Spring lawn regeneration: Watering, fertilizing, combing, mowing, hooking
After the winter the lawn doesn’t look very attractive: yellow spots, gaps, and untidy grass are conspicuous. Tafe care can help bring back the fresh look of your green lawn. We give you some important lawn care tips for spring after winter to repair any damage on your green carpet.
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In order for your lawn to please you with a bright green color in the summer, it should be offered timely care in the spring. Photo: Pixabay/Raumschenberger
How to care for your lawn in spring
A lawn is as much a living organism as any other plant on your property. It requires regular care.
- Freezing;
- Harvesting;
- Grass muesli fails;
- An infectious lesion.
What to do with a damaged lawn in the spring? The first work on your lawn begins in early spring when the snow begins to melt.
Lawn care during the melting snow
During the snow melt, do not leave the area waterlogged for long periods, avoid puddles and work damp areas with a standard or hollow tine fork. To avoid being flooded in the spring, it is recommended that drainage work be done in the fall.
Minimize all movement on damp lawns to prevent ruts, footprints, and potholes (especially on young grass).
In sub-zero temperatures, spread the snow evenly over the entire area. It is essential that there are no large drifts – then the melting will proceed evenly. If individual drifts remain in shady places, when the floor is dry, spread the snow bunches over the entire area (so there is no stagnant water).
Note
To keep puddles from forming, clean all drains, then melt water will escape better from the area.
If the floor is dry at least 5 cm deep, walk a garden path or homemade coil over it (repair the wire on the pipe). Moist soil underneath the lawn can break the bond between the lawn layer and its base. By putting in a roller, the roots are determined to be in fertile soil. Wrapping is also necessary if the lawn has bumps, dents, holes and movement from moles and earth rats.
The floor should also be compacted if the seeds were sown in the fall. It is especially important to roll the 2-3 year old lawn every spring.
Lawn fertilization and combing in the spring
When steady, positive temperatures arrive, lawn fertilization can be carried out. Nitrogen-dominant multi-nutrient fertilisers are suitable for this.
Please note
Nitrogen in combination with phosphorus, potassium and trace elements ensures early growth and recovery of the lawn after the winter.
The rates are usually given on the packaging: approx. 1 kg per 40 m².
Remove last year’s leaves, twigs, grass clippings and dry grass. Use a fan rake to comb your lawn: The teeth are more frequent than a garden rake and are not as sharp. Gartenrake When combing, it pulls out the grass outliers. Add the lawn first with a fan tool and then on both diagonals.
In addition, every three years, you should remove straw on the site – a compacted layer of dry leaves, dead stems and shoots. Even an inch thick layer of straw makes it difficult for water and fertilizer to reach the grass roots. Numerous insects, bacteria and fungal infections begin to develop in it. Large bare patches appear on the lawn and moss overgrows.
It is necessary to remove the felt: cut it with an aerator, scarifier or scarifier, and then disinfect these places with fungicides. To prevent moss, it is better to acidify the soil with lime. Acidic soils and moisture-retaining heavy clay soils are more likely to produce a thick layer of felt when compacted.
tip
To get the thatch as sparsely as possible, use a fan rake to regularly rake up anything that gets into the area during the season.
Seed the lawn and mow the lawn
- Remove all plant debris from the surface of the damaged area;
- Use a rake (or fertilizer) to loosen the seeded area;
- Sow the seeds with the grass mixture, covering the entire area;
- Seal the seeding area with a roller, sheet of plywood, or wide board;
- Water the entire lawn on the day of sowing.
If you did not have time to fertilize when the snow melted, you can fertilize the lawn using the methods described above.
Begin mowing the green carpet in May. The first mowing should be done with a lawn mower with a grass catcher box, leaving the grass 5-6 cm high. Do not cut it too low: the lawn should be recovering from the winter.
Important
Don’t leave plant debris on the surface – this can lead to rotting.
Shredding and aerating the lawn
Periodically backfill a depression or the entire plot with river sand, sand mix or zeolite. Zeolite is more expensive than sand, but it interacts better with water and has an antiseptic effect.
- it increases the permeability of the soil;
- it prevents water stagnation;
- Facilitates air infiltration;
- fills the voids formed in heavy soil.
A few days before sanding on dry, overcast days, it is a good idea to water the soil and apply a water-soluble complex fertilizer to it. Note that an area on a slope or lawn where the soil is too loose does not require sanding.
To oxygenate the area, go over it with pipe forks. Stick them in to their full depth, twist them slightly, then move them to a new spot and repeat the process.
tip
It is better to use coarse sand (grain diameter 0.5-0.8 mm) and combine it with fertile soil and peat. For regular soil – 3 x 4 x 3, for sand – 2 x 4 x 4, for clay – 5 x 3 x 2.
