The green, green grass of home!

Stacked LogoLawns have gone from brown to green and growing already. It’s rare to have grass out of dormancy so soon, but the warm temps have made it active much earlier this year. Rake your lawn to remove leaves and debris, and to remove thick and thatchy areas, or areas of snow mold that was killed off. The first or second mowing should be a bit shorter to eliminate all of the brown dead grass blades from last season and remove some of the thatch, but then set your mower height to 2″ or a bit higher for the rest of the summer. New lawns love to have a shot in the arm with a starter fertilizer. Older established lawns can be fertilized this month too unless you did a late fall application. If you did a late fall application you may want to wait until Memorial Day. If you have broadleaved weeds, use a weed and feed product NOW as the weeds are up and growing. If you had crabgrass last summer, you will need to put down a pre-emergent herbicide (about the time the Lilacs bloom; late April or early May in our area – earlier this year). Don’t put it down too early or it may not work when the seeds begin to sprout. Just before the common lilacs bloom is an excellent timing note to remember when you want to prevent crabgrass. We have been hearing radio ads from the big box stores always suggesting to put it down first thing, but wait until just before those seeds will sprout for great results.