Spring Landscape Cleanup

Every season we start the process of lawn and landscape spring cleanup on many properties we service. There are some very logical steps to follow.

1) We begin by removing all the leaves, sticks and any other debris that has accumulated on the property over the winter. In doing this when we apply the first fertilizer and herbicide lawn application of the season and cut the lawn there will be nothing to block the material when we cover and cut the lawn.

2) We then normally apply a early spring fertilizer which feeds the grass and a pre-emergent which typically is for crabgrass control. The second spring lawn application includes both a fertilizer and another herbicide for broadleaf weed control.

3) We also then begin to do our first lawn cutting. Typically, we wait until the soil temperatures hits 45 degrees. This is the trigger point for the first lawn application as well as the first lawn cutting for the spring season. In early spring there are a few times we have to cut lawns twice in one week. When you cut grass you do not want to take more than 1/3 of the growth off. We typically will cut grass to a height of 3.5″ to 4.0″ depending on the blend of grass on a lawn. At times the grass is grows so fast because of the temperature we need to cut twice in a week.

4) Next we work on the gardens, shrubs and small trees. We will remove any dead branches on the shrubs and trees, dig a new edge around the garden, pull any weeds, add a pre-emergent weed control then apply about 2.0″ of natural brown hardwood mulch. We prefer a brown mulch over a black dyed mulch. However, many of our customers use a triple dyed black much. The dye used in the black much actually will pull certain chemicals out of the soil over time.