While you may have had an easy time over the holiday months not doing very much, if anything, with your lawn, now is the time to get back into your lawn care activities in full force. February is a critical month in whipping up your lawn for the Spring months ahead. The lawn care tactics that you should focus on include: general Spring clean up and prepping your bed and turf.
General Spring Clean Up
Raking leaves
With the changing seasons comes the abundance of leaves that have fallen that need to be raked up. Leaves that collect in a pile on your lawn won't be good for the grass, especially if there has been any recent rains. The matted down leaves can cause the lawn underneath to be constantly moist, possibly leading to a lawn fungus like snow mold. Besides fallen leaves, you may have twigs or branches in the mix. These, plus the leaves, can also suffocate your lawn and cause bare patches.
Take care of bare patches
Any bare spaces or spots you see on your lawn should be patched up and ready to go for Spring. These spots on your lawn can make your lawn seem ugly and not well-maintained. Whether these spots were caused by a lawn disease such as gray leaf spot or brown patch, you will need to pull up the dead or discolored areas and add in new grass seeds and fertilizer, while taking care to keep the area moist until new grass starts growing.
Reevaluate your tools
Some tools you keep in the shed or garage may be outdated or may just need a revival. Check your lawn mower to see if it's still in good shape before you use one. You may find that it needs an oil change or its blades need to be sharpened. In other cases, you may have to replace your lawn mower completely.
Bed Prep
While the Winter season gave you an excuse to take a break from your lawn, now is the perfect chance to see what kind of good you can do to prepare your lawn bed for any planting you may want to do in time for the Spring.
To prepare a bed, follow these simple tips:
- Clean up anything that you don't want in the bed, such as unwanted vegetation, including weeds. Removing weeds or turf grass can be done manually with a shovel. Alternatively, you can use an herbicide treatment. Be sure to follow all label directions if you choose to use an herbicide.
- After you've removed the weeds or other unwanted vegetation from your soil bed, flip the soil over to at least eight inches deep, using a shovel or spade, and separate out the large clumps.
- Add in any compost to the newly turned soil. You can use compost that you've collected, or buy it in bags from your local city services or gardening store. Natural and organic compost is always the more friendly alternative to chemical fertilizers, which can be harmful to not only your lawn, but to the environment as well.
- Make sure that any compost you add is blended evenly into the bed soil. You can do this by hand or by using a cultivator or garden tiller. Smooth the top layer of the bed over, while shaping the sides. You are now ready to plant!
Turf Prep
Basic clean up and soil prep
Similar to a bed prep, turf prep includes some clean up of the area where you are planning to apply the new turf grass. Though not necessary, you can add in compost or other soil amendments. However, you must be careful not to simply apply the soil amendment as a layer directly on top of the existing soil. Instead, it should be blended into the top 200 millimeters of the soil to prevent the root system from only staying in the top layer. Blending it will encourage your turf to have better drought resistance and to take up any nutrients you apply more easily. You may also want to apply a moisture-wetting agent to the soil and and water it in to make sure that the soil doesn't dry out from being moved around. For some leveling action, you should remove all debris like rocks and other loose items and keep the area as smooth as possible.
Laying down the turf
It's important to lay your turf down within 24 hours of bringing it to your home. If left for more than a day, the turf can dry up and become ruined. If the turf arrived in plastic, it can cause the turf to begin decomposing and give off heat, which will dry it up and turn the turf a less than green color.
When you lay down the turf, you will want to do a border around the outside to keep it neat and clean-looking. Then proceed to find the largest area of straight ground and start there while working toward the outside. Be sure to trim around sprinklers if you have any. Lastly, you should bunch up the edges and ends up while you work to prevent the edges from drying out.
After the turf has been laid, you will need to monitor the condition of it to make sure it does not dry out. Watering your new turf frequently and after it has been planted is essential to maintaining the new turf, since it has no root system to rely on. Depending on the weather, watering two to three times a day should be sufficient. You can also sand lightly between the edges of the turf pieces to preclude drying out.
After the new turf has settled in some and the roots are established, you can look forward to your beautiful new lawn in time for Spring.
Fran Phalin is a freelance editor and writer specializing in home improvement topics. She is based in Austin, TX.
Still working on your other New Years resolutions and don't have time to maintain your lawn right now? Got questions on getting your lawn ready for Spring? Please visit ABC at: www.abcpest.com.
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