil and location, you may not need to do much more watering in addition to rainfall. But as it gets hotter, your lawn will need more water. Now is a good time to train your lawn to be less dependent on frequent watering. A deep watering every so often will help with the extremes of summer.

By starting with good spring grass care, your lawn will thrive through summer.