As April showers bring May flowers, the rainfall also promotes new grass growth. With a spurting lawn, now is the time to take action and ensure that your yard is well-prepped and manicured for the spring season. 

Early care is the best way to invest in your lawn’s health and long-term success. As the Midwest has been slow to heat up and bring warmer spring temperatures, there is still plenty of time to take the right steps to create a healthy lawn environment, eliminate possible pests and infection, and develop the perfect curb appeal. 

Here are five recommended steps to take to give you the best looking lawn this season: 

 

 

Yard Clean-Up 

The winter months undoubtedly left behind dead leaves, sticks, and other organic matter in your yard. The first step to proper spring lawn care is cleaning up leftover debris and overgrowth. This means raking up leaves, picking up fallen sticks and branches, filling in possible holes or other soil disparities. 

During this clean-up phase, it is also a good idea to trim back bushes and limbs before the new growing season. In addition, spring is an ideal time for tree trimming or felling, as it eliminates possible tree debris before your lawn begins to grow and take hold. This process can also help open up more sunlight for your lawn floor. 

Dethatch Your Lawn

Thatch is a combination of living and dead plant matter including crowns, stolons, rhizomes, and roots that accumulates in your lawn over the course of a season. It is important to dethatch your lawn in the spring prior to laying down fertilizer or grass seed, as thatch can prevent seed germination and promote fungus growth and pest infestation. 

To dethatch your lawn, use a leaf rake or a thatch specific rake to comb your lawn, picking up and removing any thatch material that may be present. 

Test The Soil 

This isn’t something many of us think about, but it is crucial to the health of our lawn environment. Soil nutrients are the building blocks for a healthy and strong root system. Green, thick grass can’t grow without the proper environment. Therefore, it is important to test your lawn’s soil makeup. You can buy a testing kit off of Amazon or from your local gardening center. The results will help you understand what pH level and nutrient deficiencies exist. You can then take this information and add the necessary fertilizers or nutrient supplements to your lawn to promote a healthy soil makeup. 

Aeration 

Aeration is a critical component in a lawn being holistically healthy. Over the course of time and due to repeated use via foot traffic, the soil becomes compacted and condensed, not allowing air, nutrients, and water to properly penetrate into the soil layers. This prevents root systems from developing correctly and can cause a lawn to be patchy, thin, and unhealthy. By aerating your lawn, you are pulling out cork-sized pieces of soil across your lawn, allowing for roots to better establish themselves and enable nutrients and water to be better absorbed. 

Seeding 

Now time to achieve that lush, full lawn we all want. A spring seeding is in order to help grow a healthy, thick lawn for the season ahead. Spreading seed is important to help existing grass enrich its own roots and growing habits. However, spring seeding requires extra attention to watering and de-weeding as the growing process plays out over the next several months. 

Need Some Spring Lawn Care Help in Columbia, MO? 

Is your lawn due for some service this spring? Don’t hesitate to contact us to help provide you with the lawn care services you need! We are proud to help our Columbia, Missouri community achieve their lawn care dreams!