Did you hear the news? Today is the first official day of spring! It’s about darn time if you ask me. It makes me so happy to know that warmer sun, longer days, and the world turning green are just around the corner for us. This is the time of year when homeowners start thinking about getting their yard ready for the summer, and it’s the perfect time to do some pre-planning. Make a plan now for turning your yard green this year so that you can be enjoying a drink on your patio during those summer weekends instead of working on your grass.
According to Nate Rogers of Badger State Maintenance in Milton, the first thing to consider for your yard this spring is dethatching or aeration. Both are common culprits that may be keeping your lawn from reaching its full, green potential.
Let’s start by talking about thatch. Thatch is the collection of dead grass and lawn clippings right above the soil that gets matted down in your lawn over the course of time. The problem with this is that too much thatch inhibits the growth of new grass. You can usually tell if your yard suffers from this problem if it’s hard to stick your finger down to the soil or if your yard feels spongy when you walk across it. The goal is to not have more than ½” of thatch in your yard. Spring is the best time to do dethatching if you can, before you apply any treatments to your lawn. You can hire your local yard and landscape contractor to help you with this, you can rent a dethatcher and do it yourself, or if your yard is small you could use a dethatching rake to get the job done.
Maybe thatch isn’t necessarily your issue, but the soil in your yard is compacted? You can tell this by trying to insert a screwdriver in your lawn. If it can’t be done easily, then your yard could probably use aeration. The process of aeration removes plugs of soil (similar to the shape of a wine cork) from areas all around your yard. This helps to loosen up the soil and it gives water, air, and nutrients a chance to reach the roots of your grass where it can help it grow. Same as dethatching, this is a task that you can get done easily by hiring someone like Badger State Maintenance to complete for you, or you can rent an aerator and do this yourself. No matter which remedy you use to help your lawn this spring, make sure to only do one or the other. If you think your yard could use both, do one this spring and then one in the fall.
Besides dethatching or aeration, you can set your yard up for success by implementing a 5-step program for the growing season. Badger State Maintenance starts their program in late April (for us in Wisconsin), and it begins with a crab grass treatment. This stops the crab grass from germinating before the soil reaches 50 degrees. The following lawn applications include a weed and feed to stop the dandelions in late May, an insecticide in late June, a general fertilizer in August, and then a winterizer in October which contains extra nitrogen to help your lawn come up nice and green the following spring.
Starting your yard out the right way this spring will make you the envy of the neighborhood!
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