Spring is finally here and our yard maintenance tips are going to make for a great season. After a long winter of frozen ground and brown grass, there is much to be done to rejuvenate the landscape of your yard.
Once you have taken the steps in spring lawn preparation, it’s time to develop a plan of action for maintaining your hard work. Every climate, terrain, and soil condition requires specialized care in order for it to be part of a healthy and successful landscape.
To help you keep the plants lively, the grass green, and the soil rich, we have compiled a list of yard maintenance tips that will draw attention to your beautifully landscaped property:
1. Regular Mowing: Set your John Deere mower blade to the highest setting as to not trim your grass too short. Long blades shade the soil and help keep it moist. We recommend mowing once a week and cutting only 1/3 of new growth off the top. Try to mow early in the morning, as soon as the dew from the night before has dried. While many people don’t like the way grass clippings look on their freshly mowed lawn, this debris breaks down and recycles nutrients back into the soil.
2. Watering: Water is the life of yard vegetation; however, determining the right amount to keep your plants and grass thriving takes some trial and error. For grass, you can judge by the blue-gray color it takes on and the wilting of the tips of taller blades that it’s time to water. With gardens, you can judge by the dryness of the top inch of soil. When it is time to water, set up a sprinkler for approximately 15–20 minutes in an area that will water your lawn and plants and not your patio, driveway, or street. To make your watering schedule fool proof, try setting up an automatic irrigation system.
3. Edge Garden Beds: While this is not a maintenance tip that adds to the health of your grass or plants, it is a stylistic choice that gives a clean cut, well-kept look. Whether you choose to edge with an aluminum strip, rocks, or just a defined separation between the soil and grass, this is a simple and attractive way to add depth and texture to your yard.
4. Weed Control: The most effective way to stop weeds is at the root. If you’re planting a new mulch bed, use a black landscaping cloth underneath the soil to starve weeds from light. Weeds are invasive and take over a garden’s entire ecosystem while competing with your plants for sun, water, and nutrients. If weeds have already taken root in your yard, invest in an organic spray that will kill the root deep down without hurting your plants.
5. Pest Control: Your healthy grass, flowers, and plants look like a three-course meal to hungry animals and insects like deer, rabbits, grubs, and beetles. These animals cannot only eat your plants and grass but can destroy seedbeds and dig tunnels. Methods for deterring these hungry pests include chemical repellents, sonic wave repellents, fences, and motion activated sprinklers.
With these yard maintenance tips and recommendations, we hope your landscaping efforts will pay off this season. If you have further insights for how to maintain residential lawns and gardens, we would love to hear your input.
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Photos courtesy of Deere.com
