10 SPRING TASKS TO ENSURE A PERFECT LAWN

In my experience there are two types of gardeners when it comes to lawns. The first group are those for whom the lawn has to be perfect in all respects and so will take endless care to ensure an immaculate sward. For others the lawn is a useful part of the garden, but provided it is kept mown and looking green and healthy that is sufficient. The ten tasks mentioned in the title come from an article by Landscaping Expert David Beaulieu which I found on About.com

First the bad news: if you neglect spring lawn care (and related concerns pertaining to your mower), you could end up paying for it the rest of the year. Now the good news: the chores required of you in spring don’t entail nearly the amount of work that you’ll have to invest in mowing alone throughout the summer months.
In fact, most of you will need to implement only about half of the following ten tips for spring lawn care, depending upon your own unique circumstances.

Furthermore, I point out in a few instances below that the task in question is better performed as part of your fall lawn care?if you can wait that long.

Spring Lawn Care Tip #1: Raking

Raking will be your first task of spring lawn care. Okay, I can hear the groans coming from all lands near and far, wherever grassy carpets are cultivated: “But we already raked leaves in the fall!” Sorry, but raking is for more than just removing leaves: it’s for controlling thatch, too.

A thatch build-up of more than 1/2 inch is considered excessive.

Thatch is the reason why I recommend that, when you rake leaves in the fall, you make the effort to rake deeply. Don’t just skim the surface so as merely to remove the leaves. A deep raking will remove thatch, too, allowing you to kill two birds with one stone. Even if you followed this advice in fall, I still recommend a spring raking: it will remove grass blades that died over the winter — dead blades that are just waiting to become thatch.
But there’s often another good reason for a spring raking. As you survey your lawn in spring, see if there are any matted patches, in which the grass blades are all stuck together. This can be caused by a disease known as “snow mold.” New grass may have difficulty penetrating these matted patches.

But raking will be sufficient to solve this problem.

Just when you should perform any of these spring lawn care tasks will depend upon the climate of your own region. But Mother Nature provides palpable cues in some cases. For instance, when you’re pretty sure the snow season (if you have one) is over in your region, begin raking.
Applying preemergent herbicides (see Tip #6) should be done sometime between the time the local forsythia bushes stop blooming and the time the local lilac bushes begin blooming.