If you are a lawn owner, you know your lawn requires constant attention throughout the year. A little neglect can wash away your months of hard work and the care you put into it. Consistency will take a long way, even if you are just starting your lawn health maintenance journey. Hence you can add it to the list of chores you do or simply make a schedule and add it to your calendar. You can also hire a professional lawn care service that performs scheduled visits to look after your lawn all year round. Interaction with them will also help you understand your lawn needs so that you can take care of it regularly.
Here are the steps to all year-round lawn care you can efficiently perform to keep your lawn maintained and healthy. Besides, it can be an excellent activity for you to do while connecting with nature and cleansing from the daily grind.
How to Maintain Your Lawn All Year Round
A beautiful, healthy lawn doesn’t just increase your curb appeal but reflects your appearance as well. The more effort and thought you put into having a well-manicured lawn shows your meticulousness and attention to detail. While you can hire professional lawn care services to help achieve that look, getting your lawn to start looking great is relatively easy. If you maintain a schedule of performing these lawn care services, you will soon get the evergreen lawn you dream of.
All Year-Round Lawn Care Services
Lawn maintenance needs to be done thought out the year. Most of the lawn care services performed are the same every season. The difference is in the methods, environment considerations, timings, and materials used for each activity. When these are carried consistently every season, you get a healthy and green lawn throughout the year. These activities include:
- Lawnmowing
- Watering
- Fertilizing
- Aerating
- Weeding
- Ensuring Adequate Drainage
- Seeding
- Edging
Spring Lawn Care
Once the frost goes away and the surface starts to warm up, you start seeing daffodils, crocuses, bumblebees, and slow blooms around you. This means spring is here, and you must prepare the lawn for growth months ahead. This preparation is essential as it prepares you for a thick, lush green lawn and good plantation. Here is the list of what you must do in your spring green turf lawn care.
- Start by checking all your lawn equipment is in good shape and working. Tune and clean up all the equipment to get it properly functioning.
- Clean and mow your lawn. This means cutting the grass a bit and having a debris-free lawn to work upon.
- Use herbicides or chemical-free weed control to remove all the weeds from your lawn.
- To prepare it for high growth, aerate the lawn so nutrients and water can circulate well. Add fertilizer or compost to your lawn. You can select the type of fertilizer [] your lawn needs according to soil properties. You can get soil testing to understand them and correct deficiencies.
- Reseed throughout your lawn, and add extra seeds in bald areas. In a few weeks, you will start seeing new grass coming in.
Summer Lawn Care
In the early summer, you will have a lot of grass on your lawn. At this time, you may mow it every four to five days. However, once the summers fully start, you can do your maintenance without doing it. Keep your lawn maintenance routine simple, and add these to your summer green turf lawn care.
- Have a weed protection method ready. Weed growth can become a problem in summer, so you need herbicide applications to deal with those dandelions, clover, and creeping charlie. You can get spray applications from professional lawn care providers or apply them yourself.
- After the late spring and early summer period is gone, when the grass grows much quicker, you can mow it once a week. You can mow the grass high in summer, cutting it 2 or 3 inches.
- Watch for the fertilizer you use and when it needs replenishment. During summers, it is better to use organic-based fertilizers [2], having meal byproducts, such as bone meal, feather meal, blood meal, etc. They are less intense on your grass and don’t burn it.
- Use insecticides and grub control [3] during summer, as they can spoil your lawn. Apply the insecticide in early summer the eggs hatch.
Water the lawn properly two to three times a week in hot summers. Water in the early morning so the lawn retains moisture throughout the day.
Fall Lawn Care
Fall is a great time to invest in lawn care as it prepares your lawn to go into the harsh winters healthy and bounce quickly back to its state in spring. Every step during this time ensures that the soil can easily withstand the colder temperature of winter. For this, you must checklist everything from your fall green turf lawn care.
- Aerate the soil again to improve nutrient and water absorption and reduce compaction. With a good circulation in the soil, it will stay healthy in the upcoming months.
- This is also the time when you can reseed again on the damaged patches of the lawn. You will see that warmer temperatures will cause quick seed germination.
- The critical part of this season is to give your grass an excellent last fertilization round before it goes into dormancy. This provides your lawn nutrition to store and quickly bounce back as spring starts.
- Apply gypsum to areas where there could be salt and ice-melter damage.
Winter Lawn Care
During winters, lawn maintenance is minimal as the lawn is dormant and the ground is frozen. However, you can still do some small things to benefit you and the lawn. Here are things to do for your winter green turf lawn care.
- Tune up the lawn mover [4] and make sure every component works properly. Check for an oil change, fitting grease, air filter, carburetor, and sharp blades, and clean the underside.
- Mark your lawn area by staking the perimeter of it. This is so that snow throwers do not damage the lawn further. Reduce the use of chemical deicing as it can burn your can.
Inspect all your lawn equipment, such as trimmers, edgers, and leaf blowers. Replace items not functioning correctly.
FAQs
1. How to get that perfect lawn?
Your lawn requires your consistent attention. So, to achieve the perfect lawn, you must feed it well four times a year. Then you need to mow correctly according to each season. You need to provide weed control using suitable herbicides and insecticides. Water the lawn properly.
2. How to water the lawn to get the best results?
Constantly water your lawn in the early morning as it retains moisture throughout the day. Watering during the day causes most of the water to evaporate and is not beneficial for your lawn. Watering in the evening can cause an infestation of diseases in the lawn.
3. When is the best time to prepare and treat the lawn?
The best times to prepare and treat your lawn are early spring and fall. You prepare your lawn to enter the harsher weather healthy during both times. In these times, you can aerate, fertilize and seed your lawn.
4. How does the fertilizer help the grass?
The fertilizer provides the solid with the nourishment it needs, as most of the time, soils cannot provide all the nutrition throughout the season. Hence fertilizer provides everything they lack and promotes new leaf and root growth.
References
[1]https://geopard.tech/blog/what-is-the-best-type-of-fertilizer/
[2]https://www.centraltis.com/news/ask-the-expert-5-things-to-know-about-organic-based-fertilizers/
[3]https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/how_to_choose_and_when_to_apply_grub_control_products_for_your_lawn
[4]https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-tune-up-your-lawn-mower-2132796