Other spring lawn restoration work
If there has been no change for the better after the procedures from April through early May, and the grass is still affected after feeding and first mowing, then you need to take drastic measures to revitalize the lawn.
Mow the affected area as low as possible. Loosen the top layer of soil deeply (to 15-20 cm) (it is better to dig with a layer inversion). Leave the soil to rest and sow the same grass mixture after 7-10 days. When urgent lawn repairs are needed, use a fast-growing grass mixture.
Treat the lawn with iron sulfate in the spring to prevent disease. Dandelion sprouts should be scalded (or uprooted) with boiling water. When the grass grows to 10 cm, cut it in half: this will increase the growth rate. Water young plants daily, older ones twice a week.
It is better to water the green area with a stream from the hose, partially covering it with your finger. Watering the lawn in the spring on a sunny day can cause burns on the grass.
Read other interesting articles about lawn care:
How do you care for your lawn in the spring? Share your experiences in the comments!
Lawn after winter: how to restore beauty
The lawn is a traditional decoration of the countryside. Thanks to careful care, it looks bright and lush in the summer and serves as a beautiful backdrop for flowering plants. Owners are often disappointed when they see their lawn after winter. Proper care in the spring helps bring the lawn back to its former beauty.
ALL APK NEWS IN ONE FEED – AGRONOVOSTI.RF
First jobs in the spring
Lawn care work after winter begins in early April. Make sure the snow is evenly distributed over the entire area. If drifts form, spread the snow evenly.
In spring, a crust of ice appears on the ground. It prevents air from penetrating the root system of the plants, causing them to die. The crust is easily removed with a rake.
In April, snow begins to melt actively and puddles form on the surface. Standing water damages the lawn. To get the water flowing faster, prick the ground with a pitchfork. Piercing the soil helps air to get to the roots. If this process is neglected, the carbon dioxide accumulating in the top layer of soil slows grass growth and provokes the development of destructive diseases. Walking on the lawn at this time is not recommended, as will leave traces. The main work of restoring the pavement after winter is done after the soil dries out.
Debris removal and airing
After the snow melts and the soil dries out, you can comb out the turf and remove debris. A fan rake is best for this task. The grass is combed out in two mutually perpendicular directions.
On a lawn that has been cleared of debris, aeration or aeration is performed. This process supplies the roots with oxygen and prevents fungal diseases. Water the lawn thoroughly two days before aeration. Traditionally, aeration is done with a pitchfork and the soil is pierced to a depth of 8 cm. Large lawns are easier to handle with the help of special aerators.
Lawn care after the winter
A well-mowed lawn looks unsightly: the grass is pale and sparse, there are bare spots, and the spring soil is leached by frost. At the beginning of the growing season, apply a complex nitrogen fertilizer to the soil. Spring fertilizers include:
- nitrogen – makes grass thicker and greener;
- phosphorus – strengthens roots;
- Potassium – makes the lawn resistant to diseases and drought.
An important condition for fertilizing is dry grass and moist soil. The effect of fertilization can be seen almost immediately. The grass begins to grow intensively, it becomes thicker and harder to walk on.
If spring is dry, mulch the soil after fertilizing. This process:
- moistens the soil;
- loosens the subsoil and improves water absorption;
- promotes the development of adventitious roots.
For mulching peat and sand are mixed in a ratio of 1: 1, for each bucket of the resulting mixture add a glass of lawn grass seeds. Before mulching the grass is mowed to 3 cm and the mixture is spread evenly on the lawn so that the grass is not completely covered. The mulching mixture is smoothed with a rake.
First cut of the lawn
When the grass is about 10 cm high you can mow it. The first time you cut the grass to a height of 5 cm, after two weeks the grass is cut to a height of 3 cm again and only dry grass is cut otherwise the lawnmower will leave a mark.
Weed control
Lawn weeds begin to grow after the snow melts. They can be combatted with mechanical and chemical methods.
Hand weeding is a gentler method used on smaller plots. A root weeder or spatula makes it easier to control weeds. If the root can’t be completely removed from the soil, the weeds will grow back in that spot.
Chemical weeding is used in large areas. Special selective herbicides kill weeds without harming the lawn grass. Chemical weeding requires the use of personal protective equipment. Treatment is not carried out in windy weather. The grass is treated by spraying or brushing the leaves.
Possible problems after winter and how to solve them
If you want to see a beautiful lawn on your property in the summer, then after winter fertilization and watering will help to achieve the desired result. There are situations when additional measures are needed: feeding, treatment, removal of excess moisture.
