Spring Lawn Care

[10,000 Casts]

I just did my spring clean up. Now what do I do? When should I fertilize and what should I buy?

Thanks!

[Steak]

Honestly, you should leave your lawn alone for a while. The clean up can wait a couple more weeks. Grass needs a little bit of time to come back, and any scraping with rakes or other tools can hurt it.

[LwnmwnMan2]

If you're up in Breezy Point, you've got about a month before you should start to think about fertilizing.

Fertilizing brown grass will not make it green.

Soil temps need to be 55-60 degrees for that.

We're a ways off yet.

[RumRiverRat]

Dropped the mower all the way down today and sucked up all the thatch and dead grass in the yard.

Got caught with very long grass last fall, was too busy hunting and then it snowed.

Looks 1000 times better and I did not do any damage to the soil and roots by raking it.

[10,000 Casts]

I was figuring that I had a little while until I could fertilize. I had a ton of sand and salt from our icy driveway that coated my front lawn so I sucked it up.

Last year, I used weed and feed from fleet farm because it was cheap and I don't think it did anything. Can you guys reccommend something?

[RebelSS]

After years of doing lawn care, and trying everything out there, I won't use anything but Scott's. You really get what you pay for with fertilizer. Here's what I've done for the past 20 years, and actually have pictures frequently taken of my lawn.

Here's what I do (I'm in Southern Mn, so you'll have to compensate for where you are, and of course, weather is a factor.

1. Aereate...this lets the lawn breathe and gets food to the roots..I do mine every fall.

2.Spring...next week for me... AFTER the lawn has had some time to dry out, as previously noted, lightly rake with a plastic tined rake. Too soon and you just tear the yard up...what you want to do is rake up debris and dead grass, not tear the heck out of it. Steel tines are too hard on the yard.

3.Fertilize and overseed. Use Scott's regular Turfbuilder at 1/2 recommended setting, and mix a good name brand grass blend (Scott's, Schultz, ortho)with the fertilizer. I like to use the "hardy" and bluegrass blends together. Don't use the "quick repair" type of blend...they're temporary for the season.

4.About 2-3 weeks after this application, you can put on your "regular" fertilizer, or one with crabgrass preventer in it if you wish. Just remember, if you use the crabgrass preventer, any overseeding you do will not take. That's why it's important to overseed BEFORE you use crabgrass preventer.The seed needs to have actively started growing. Some brands say you can still seed; I have my doubts.

5. Set your mower no lower than 2 1/2-3" for grass height; and keep your blade sharp. I sharpen mine at least 2-3 times a season.

Taller grass helps shade itself, and provides more surface to the sun for food production, and helps choke out weeds.

6. Depending on your yard, if you have some weeds/clover/ quack grass, I prefer to use a liquid weed spray on the areas involved.

7. Mow often, and take off no more than 1/2" or so...grass needs time to heal. Mow in the late afternoon, NOT in the early am. Also water in the am to keep ground moist during the sunny part of the day and prevent root rot from damp soil overnight.

This should get you off to a good start! Like I said, this is my opinion and what I have done for years. Good luck!

[10,000 Casts]

Awesome! Thank You for posting

[LwnmwnMan2]

I can do better applications, cheaper, than what a person would pay to use the fertilizer from a former Twin's pitcher from the early 90's that went onto play for Baltimore.

[pureinsanity]

Don't buy the stuff from the big stores.

I have a local fertilizer company in town that I buy all my stuff from. I can get a 50lb bag of Crab Grass preventive for about 19$ I think the big stores sell a 40 lb bag for about 40-50 dollars?

When it comes to the weed and feed. that stuff is about the same in price I just get 10 more lbs for the same price.

Check your local farm stores, or search for a fertilizer maker in your area. You'd be surprised how much you can get the same quality if not better fertilizer for cheaper than the big name products.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Don't buy the stuff from the big stores.

I have a local fertilizer company in town that I buy all my stuff from. I can get a 50lb bag of Crab Grass preventive for about 19$ I think the big stores sell a 40 lb bag for about 40-50 dollars?

When it comes to the weed and feed. that stuff is about the same in price I just get 10 more lbs for the same price.

Check your local farm stores, or search for a fertilizer maker in your area. You'd be surprised how much you can get the same quality if not better fertilizer for cheaper than the big name products.

I'll agree with P.I. There's quite a few guys that have started using Lesco (John Deere Landscapes) fertilizers. This is what alot of the 'professionals' use. I put professionals in quotes, because, well, look back at some of the posts here and the rest of the internets and there are quite a few companies that apply that aren't professional about it at all.

Anyways, Scotts does make a good product. I like their weed-n-feed for a granular product because the particles are small and stick easily to the target plant.

I, however, use liquid for herbicide applications.

