Having a beautiful, well-maintained lawn is one of the staples of home ownership. If you like to do it all yourself, you know firsthand just how much physical work goes into maintaining your yard. As Spring approaches, there is as much Spring cleaning to do to prepare your lawn as there is for Spring Cleaning inside of your home.
But if you’re a new homeowner, inexperienced in the ways of lawn care, you will quickly realize that there is far more to a healthy lawn than just mowing and edging. A lawn needs fertilizer, seed, proper morning and edging, but also at the right times with the right amounts. This is why many homeowners find that hiring a professional landscaping company is more than worth the money spent.
When To Start Preparing Your Lawn For Spring
To prepare your lawn for Spring, timing is absolutely everything. Colder environments rely heavily on timing with the last frost or freeze of the season. Before jumping ahead and thinking the timing is easy in Texas, remember that Texas weather loves to change without much notice.
March is generally a good month to start looking at preparing your yard. Historically, the high temperatures in March tend to be in the low 70s while the lows are in the high 40s in Fort Worth. This makes it a good time to start preparing your lawn, but we aren’t jumping straight to lush grass and flowering beds just yet.
Getting Your Yard Ready For Seeding And Fertilizing
Throughout a Texas winter, your lawn can experience a lot of changes and challenges. Cold but fluctuating temperatures, sudden hard freezes, and the list can go on. Plus, leaves in Texas tend to keep falling even throughout winter. In a sense, your yard can get “dirty” and cluttered during Winter. As Spring approaches, there are steps you need to take to get the lawn ready.
- Cleaning – Before you do anything, your yard needs to get cleaned up. Depending on the specific size of your yard and what you have in it as far as trees and bushes, this can be short or take multiple days of work. Leaves need to be removed along with anything like fallen branches, twigs, and other debris.
- Assess The Soil – If your soil isn’t healthy, your lawn won’t be either. Making sure your soil has the proper nutrients is essential to not only a lush, green yard, but to prevent weeds. Knowing your soil can also help you to know precisely the products that are best for your yard. You can get affordable soil test kits at just about any lawn store. If your yard gets a lot of traffic, aerating the soil is another step to add.
- Fertilize And Seed – You may be thinking “I already have grass, why would I put grass seed in the yard?” Applying fresh grass seed every year is a good way to keep your lawn healthy and ensure the best growth. For fertilizer, the best to use is generally a slow-release fertilizer. If you have “bald spots” in your yard, seed and fertilize these areas as well.
- Before Your First Mow… – Prior to your first time mowing, stop. Look at your grass. Is it fairly tall, especially in comparison with the height setting for your lawn mower? In Texas, we can often go all Winter without mowing our yard. The grass may still grow, especially as it gets closer to Spring. If you cut off too much all at once, you risk damaging your grass which stunts the growth.
How Often Should I Mow?
Mowing once a week isn’t actually always the best decision, particularly in the beginning. If you prepared your yard and got it clean, seeded, and fertilized, your grass is going to be growing. In some ways, mowing your yard properly is an art. If you allow your grass to grow too much in between cuts, you risk cutting off too much grass at once if you don’t adjust the height settings. If your grass is growing fairly quickly, you may have to mow more than once each week.
Professional Landscaping And Lawn Care In Fort Worth
Maintaining a healthy yard isn’t super easy, and the bigger your yard is, the more time consuming it is. Proper lawn care and landscaping takes numerous hours of physical labor. It also takes research to ensure all of the products you are using are the best ones. That’s why people hire companies like R & O Landscape Services, the best in lawn care in the Fort Worth metroplex. Our professionals have decades of experience in designing, installing, and maintaining the most beautiful yards. Contact us today to start the process for your free quote and a beautiful yard.
