Follow These Tips to Get Your Lawn Shaped Up for Summer
Summer isn’t too far away, which means that there’s no time like the present to start getting your lawn into shape. What that means is, if you have any hope of getting your grass looking its best for the summer season, you’ll want to follow these tips on how to prep your lawn for the summer.
Test Your Soil
The health of your lawn will be directly proportional to the health of your soil. That’s why it’s important to figure out the pH balance of your soil, which is pretty easy to manage with any number of soil test kits available .
Should you find your soil is lacking in the nutrient department, there are a few ways to correct the issue.
You can rake compost over the top of your lawn. You’ll want to spread it out in an even layer about a half-inch thick or less. Any more than that, and you run the risk of smothering the grass blades, keeping them from the sunlight and oxygen they need to grow.
For those of you who don’t have your own dedicated compost piles already, you can purchase bags of it locally from any home and garden supply store, or order them online by clicking here .
Using Cottonseed Meal
Similarly, you can fertilize your lawn with cottonseed meal . This is great for gardening applications that involve acid-loving plants, and your turf falls into that camp.
You’ll want to follow the manufacturer’s instructions, but for springtime application to an established lawn, that will likely look like a 3 parts cottonseed meal to 1 part turf grass fertilizer mixture.
Earthworms will also add nutrients back to your soil. You can pick these up from your local garden center. You’ll want to wait for a dry day to place your earthworms on the top of your soil. They’ll do the rest.
Aerate Your Lawn
High-traffic areas of your lawn can become compacted, which will lead to thinning growth and bare spots. Additionally, some lawns will develop an overabundance of thatch, a layer of dead grass that lays over top of your soil and can choke out your living grass if it gets too thick.
In these cases, you can aerate and dethatch your lawn. Running an aerator over your lawn will loosen compacted soil by removing small plugs of the earth, leaving them on the top of the lawn to break down back into the soil. Dethatching will pull up that layer of dead grass. Both of these things will let water, oxygen, and nutrients get back into your lawn.
Reseeding Your Lawn
If your lawn has developed thinning and bare spots, you might consider reseeding to prep your lawn for the summer season. Reseeding will kickstart your lawn back into high gear, filling in those dead spots as new grass begins to grow.
Rake up the dead grass, loosening the soil underneath to a depth of at least an inch. For any low spots, add a layer of topsoil.
Spread grass seed evenly over the lawn, using the seed or turf builder that best matches the preexisting grass species you’ve got in your lawn.
Throw some fertilizer down to add nutrients that the seedlings will need to grow up healthy. Then, add a layer of topsoil back over top. This not only gives the seedlings more minerals and nutrients to work with, but it also helps protect them from hungry, pecking birds.
Water the lawn for the next 10 to 14 days to help the seeds germinate and to prevent the lawn from drying out. Be careful not to overdo it, as you don’t want to drown out the new growth. Once the grass has established itself, you can water less often.
Pest Control
You don’t want all your hard work to be for nothing, so when you prep your lawn, it’s best to tackle pest control early in the game. Beetles, mole crickets, grubs, and other insects can make your new grass their own personal buffet.
Hiring a pest control Pro can eliminate the problem before it really starts. However, you do have DIY options here as well.
The main point here is to get ahead of any potential pest issues, as they can wreak havoc on your efforts to prep your lawn for full and luscious summer growth.
Final Thoughts
We all want our lawns looking great. For that reason—if we missed any big tips in this list—be sure to leave them in the comments below.
