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Photo Credit: Bosh Bruening

Wouldn’t you love to have a bluegrass lawn like this?

Way to Mow!

Let’s start with the biggest lawn-care task of spring: mowing.

Before you mow, let me offer a few suggestions to prepare the mower for the season: Always start with sharp blades! Dull mower blades tear grass and give it a brownish cast – not the look we’re aiming for! And let’s not forget to clean mower spark plugs, lubricate all moving parts and use the correct fuel mixture, too.

When your lawn begins to “push” growth in spring, it’s time to mow. Cool-season grasses, like perennial ryes and bluegrasses, prefer cooler spring temperatures and generally adequate rainfall. With this combination, it seems like grass grows overnight. Mower blades should be set at 2 ½-3 inches. If you mow regularly (meaning once per week), recycle the clippings back on the lawn – don’t bother to bag them! (Clippings do not create thatch, that spongy layer that can form on lawn above the roots.)

With your mower up and running well for the season, you may feel ready to face whatever your spring lawn may have in store for you. But try to think ahead…

Avoid Getting Crabby

You see it every summer, but by then it’s too late: Crabgrass rears its ugly head in your lawn. A word to the wise: Crabgrass is best controlled before it has a chance to germinate (think of it as an ounce of prevention)! So come spring, use pre-emergent herbicides (AKA weed killers) to control it before it attacks in summer. (For best results, apply a pre-emergent control when forsythia is in full bloom.) And because many areas can experience a second generation of crabgrass each season, try to be a step ahead – make a second application six weeks after the first.