How to Make Your Spring Lawn Shine
Spring has sprung! This welcomed season is all about renewal and rebirth. In nature’s revival, one element emerges with a quiet grace and a profound significance: the spring growth surge of your landscape.
Spring is the perfect time to move ahead with warm season landscape renovations and irrigation improvements. As we discussed previously with the five key principles in landscaping, it is important to understand your landscape’s seasonal changes. This means making sure you have a great understanding of what makes your lawn beautiful this time of year, as well as working with a trusted partner, your lawn maintenance specialist.
Warm season grasses like St. Augustine, Bermuda, Bahia, or Zoysia grow best during higher temperatures. At this time of year, warm season grass is starting to metabolize more. In areas such as North Florida and Georgia, Zoysia grass and Bermuda are coming out of winter dormancy and starting to green up. Spring is the time when lawns begin to grow in earnest. Some grass, such as St. Augustine, doesn’t even lose its color during the fall and winter months.
Cool season grass grows best in the cooler seasons of Spring, Fall and Winter. The best examples of this is in Tall Fescue or Winter Annual Rye Grass. Cool season grass slows down and limps along during the summer, but it does very well in the spring and throughout the cooler months. Warm season lawns can sometimes be overseeded with cool season grasses in the fall to help retain a green canopy during the dormant season. Golf courses routinely do this to keep their greens growing through the winter.
Your lawn maintenance isn’t always about how to make it pretty. Spring weeds are an eyesore to many homeowners and generally unwelcomed. Be on the lookout for grassy and broadleaf weeds. You should pay close attention in the spring and address them before they grow out of hand. Two main weed types are summer and winter annuals. Winter annuals that germinated in the fall are nearing the end of their life cycles. Summer annual weeds are germinating now and can be a problem all summer long.
Weeds can not only make your landscape look unpleasant, but they can sometimes also outcompete your lawn, requiring future renovations. However, it is unrealistic to think that you can simply eliminate all weeds. It is common and expected to see weeds periodically throughout the year. Be patient and persistent. Take a deep breath and understand that weed control is a continual process and not a single event.
Every geographic region has different seasonal temperature ranges. Watering your landscape is now becoming more critical as the temperatures begin to rise. As the soil air temperature increases and the days begin to get longer, the soil is losing water faster through evapotranspiration, and we will eventually get to the point where the soils are all dried up. Not watering frequently enough can cause drought stress which shows up as brown spots in your lawn. In Florida, irrigation timers need to be changed after Daylight Saving Time to watering twice a week.
Partnering up with the experts at Massey Services to help treat and maintain your landscape is about saving you time and reducing stress. Our Lawn Specialists can help you improve the health and beauty of your landscape as we start this beautiful spring journey together.