[pureinsanity]

As for early lawn care. The ol lady decided to get rid of brush and leaves. I tried explaining it was too early to do this. We should wait, to do it. However she was ambitious and wanted to do it. So I guess I cant say no to that. Anyways, lined up a dump trailer from a buddy. Got it filled up and headed over to my families land to put it on the burn pile. I only made it 50 feet before I had to get the skid loader pull the truck out, then push the trailer back to dry ground. Needless to say. If we would have waited for things to dry out a bit more I would have more grass, a truck and trailer that never got stuck and wouldn't have huge ruts to repair

Next year I am waiting to do everything until its dry, or doing it all in fall before its to wet.

Our work was on a foreclosure that has had no upkeep for years...

[LwnmwnMan2]

Also, also, in regards to early lawn care, and as to the removal of covering for flower beds, perennials, etc., you CAN do it too early, and you can do it too late.

If you do it too early, you run the risk of getting a hard freeze again, and having kill.

IMO, you can't do it too late, unless you still have your beds covered for the 4th of July fireworks. But if that's the case, you probably just turn your Christmas lights on instead of watching the fireworks.

I did see 4 "companies" out running around today. Hopefully just pulling equipment out of storage.

I did some more plow damage cleanup at a couple of properties where we push 1-2 wheel barrows of landscape rock into the grass, and while kneeling in the grass, the knees on the pants were complete mud by the time I was done.

Plus, the grass was very squishy. My irrigation guy has confirmed the same thing while he's been out giving out irrigation install bids.

[10,000 Casts]

should I start watering now? or wait? does it matter that there was a ton of salt/sand on my front lawn and it has very good drainage.

[LwnmwnMan2]

The ground is going to be too cool for any watering to have any effect.

If it makes you feel better, you're not going to hurt anything, but just don't expect your yard to be greener than your neighbors.

As far as the salt / sand, there's a trimmer attachment that you may be able to rent, which is a power broom. You can sweep that crud back onto the street that it came from.

[fishnowworknever]

Ugh, all of this nice weather my lawn mower is just begging to get started.

Why is my neighbors grass much greener than mine already? Another thing I noticed, one neighbor a few houses down has a very nice lawn during the summer. Right now it is all brown/dormant while others that don't have that thick of a yard are already green. Why would this be?

[pureinsanity]

Ive actually noticed a few lawns really green compared to others. depends on the sun. if the sun is hitting your yard almost all day, go ahead and start.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Ugh, all of this nice weather my lawn mower is just begging to get started.

Why is my neighbors grass much greener than mine already? Another thing I noticed, one neighbor a few houses down has a very nice lawn during the summer. Right now it is all brown/dormant while others that don't have that thick of a yard are already green. Why would this be?

As P.I. stated, if your neighbor has more sunlight than you, his ground temps will be warmer.

Another variable is if he has a different makeup of top soil. If his is looser, less clay, it'll warm up faster, but not if it's too sandy.

The 3rd variable will be the type of grass, one type will have a quicker recovery time than another.

As for the other neighbor that has a nice green grass in the summer, but it's still all brown now, all of the above statements hold true.

Sod (Kentucky Blue Grass) will typically be the last to green, while fescues will generally speaking be some of the first to green.

[Steve Foss]

As P.I. stated, if your neighbor has more sunlight than you, his ground temps will be warmer.

Another variable is if he has a different makeup of top soil. If his is looser, less clay, it'll warm up faster, but not if it's too sandy.

The 3rd variable will be the type of grass, one type will have a quicker recovery time than another.

As for the other neighbor that has a nice green grass in the summer, but it's still all brown now, all of the above statements hold true.

Sod (Kentucky Blue Grass) will typically be the last to green, while fescues will generally speaking be some of the first to green.

When the man is right, he is right.

[fishnowworknever]

As P.I. stated, if your neighbor has more sunlight than you, his ground temps will be warmer.

Another variable is if he has a different makeup of top soil. If his is looser, less clay, it'll warm up faster, but not if it's too sandy.

The 3rd variable will be the type of grass, one type will have a quicker recovery time than another.

As for the other neighbor that has a nice green grass in the summer, but it's still all brown now, all of the above statements hold true.

Sod (Kentucky Blue Grass) will typically be the last to green, while fescues will generally speaking be some of the first to green.

Good info, thanks.

[SkunkedAgain]

Also, also, in regards to early lawn care, and as to the removal of covering for flower beds, perennials, etc., you CAN do it too early, and you can do it too late.

I mentioned this to my wife over the weekend as she pulled the straw off of her hydrangeas. She only did one bed so far. Any thoughts on whether or not she should cover them back up for another week or two? We're in the metro.

[pureinsanity]

If you have bent grass which most of you probably do not, you should be able to get started real soon. My friend has already de-thatched his whole yard already. He doesn't have much shade and is on sandy soil though. As Lawnie stated kentucky will have to wait a little bit.