Tips for Early Spring Lawn Care in Minnesota
1) Clean up the lawn. When the snow starts to melt, most of us are left with soupy, muddy puddles everywhere. Before you can evaluate how your lawn handled its winter slumber, you will need to pick up all the sticks, dog waste, and other debris in your yard. Evaluate any bare or brown spots for snow mold damage. Repair any flat spots and even out any areas of the yard which are high to avoid the mower scalping them.
2) Winter is hard on any lawn. In the early spring, lightly rake the lawn with a regular leaf rake. This will help to perk up the turf at the beginning of the season as well as help to improve airflow.
3) As soon as the soil dries out a bit (no more mud pits), carefully clear away the leaves and dead grass. This helps to break up matted areas, allowing your lawn the much-needed rays of sunshine.
4) Aerate your lawn so that your grass can recover from the winter quickly. The aerator tool bores small, shallow holes into the ground and breaks up compact soil. This provides space for new grass to grow and allows the roots access to fresh air and nutrients more efficiently. Aerating in early spring not only gives your lawn more space to grow, but it will prevent the grass from getting overly compacted during the spring and summer. Aerating your lawn also helps the grass to get over our particularly harsh Minnesota winters. The best times to aerate your lawn are Mid-August through Mid-October for the Fall, and late April through May for Spring.
5) Overseed your grass to encourage new growth. There are two times a year that are best for overseeding your lawn - in the fall between August and October, and in the spring from March until Mid-June. Overseeding will help to balance out the natural thinning process that happens to your lawn over the winter. Seeding will also help to introduce fresh, new growth to keep your lawn looking thick and lush. If you seed in the spring, be sure to monitor and water it when needed to speed up growth before any heat waves.
6) Feed your lawn a healthy fertilizer after a long winter. Most plants go dormant during Minnesota’s winter. But you can help your landscape recover from our cold winters with a fertilizer treatment in the spring. Do this after aerating your lawn, as soon as the snow melts and the temperature reaches an average of 55 degrees. Fertilizer will help give your lawn the energy it needs for fresh growth. The best times to feed your lawn are early August through Mid-October before the winter season, and May through late June.
7) Mow the lawn. Don’t wait too long to mow. Typically, grass should be mowed once it reaches about 3 inches in height. Mowing the new green grass will prevent the grass from getting overgrown and stimulate continued growth through the season.