5 Tips to Help You Prepare Your Lawn for Spring

Once the snow begins to fall in Northeast Ohio, most of us forget about our lawn all together. In the spring and summer, we mow, fertilize and work in the garden. In the fall, we keep mowing with the added effort of having a seemingly never ending layer of leaves to blow and rake away. Then we see snow and, let’s be honest, most of us don’t think twice about what’s happening to the grass under all that cold white stuff. If you’ve been taking care of your lawn or if you’ve hired us to do so for you, then your grass should be ready to grow come spring, but there are still steps you can take to ensure your lawn looks lush and healthy as the temps warm up.

1. Remove any debris, leaves or sticks that are left after the fall and winter months. It can also help to rake through your grass, which will loosen surface soil and promote healthy airflow.
2. Dethatching takes tip one a step further and requires that any existing thatch (un-decomposed stems and roots that accumulate near the soil’s surface) be reduced to half an inch or less. If thatch gets any thicker, it can prevent strong levels of nutrients and oxygen from reaching below the soil.
3. Apply grass seed to any areas of your lawn where growth is weak or dead – this can also help cure any spots of snow mold you may uncover during raking. And it doesn’t hurt to fertilize right in the beginning of the spring to give your lawn a wakeup call after hibernating during all of those long, winter months.
4. According to the EPA, it is best to water your lawn deeply and sparingly, unless you have a lot of new seed, which will benefit from light and regular watering. If you only water you lawn lightly and often, grass roots are not encouraged to dig deeper into the soil – instead they stay near the surface, which gives weeds better access to the nutrient- and moisture-rich soil deeper below.
5. Mow and mow high! Most people figure that the lower they mow, the less often they will have to cut the grass, but this is a myth. If you cut your grass too short, the grass is going to grow faster in order to reach sunlight, which is then converted into sugar, allowing the grass to feed its roots (AKA photosynthesis, for all of you science geeks). Just remember, long grass is healthy grass.

I know what you’re thinking – “I don’t have time for all that!” This is precisely why Moscarino offers its full-service, residential maintenance package. We can take care of all your lawn maintenance needs so you don’t even have to think about it. By the time it occurs to you that your lawn needs to be seeded or fertilized, it will already be done. We take a proactive approach to lawn care – assessing and meeting your yard’s needs before they become a problem. If you’d like to get on our spring maintenance schedule, call us now at 440-236-9000.