Spring Cleaning: Your Yard and Garden

Once the winter snow melts and your lawn is no longer frozen solid, it is time to begin to think about spring cleaning your yard and garden. If you spring clean your yard and garden early in the season, you will have already completed a job that is much worse in the deep heat of summer, but you will also give your lawn and flowers an advantage in starting the growing season the right way. Before you begin, here are some tools that you may want to have handy: thatching rake, lawn (leaf) rake, aerator, garden edger, plastic leaf and lawn bags or large garbage cans (used for debris and leaves), hand held rake, fertilizer, grass seeds, garden hose.

Starting with the lawn, use your thatching rake to pull up dead grass and to aerate the soil a bit. You want to lift up the surface layer of the lawn so as to loosen the soil and provide more breathing room for your lawn to grow. This can be rough work so you may want to consider using a pair of garden gloves while raking. Once you have thatched your lawn, rake up the debris with the lawn rake (or simply pick up with your hands) and remove to your garbage bags or pail. Next, using the aerator, plug holes into your lawn at random intervals, spacing them about a foot step apart from each other. You can purchase an aerator for as cheap as five bucks at your home and garden shop or a Lowes or Home Depot. Many homeowners skip this important step in lawn care. If you take the time and effort to aerate your lawn prior to seeding it or mowing, you will be providing your lawn with more oxygen, which essentially will lead to a greener, more lush and healthy lawn. To use the aerator, simply move the two pronged tool above the lawn where you want to insert, and step on it (depending on the soil, you may have to step down hard). This is a good work out for your upper thighs as well!

Next, purchase a good quality fertilizer and lawn seeds. You may decide to either overseed an already existing lawn, or seed bare dirt. If you decide to do the latter, be sure to lift and turn the soil to a depth of a couple of inches prior to seeding. The two keys to helping to ensure your seeds will grow (and therefore, leading to a better lawn and less waste of money) is to both cover your seeds to protect them from feeding birds and other creatures and to water properly. Seeds can not dry out, which means you may need to take the time to water them on a daily basis until you start to see the beginnings of grass seedlings growing.

When fertilizing, be sure to select a fertilizer appropriate for your needs. For example, if seeding, use a special fertilizer for this specific need. If you use a regular fertilizer that is not designed to work with newly seeded lawns you are basically going to end up burning the seeds and wasting your money. Be sure not to mow your lawn for several weeks after seeding, and to wait until the grass seedlings are a few inches high before mowing over them.

If you have ground covering, lightly rake through it to remove leaves and debris. You want to ensure your ground covering has room to grow.

The gardens surrounding your home have suffered over the winter months. They are probably covered with leaves, debris and branches. Using a lawn rake or hand held rake, rake from back to front or up to down (depending on how your lawn is situated) so as to remove the leaves and other debris. Take care not to pull up any plants you have underneath. Once you have sufficiently removed the debris from the garden and placed it into the trash, you can now work on preparing the garden bed. Re-edge your garden beds by using an edger. An easy way to do this is to use a garden hose. Take the hose and outline the bed. Using the hose as a guide, edge in front of it, taking care not to puncture the hose itself. This is a simple way to ensure an even edge of the garden beds. Remove all dead leaves and braches from perennials. Leaves that are matted down can be removed.

When spring cleaning your garden, this is not a good time to trim as you do not want to cut off buds that have developed over the winter months. This is a good time however to fertilize your plants, especially those that will bloom in the spring. Follow manufacturer directions on fertilizers according to your plant needs.

Spring cleaning your yard and garden is admittedly a lot of hard work, but once you see your lawn and flowers begin to bloom you will realize it was well worth your efforts. Not only will you not have to deal with debris and leaves from winter when you begin to do your regular garden care throughout the spring, but you will have extended the flowering time for your garden and gotten your lawn off to a good start to becoming lush and healthy.