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Spring Landscaping Duties Top 5

As the spring season comes ushering in (always earlier than expected), home owners should get ready to spend some time outside again spoiling their lawn and landscaping. After a winter’s nap, spring is the time for your plants to wake up, bloom and grow. Here is a list of the top 5 spring landscaping duties for north DFW.

Lawn Mowing

All the warm season grasses including Bermuda, St. Augustine and Zoysia will be coming out of dormancy between March and April. When you begin to see a few blades of green emerging, plan to begin your lawn mowing every two weeks until the lawn is fully greened up. Once your lawn has greened up, warm season grasses should be mowed weekly throughout the growing season. As a way to “prune” your grass after the winter season, many people decide to scalp and bag clippings for the first mow of the season. Scalping is the practice of cutting your lawn lower than usual. We don’t necessarily believe this does anything vital for your lawn but many people like to get some of the shaggy dormant clippings bagged up.

Aerate Your Lawn

Aeration, or core aeration, is the process of puncturing the soil under your grass and removing small plugs of the soil. This process relieves soil that has become compacted as it breaks through layers of dense soil and thatch or lawn build up. By breaking this barrier in your sod, aeration helps allow air, water and the nutrients provided by fertilizers to penetrate down to the roots of your grass. This helps the roots grow deeper and strengthens them which will provide you with a healthier and more vigorous lawn. We recommend aerating your lawn once each year in the spring or fall. This is also an ideal time to put down your lawn fertilizers and overseed with grass seed to help thicken your turf.

Fertilize Your Plants and Lawn

Since the spring season is all about growth, fertilizing (or feeding) your plants and lawn will be crucial to maximize blooms, growth and the general health of your plants. Fertilizers provide your plants with nutrients essential to blooming and growth. In addition, fertilizers with a high percentage of nitrogen will ensure maximum “green up”. For the fastest result, use liquid fertilizers on your lawn and plants. Granular fertilizers can also be used for a longer lasting feed. As a general rule of thumb, we tend to recommend liquid fertilizers for instant results in the spring followed by granular during the summer months when the heat can steal the nutrients faster.

Prune Your Plants

Just after the final winter freeze but before spring blooming is generally an ideal time for trimming trees & bushes. The principle of pruning is generally the same as with cutting our own hair. If you get regular haircuts, your hair will grow at a faster rate. Pruning back thin, under performing branches in addition to general shrub shaping will stimulate or boost new growth in your plants. If your tree or shrub has a spring flowering cycle, the act of pruning will also enhance blooming.

Add New Plants

Spring isn’t the only season for installing new landscape plants, but it’s the most popular and the season with plenty of available plants to choose from. One of the best ways to usher in the spring is to head down to the nursery and marvel over the spring annuals. Set aside a small part of your garden bed or set up a special pot to put some spring annuals on display. Annuals may only last for a season (or two), but they are the constant bloomers and well worth the wait through winter.