6
Heartland Your Home
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Season-by-SeasonLawnMaintenanceCalendar Tips for a barefoot-worthy lawn that’ll ensure your home has uber curb appeal BY DOUGLAS TRATTNER news@brownwoodbulletin.com
Ahhhh, that sensation of stepping onto a freshly mowed lawn sans footwear. There’s nothing like it. Here’s how to ensure that grassy feeling from spring to fall.
Early Spring
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Like so many maintenance jobs, everything goes smoother — and you’ll get better results — with proper preparation. Early spring is the time to get ready for lawn-growing and mowing season. Sharpen mower blades to ensure clean cuts. A dull blade tears the grass, leaving jagged edges that discolor the lawn and invite pathogens. Sharpen mower blades once each month during grass-cutting season. Have a backup blade (about $20) so that a sharp one is always on hand. Tune up your mower with a new sparkplug ($3 to $5) and air filter ($5 to $10). Your mower might not need a new sparkplug every season, but changing it is a simple job, and doing it every year ensures you won’t forget the last time you replaced your sparkplug. Buy fresh gas. Gas that’s been left
to sit over the winter can accumulate moisture that harms small engines. This is especially true for fuel containing ethanol, so use regular grades of gasoline. If you need to dump old gasoline, ask your city or county for local disposal sites that take old fuel. Clean up your lawn. Time to get out the leaf rakes and remove any twigs and leaves that have accumulated over the winter. A thick layer of wet leaves can smother a lawn if not immediately removed in early spring. Cleaning up old debris clears the way for applying fertilizer and herbicides.
Spring Depending on your weather, your grass will now start growing in earnest, so be ready for the first cutting. Don’t mow when the grass is wet — you could spread diseases, and wet clippings clog up lawn mowers. Fertilizing: Both spring and fall are good times to fertilize your lawn. In the northern third of the country, where winters are cold, fertilize in fall — cool weather grasses go dormant over winter and store energy in their roots for use in the spring. Lawns, 10