As when rousing a bear from hibernation, it behooves you to use a light touch.
Every lawn is different, but for a spring revival, Pat Murphy of Murphy’s Lawn
Maintenance and Landscaping offers three general tips.
- Grass roots sit dormant after winter, making turf fragile. Remove debris from your lawn—leaves, branches, garbage—with a delicate hand. That means avoid raking.
- Salt and sand that trucks have dispersed along the edges of your yard stifle new sprouting grasses and prevent pre-emergents from binding chemically with topsoil, opening it up to weeds. Instead of raking, gently sweep the area 2 feet from the curb.
- When replacing damaged turf, seed as early as possible. Then wait before putting down a pre-emergent. Pre-emergents preempt both weed and grass seeds from germinating. Once you see grass roots, two to three weeks should be enough before you apply an eco-friendly pre-emergent.
