8 Steps to a healthy lawn this year

When it comes to lawn care, there is a lot of information out there and it can sometimes be difficult to know what products or services to use for your lawn.  Additionally,  there are many different situations for lawn care when you factor in soil condition, sun exposure, moisture, climate, etc.  So we’ve put together a list of what we feel are the 8 most beneficial services and products that any homeowner can benefit from when trying to achieve a thick, green, and lush lawn.  Obviously some lawns may require some additional, specific treatments like lime, compost, nematodes, etc, but this is a great starting point for anyone new to lawn care, and wondering where to start.  

1: Early season light raking (early to mid April):  An important part of your spring cleanup, getting out on the lawn in the early spring and giving your lawn a thorough, but light raking can be quite beneficial.  This helps remove any leaves and debris that may have landed on your lawn in the late fall/throughout the winter.  Also, if you have any areas where the grass has been matted down throughout the winter, this will help greatly.  Leaving these areas matted down can cause the grass to get bogged down, and create areas that are too damp to come out of winter dormancy.

2: Early season aeration (April-May):  Aeration is easily one of the most beneficial, cost effective lawn services available to any homeowner.  Aeration helps with soil compaction, soil oxygenation, moisture retention, and much more.  Aerating in the early to mid spring will allow your lawn to receive all of the benefits of the service throughout the lawn’s biggest growth period of the year.  For a comprehensive breakdown on the benefits of lawn aeration you can click here.

3: Spring dethatching (May):  Dethatching is the process of removing the thatch layer(build up of dead grass) from the lawn.  Thatch can reduce circulation of air and water into the soil, as well as minimize the effectiveness of fertilizer and grass seed.  Typically it is recommended to dethatch your lawn every 1 to 2 years, and is best done later in the spring.  Dethatching too early in the spring can cause serious damage to the grass, as it is not yet fully recovered from winter, and will cause you to rake up a lot of good living grass that is still weakened.  For additional benefit, we always recommend doing your overseeding immediately following your dethatching/power-raking service. For more information on our dethatching service, click here.

4: Spring Fertilizer (late April-May):  Using a high quality slow release fertilizer can have a huge impact on the growth, thickness, and colour of your lawn.  Fertilizer provides the necessary nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium your lawn needs to grow at its best.  Using a slow release fertilizer ensures long term, consistent feeding of your lawn, as well as mitigates the risk of burning your lawn by using too much.  Typically the recommended time to apply your first fertilizer of the year is mid to late spring .  You don’t want to fertilize too early in the year, as this can cause your lawn to produce too much top growth and not enough root growth, making your lawn more susceptible to drought, disease, and pests.  It's best to wait until your lawn is actively growing before a fertilizer is applied.  If you’d like to see more information on slow release fertilizer, and what we use, click here.

5: Spring Overseeding (mid to late May):  An annual application of grass seed every spring is what most ensures a thick, established lawn.  It’s also one of the best things you can do to reduce the amount of weeds and invasive grasses in your lawn.  Overseeding helps fill in  any spots in your lawn that may have thinned or dyed out over the past year, which is great because those are the areas most susceptible to weeds.  Grass seed should be applied later in the spring, when the overnight temperatures stay consistently over 5–10 degrees Celsius.  Easily one of the most common mistakes we see a lot of homeowners make, is putting grass seed down too early.  When grass seed is applied too early, you risk having only a small percentage of your new grass germinate.  Seeding at the right time will ensure you get the highest performance out of your seed blend.  If you’d like to see more information on overseeding, and the blend that we use, click here.

6: Summer Fertilizer (July):  If you’ve used a slow release fertilizer in the spring, then you’ll be wanting to do your second application in July (about 8-10 weeks after your spring application).  Most high quality slow release fertilizers feed your lawn anywhere between 8-12 weeks.  Using the quality slow release fertilizer ensures that there is a slight overlap between when the spring fertilizer loses its effectiveness, and the summer fertilizer is applied.  This can help prevent having a period of time between applications with no nutrients being provided to the grass, causing it to brown out.  Additionally, just like the spring fertilizer, you want to make sure the lawn is watered regularly to activate the granules, and help keep the grass green. For tips on watering, click here.

7: Fall Fertilizer (September):  This is the last fertilizer of the year, and again, you want to ensure you are overlapping the effectiveness of applications to make sure there are no gaps in lawn fertilization.  This fertilization helps most with root development, which can help mitigate damage to your lawn throughout the winter.

8: Fall Overseeding (September-mid October):  While this application once again helps with thickening out the grass, it’s also the application which helps the most with weed prevention.  By creating a lot of new growth coming into the winter, you will have a lot of new grass growing and germinating quickly the following spring.  As grass typically germinates in the spring earlier than most weeds, clover, etc, this is what helps naturally crowd unwanted plants out of your lawn overtime.