Spring is finally here and it’s the perfect opportunity for you to start maintaining a beautiful lawn again. It’s the time where lush greens and vibrant flowers bloom. After lying dormant under the snow for months, your grass and plants need the care that they deserve.

There are important steps to remember when it comes to keeping your plants healthy and in-shape as the summer season is slowly approaching. You should observe proper procedure for your lawn, as you don’t want it to turn into a disaster. You want to make sure that your hard work pays off. Read on to learn about the basics on how to prepare your lawn for spring.

Final Winter Pruning

Winter is an ideal time to prune trees and shrubs while they are dormant. Before you start working on your lawn for spring, make sure that you have taken advantage of the winter season by improving the look, growth and strength of your plants and trees through proper winter pruning. Be careful to not cut the wrong shrub or branch. Don’t create too much damage to the tree; otherwise it will not grow back in the same way.

If the tree has suffered from harsh weather, insect damage, or aggressive pruning, you might want to prune it in a less hostile manner. A tree that is undergoing any type of stress might be affected differently after the pruning.

Applying fertilizer

Fertilizing during the spring does the trick in preparing your lawn for the upcoming summer season. Apart from bringing your lawn back to life again, fertilizers provide nutrients that will give it the strength to withstand heat and drought throughout the summer.

You can choose between organic and chemical fertilizer. To fertilize organically, you can use compost and mulching mowers. Mulching mowers provide compost by cutting grass clippings and dispersing them back to the lawn to decompose. According to Chris Starbuck of the University of Missouri, grass clippings returned to the lawn provide up to 25 percent of your lawn’s total fertilizer needs. Clippings contain about 4% nitrogen, 2% potassium, and 1% phosphorus.

Composting yard, garden, and some food waste creates a valuable soil amendment that provides nutrients needed for plant growth.

Compost is a great start, but a regular fertilizer schedule is key to a healthy lawn. Too much fertilizer in spring can lead to disease and weed problems. And if you have done yard work during the late fall, your lawn is probably still utilizing the fertilizer from that season. Contact Hackmann Lawn to discuss a fertilizer schedule that works for you lawn.

Controlling weeds using pre-emergent herbicide

The first weed or crabgrass seeds begin to germinate once the soil temperatures reach 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit. In order to stop these unwanted weeds from growing, you have to apply pre-emergent herbicide before the temperature reaches that point. Be sure to perform this procedure in the right timing. Otherwise, the crabgrass pre-emergent will not take effect and it will be very difficult to remove them once they have already grown. Don’t go overboard with the weed killer during spring, as it may do more damage than good to your lawn. When in doubt, work with a professional.

Spring brings a lot of new growth, so it’s important to properly prepare your plants and lawn for the spring season by getting on a regular mowing and fertilizer schedule. Give us a call at (636)688-6647 to get started!