Gardening: Spring lawn maintenance should include weed control, reseeding, fertilizer

If you want your lawn to be lush, dense, weed-free, and deep green in color throughout the summer months, this goal can only be achieved if certain lawn maintenance tasks are completed during early spring and again later this fall.

Turf grasses are perennial cool season plants, which means that they are plants that come back year after year. They grow best in the cool, moist conditions of spring, fall and even winter. Summer, with its hot — and many times, dry — weather is actually a period of stress for turf grasses, which requires homeowners to give extra attention to the lawn in early spring if we expect it to survive the challenging conditions of summer.

Early spring is best time to control weeds

The best time to control weeds is before they ever germinate, so if your lawn contained dandelion, plantain, ground ivy or any other broadleaf weed last season, applying a pre-emergent herbicide early this spring can reduce the potential for these weeds to invade your lawn this year. A pre-emergent herbicide is a chemical that prevents seeds from germinating.

Old House Handyman: Old House Handyman: What to do on a 70-degree day in March? Prune trees and pull weeds, of course!

Early spring is also the best time to control crabgrass with a pre-emergent herbicide if this pesky annual grass weed crept into your lawn late last summer, as it did in mine! Most crabgrass preventers require the soil temperature to be at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit for maximum effectiveness. Soil temperatures are expected to be near 50 degrees in central Ohio this week, so it's best to apply crabgrass preventers in the next week to 10 days. A good phenological rule of thumb is to apply crabgrass preventers in Greater Columbus when forsythia begins to bloom.

Cold frames: Gardening: Cold frames, hotbeds allow jump start for planting before spring arrives

Reseed and over-seed early

If you have bare spots in your lawn or sections of lawn where the stand of grass is thin, early spring can be a good time to reseed and over-seed any thin stands in the lawn. Too often, homeowners fail to reseed early enough in the spring and the resulting new grass seedlings don’t survive the harsh conditions experienced during the hot and dry summer months.

Many times, you don’t notice areas of the lawn that are in need of reseeding until after mowing the first few times in spring, and by then, it is difficult for grass seedlings to develop root systems needed to survive the hot, dry conditions of summer.

So before your lawn begins to green up and needs to be mowed for the first time this season, walk around the lawn and do a critical inspection to assess the presence of bare spots and thin stands.

Dragonflies: Gardening | With a little assistance, dragonflies can thrive

If you have large areas of the lawn that need reseeding, or you wish to renovate the entire lawn with a completely new seeding, late summer and early fall may be a better time for such work. Grass seedlings that emerge from a late summer or fall seeding tend to be more successful in because they have two cool seasons (fall and winter) to develop root systems before they are exposed to the hot and dry conditions of late spring and summer.

Soil fertility is critical

Turf grasses, like most green plants, require adequate amounts of three soil nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). While phosphorous and potassium are easily stored in the soil from year to year, nitrogen does not persist in the soil and must be applied each year for lawns to remain productive and healthy.

And once again, early spring and late fall are the critical times of year to perform this task.

Soil testing: Gardening: Having soil tested now can be a boost to gardens next year

Lawn fertilizers should be split into three applications made at the time of the year when grass plants require nutrients: late spring, late summer and late fall. If you did not apply fertilizer to the lawn last fall, you can make an application now to provide adequate nutrients for green-up and early season growth.

Nature: Leaf and lawn litter provide food and shelter for various animals

Only the necessary amounts of fertilizer should be applied in order to save money and protect the environment, and the only accurate method for determining exactly how much fertilizer is needed is to have your soil tested.

The Franklin County Office of OSU Extension offers soil testing for home lawns, and information about soil testing can be found online at: https://bit.ly/3tuHFQv.

When applying lawn fertilizers, be sure that the fertilizer is applied only to soil and is not accidentally spread on paved driveways, sidewalks or streets where is can be washed into storm sewers and eventually end up in surface waters such as streams and lakes, contributing to algal blooms.

Mike Hogan is an associate professor at Ohio State University and an educator at the OSU Extension.

hogan.1@osu.edu

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Get lawn ready for spring: Weed control, reseeding, fertilizer