Preparing for Spring

During the winter months, it’s only natural for your warm season lawn to suffer. Reduced sunlight, colder soil temperatures and morning frost all contribute to the decreasing health of your lawn over an extended period of time.

Lucky for us, spring is just around the corner which means it’s almost time to kick off with your spring lawn care routine.

Check out our 5 tips on how to ensure your lawn is in top condition for spring time below 🌱🌱🌱

Lawn mower maintenance

Due to winter dormancy, it’s likely that your lawn mower has been sitting in the shed collecting dust. Before putting it straight back to work, it pays to give it a bit of a tune up to ensure all the parts are moving smoothly. Things like changing oil and fuel. Cleaning out filters, sharpening or replacing your blades and replacing the spark-plugs can help to see your mower working at its prime for seasons to come.

Don’t sweat if you don’t fancy yourself as much of a handy-man (or woman). Most mower shops will offer a tune-up service at a relatively low cost – and it’s definitely worth it!

Weed control

Throughout the cooler months, you might have noticed certain weeds taking advantage of your lawn’s winter vulnerabilities. If there’s only a few of them, you’re best to put in a little elbow grease and pull them out by hand. You can also mow over them for flat weeds.

If, however, they’re popping up all over your lawn, you’d be better off grabbing a quality herbicide like Bow & Arrow or BroadForce MA to take control before the warmer months allow it to spread. Unlike other weed controllers, it’s good to note that Bow & Arrow or BroadForce MA is safe to use on Buffalo lawns.

Aeration

Soil compaction is another issue faced by many lawns in winter, particularly those with high-traffic or substandard soil. To combat this, make sure to aerate your soil at least once a year (preferably at the start of spring) as part of your lawn care routine.

Not only will it help to increase the amount of nutrients received by your lawn, but it will also strengthen your roots to encourage better overall lawn health.

If you’ve never done it before, be prepared for some hard work - particularly if you’ve got firm soil. To start, clear away any debris and lawn clippings. Grab yourself a pitchfork and hold it perpendicular to the ground, pushing the spikes all the way into the root zone of your lawn. Repeat this process in straight lines until you’ve covered the entire area.

Once you’ve finished, make sure to water immediately to ensure your roots can benefit from deeper water penetration.

If you’re not up for the task, you can always hire a lawn spike aerator or contact your local lawn expert who should be able to get the job done with their specialist equipment.

Another technique used to reduce soil compaction is the addition of calcium sulphate or Gypsum. This naturally occurring mineral is used to break up compact soil, especially clay. It’s also a great product for assisting soil flocculation.

Spring lawn fertiliser

As you may have guessed, fertilising is another important step to prepping your lawn for spring. However, at this time of year when the warmer weather hasn’t fully set in, you’ll want to keep the lawn fertiliser to a minimum. This is especially true if you’re struggling to fight off your winter weeds.

For maximum results, give your lawn a good mow before lightly spreading an upfront boosting fertiliser like LawnPride Groturf. These types of fertilisers are designed specifically for instant turf and early spring growth, so will provide the best possible results for this purpose.

If you’re keen to get the deep green colour of your lawn back sooner, you can also apply a light coating of Colourmaxx to enhance and extend the appearance of your lawn.

Watering

Throughout winter, it’s likely you’ve watered your lawn very few times (if any) so it’s important not to get overly excited with watering when spring does roll around.

Start off with a light water and alter your routine dependent on locational and soil requirements. Taking this approach will also help your lawn to build resilience to minimal rainfall and can even encourage stronger grass roots that will protect your lawn throughout summer.

Spring your lawn into the warmer months with LawnPride

For everything you need to know about enhancing your lawn after winter, keep an eye on our blog and check out our range of products perfect for spring time.

For more tailored info, shoot us an email on info@lawnpride.com.au