Seasonal Lawn Care Tips

There are many steps that can be taken to help prepare and your yard and garden throughout the year for the change in seasons. Many people think of this in terms of the late fall season, and preparing your lawn and garden for the harshness of the winter cold and snow.  However, preparing your lawn for the growing season is equally as important.

I spoke briefly about de-thatching techniques in an earlier post and this is the first step in preparing your lawn.  Coupled with aeration your off to a great start.

Aeration is technique used to remove "plugs" of grass and deep thatch from your lawn. Each portion removed is anywhere from 1/2inch to 1 1/2inch in depth; depending on the equipments used to do the job.  The removal of these bits of grass, thatch and tight roots; allows water, air, and fertilizer to get deep to the remaining roots and ultimately creates healthier, stronger, greener grass to grow. 

As a quick tip for fall preparation that will help with these steps later, make sure to trim your grass to about two inches the late fall season.  This will help prevent deep thatch from developing over winter.  If your grass was quite long at the end of the season, you may end up with bald spots, fungus, and grass mold. Long grasses in the fall are breeding grounds for rodents too, like field mice. Mice can be particularly damaging to your lawn during the fall and early winter as they feed on the surface root systems of your lawn.

Once your lawn has been de-thatched, and aerated, allow the young grass shoots to grow out before cutting for the first time.  Grass should get to an initial height of 3-4 inches before trimming for the first time.  Then for the first 2-3 trimmings remove only 1/4-1/2 inch at a time.  Cutting too much, too soon, too fast can shock the grass and cause it to die! It's easy to forget that grass is alive, and can be easily damaged by "rough" care. 

After two or three regular trimmings, you can apply your first treatment of consumer grade fertilizer, and seed your lawn if needed.

If you want regular; worry free lawn care, and property maintenance consider hiring a professional many services are much more affordable than you may think.  Greener Solutions Lawn And Landscape hires and trains top quality individuals to know the best techniques for seasonal lawn maintenance. Let us take the work and worry out of caring for your lawn. Call today for a FREE, no obligation consultation.



Andy and Courtney Bailey
Greener Solutions Lawn And Landscape
www.greenersolutionslawn.com
517-945-1204

Preparing For Spring

As we prepare for the start of a busy Spring season; I'm reminded of a few things that should be done on a seasonal basis for your lawn, gardens, and equipment.  Here are a few tips and reminders to prepare your outdoor living space this Spring.

1. Perform a quick maintenance on your mower in the spring.  Cold weather can effect the performance of your equipment and it's a good idea to take care of a few things before restarting your mower in the Spring. Change out spark plugs, oil and fuel filters.  Clean old clippings and leaves out from under the mower deck, and change the oil and fill with fresh gasoline before restarting.

2. Be patient with your lawn, it's not advisable to run out on the first warm day of Spring and attack your lawn.  It's been dormant for an entire season and starting lawn care too early can risk damaging the new grass shoots, causing bald spots to develop in your lawn. 

3. When you do start your lawn care regimen start with raking, or de-thatching.  Removal of dead grasses from past seasons can help aerate the upper crust of the soil and allow new grass shoots to flourish.

The thatch is the old dry grass remaining from previous seasons

Commercial de-thatchers pull the dead grass out leaving only the bright green healthy shoots

4. If you find a lot of areas that are not soft when walking, or are compacted from heavy snow; you can try aeration. This is a service that we recommend you have done by professional, improper aeration techniques can cause more damage than good.  Compacted soils can be loosened with aeration and roots systems will be stronger if performed correctly.

5. If you know your lawn is prone to weed growth, Spring is a good time to consider applying consumer grade herbacides.  It's much easier to try to prevent the weeds from cropping up than to deal with them once they have taken root!

We hope these tips help you prepare for the spring lawn and garden season.  Greener Solutions Lawn And Landscape can help too! We offer full scale lawn and landscape services including, de-thatching, aeration, grass seeding, and mowing. Call anytime for a free consultation.

Andy and Courtney Bailey
Greener Solutions Lawn and Landscape
www.greenersolutionslawn.com
517-945-1204