3 Simple Ways to Prepare Your Lawn for Spring

If you're a homeowner with any amount of lawn and or landscaping to care for, you know spring can be a very critical time of the year. Not only is there a tremendous amount of work to be done in the way of general clean-up from winter, but there are also certain springtime activities that can enhance your lawn and enable it to become more lush and green.

I'm certainly not a lawn care professional and my thumb is not particularly green, but years of experience with the basics has taught me a few things. As a teenager, one of my first jobs was working for a small lawn care company. Early spring through late fall, we moved 72 lawns per week. So, after school and all summer long, I was frequently behind a lawnmower or hedge trimmer, or weedwhacker.

THREE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO FOR YOUR LAWN THIS SPRING

1) Aerate your lawn. Much depends upon what type of grass and soil you have. My backyard, for example, is a thicker type of grass and the soil is softer and better for growing grass back in problem areas quicker. My front yard is much older and the grass is more sparse and the soil is hard. This is why I'm always sure to do some core aeration in early spring. I've had lawn experts tell me fall is best, but spring has worked well for me.

2) Don't just turn your irrigation system on. Be sure you're checking out the entire system, station by station, sprinkler by sprinkler, and verify that everything is working properly. Check for leaks in case you've had pipes crack over the winter. Don't wait for a big puddle of water to appear before you discover the issue. Make sure filters are cleared, sprinkler heads are adjusted, and hitting their target areas. If you have an automatic system, check manufacturers' recommendations for watering times, etc. This will be much different in the early spring than it will be in the summer.

3) Check your lawn equipment to make sure everything survived the off-season and will start when you pull the cord. Most of the time, proper winterizing will result in fewer problems now, but just the same, make sure to put fresh fuel in the lawnmowers and trimmers, and for those machines that have them, remove and clean your filters. It will make a big difference in performance. My 3 year-old-mower fired up on the first pull last week as a result of proper care last fall and a fresh fuel fillup.