It is that time of year. The days are longer, temperatures warming, birds chirping, and your lawn looks like a complete disaster. As you gaze out over your mud put, you decide this is the year we step it up. Going from being the neighborhood embarrassment with more dirt and weeds than grass, to looking like a PGA course. Okay, maybe your goals aren’t that lofty, but it still can be overwhelming of where to start. Do you buy the million different chemicals at the big box stores, sign up for a subscription service to deliver you the chemicals, or just pay some lawn service way too much money to do it for you?
Here is your guide to get that lush green grass without pissing away all of your lush green cash.
To seed or not to seed, that is the question
The first thing to consider is whether you should put down seed or not in the spring. Despite what all of the commercials will tell you, planting grass seed in the Fall is the ideal time to do it, not spring. Despite that, if you feel like you’re going to be staring at a dust bowl all summer, you can absolutely throw down your seed .
Option 1: Not to seed
The idea behind not putting down seed in the spring is that summer can quickly sneak up on you. With the heat and dryness that follows, it can kill of the young grass you planted that is still trying to grow roots and establish itself. Instead, it is recommended that you focus on giving your existing grass the best chance to thrive. Here is what you’ll need to do that
Pre-Emergent Herbicide
Pre-emergent herbicide is a fancy name for weed killer. The “Pre” part is because you are spraying it before the weed seeds even begin to germinate. This means if you spray in early spring before the seeds start growing, usually around April depending on where you live. You’ll have less weeds competing with your grass for nutrients and space to grow.
The best herbicide to use in my opinion is Prodiamine. I recommend Quali-Pros Prodiamine . There are other similar options, this has given me the best bang for my buck though
This does need to be mixed with water and sprayed on the lawn, so if you don’t have one already, you’ll want to pick up a sprayer as well. You have two options here:
Hand pump sprayers like this
Or there are battery powered
BLACK+DECKER Battery Powered 4-Gallon Backpack Sprayer
(Battery and Charger Included)
Personally, I think the extra money for the battery powered is well spent not having to stop and re-pump up the thing every 2 minutes. The other thing to think about is how much space you’ll need to spray and getting a big enough tank. It’s a bit of a balance between not having to fill up the tank a million times, but also not hauling a million gallons of water around your lawn.
Once you’ve got these gathered, mix and spray as directed. Be careful where you spray it, as just like it prevents weed seeds from growing, it can prevent seeds you do want from growing. As with any chemical, also be careful to keep children and pets away.
Fertilizer
Just like you need food and water to grow, so does your grass. To give your grass what it needs to jumpstart its growth, you’ll want to apply fertilizer. You don’t need to go too heavy handed with this, your grass will have some organic food too from all of the leaves and other debris that broke down over the winter.
My all time favorite fertilizer is Milorganite.
The reason I love this stuff is it is organic and slow release, meaning even if you over apply or mess up, you won’t ruin your grass. It can also be used with shrubs and other plants. I also love this stuff because it is high in iron, which gives your grass a nice dark green color to it.
Just maybe don’t think too much about how it comes from the Milwaukee waste water plant. Worth noting, it does NOT smell like it came from a waste water plant.
Another popular option is Scotts Turf Builder.
Scotts Turf Builder Lawn Food – Fertilizer for All Grass Types
You’ll want to be more careful applying this, as over applying can result in your grass getting burned by too much fertilizer.
If you are an efficiency minded person, you can knock out the weed killer and fertilizer with weed and feed in one
I personally prefer being able to measure out both separately, but know folks have good results with this.
Whatever you go with, you’ll want to grab a spreader as well. There are lots of different options depending on how much land you need to cover
There are hand held spreaders for small lawns
Push spreaders for bigger ones
Just like with the weed killer, once you have these all gathered, spread fertilizer as directed. Generally the easiest way to do this is walk back in forth in straight lines across your lawn while spreading. If you go for the wild approach of just randomly walking all over, you’ll get uneven distribution which will cause problems.
Option 2: To Seed
Okay, you have a full scale disaster on your hands and there is no way you are waiting until fall to fill in your lawn. Let’s throw down some seed this Spring.
Number 1 thing to note, is no weed killer for you early spring. Just like it stops weeds from growing, the pre-emergent will keep your grass from growing.
Seed
Now, to pick your grass seed. As you do this, make sure you are thinking about your climate zone and what grasses are best for your location. Choosing grass types is a whole can of worms in itself, but the short version is to make sure to read the label to see if the grass will grow well in your region.
Jonathan Green – Part of this is the rebel in me, everyone always thinks Scotts when it comes to lawncare. They aren’t wrong, but I love the seed from Jonathan Green. In particular I think the Black Beauty Ultra is fantastic
Grass grows in nice and thick and with the darkest green color I’ve ever seen. You can check out their whole store they have lots of different options for things like if you have a section of your lawn that is very shady or heavy traffic areas.
Pro-Tip: Once you’ve picked out your grass seed and spread it, cover it with a thin layer of peat moss. This will help hold the seed in place and retain moisture.
Pro-Tip 2: Grass seed needs to be wet as much as possible, its suggested to do lots of short watering throughout the day to accomplish this. Too much at once may wash your seed away. This goes double for when temps start to rise, things will dry out real quick.
Fertilizer
You’ll need to switch up your fertilizer plan too if you decide to throw down seed. The seed and young grass can’t handle the harsher fertilizers, so you’ll want something lighter. There are lots of options here, but something like Scott’s Starter is a good option
Just like with normal grass fertilizer, more isn’t better. Follow the directions closely or you’ll give all that grass you do desperately need.
Just like that, you’re on your way to lawn glory. In no time you’ll look just like this couple, mowing the lawn together for some reason, and super jazzed about it.
