By Rusty,

As winter fades away and the warmth of spring emerges, it's time to prepare your lawn for the season ahead. Here in North Florida, spring brings not only blooming flowers, but also some challenges for maintaining a healthy, appealing, and lush lawn. 

After going through over 20 years of watching lawns react to spring, we're here to share the top five lawn care tips that are specific to North Florida to help improve your lawn’s curb appeal.

1. Weed Invasion Defense:
With the onset of spring, the warmer temperatures create the perfect environment for weeds to thrive. To combat this, a combination of pre-emergent and post-emergent weed control is essential for your turf.

We also emphasize the importance of addressing weeds in mulch beds, as they can quickly spread and detract from your landscape's curb appeal.

The key for weed control, if you’re going to DIY it, is to learn the fundamentals before getting started. Every year, we average about 1-2 calls a week from a homeowner who says, “I bought something at the home improvement store, used it on my lawn, and now it’s all dying. What happened?!?”
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The common denominator in each of these calls is one or a combination of the following:

  • Used a product for the wrong type of grass (for example, they used a weed control product made for Bahia or Centipede on St. Augustine grass)
  • Used a product made for 10,000 sq ft of grass on 3,000 sq ft of grass. (basically overusing the product because they didn’t measure their lawn or didn’t read the label)
  • Used a combination of products that singularly would work fine, however when applied together on the lawn had an adverse effect.

The lesson from these other DIY mistakes is to learn the fundamentals before starting; which are to know your type (or types) of predominant turfgrasses, know the measurements of your lawn and rates for product you're applying, and lastly, know your products timelines of effectiveness. 

2. Spring Irrigation Tune-Up:
As temperatures rise, North Florida experiences a dry spell that catches many homeowners off guard. Often, irrigation systems have been reduced or turned off during the winter months, leading to drought stress on lawns when temperatures increase in March.

Many homeowners also neglect servicing their sprinkler system, using the ‘set it and forget it’ mentality - not adjusting for seasonal changes or servicing it to ensure it’s covering properly.

Regular servicing and seasonal checkups are crucial to ensure your irrigation system is functioning efficiently and preventing dry patches in your yard. 

Without the proper amount of moisture in your lawn, fertilizer and weed control will have a negative effect on your turf’s health. 

3. Preventing Pests:
Springtime brings the awakening of pests that can wreak havoc on your lawn if left unchecked. Chinch bugs, Mole Crickets, and other landscape pests can cause a lot of St. Augustine, Zoysia, and Bermuda grass damage quickly if left to a reactive approach to landscape pest control.

Whether you DIY or want to partner with a local north florida pest control service such as ours, it is vital during the growing season to protect your lawn. If you choose the DIY route, be sure to use preventive measures rather than relying solely on contact products after you have an infestation.

Integrated Pest Management practices such as proper mowing height and irrigation management play a major part in preventing lawn insect damage. 

4. Soil and Lawn Nutrition:
Proper fertilization is key to promoting lush, healthy growth in your lawn. By timing fertilizer applications correctly in the spring, you can provide your turf with the essential nutrients it needs to thrive.

The result? A vibrant, dark green lawn that enhances your outdoor space.

If your home is new construction (within the past 3-5 years) or fertilization isn’t offering the results you desire, you might consider topdressing to boost your soil nutrition. Soil’s pH and poor quality can make fertilizer wasted due to the turf’s inability to take up nutrients.

Topdressing with quality soil makes a major difference for lawns suffering through that.

5. Bed Definition:
Don't overlook the importance of well-defined bed edges and crisp bed lines to give your landscape great curb appeal. Tidying up your landscape with defined beds and fresh mulch not only improves the health of the landscape long-term, but also elevates your curb appeal immediately.

The contrast from a green lawn to defined dark mulch beds gives attention to detail that makes your landscape stand out and make a lasting impression.

As you prepare your lawn for the spring season, remember that investing in professional lawn care services can save you time, effort, and frustration. The Master’s is dedicated to helping you achieve a healthy, beautiful lawn that you can enjoy year-round.

For personalized advice and assistance, our lawn and pest control professionals are ready to help! Contact us now at (352) 378-5296 or (904) 913-5296 or fill out our form at the top of the page, we would love to help!

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By Rusty,

Spring marks the start of a new growing season. It's time to get out there and tackle some spring lawn fundamentals to set you and your grass up for success before season fully kicks into gear. Putting in a little extra work now is going to mean less time, frustration, and possibly even money spent later on trying to rescue your lawn. Do what you can to build a strong lawn foundation this spring, it's worth it.

PREP YOUR GAINESVILLE LAWN LIKE A PRO

Clear off your turf

  • Remove any leaves or debris on the lawn. Blowing is preferred to raking (to not pull at stolons) but lightly raking will do. This will allow for quicker soil warm up and ensure enough sunlight reaches your grass.

Install Plugs or Sod in Bare spots

  • Fill in your lawn's bare areas. Patching bare spots will help prevent weed growth and will give you a thick, full lawn as the plugs/sod spreads. Very few of our grass types are seedable, so St. Augustine and Zoysia have to be plugged or sodded. As those plugs grow in, they will crowd out weeds and need less weed control naturally.

Fine tune your irrigation system

  • Start with a sprinkler system check, or a "wet check," which should be done several times annually. This helps assure you aren't wasting water on paved surfaces and plants are getting proper coverage. Make sure all sprinkler heads are functioning, reaching their target range, and aren’t blocked by plant growth or debris. Keep an eye on your sprinklers as the season goes on to stay on top of any problems - because improper irrigation is where most pests and diseases start.

Set Your Sprinkler Timer for Spring

  • Your Gainesville Sprinkler system should've been turned down to 1 day per week or less for winter, but spring is Gainesville Landscape's driest season. Watering properly over the next 3 months will set your lawn up for major success this year. Bump your watering days to 2 days per week (Depending upon address below) and make sure to increase your watering times too.
irrigation time restrictions table

Sharpen your Mower blades

  • Dull mower blades tug on grass roots and stress grass blades out . Also, a well-sharpened mower blade will chop grass clippings finely, making for easy decomposition to enrich the soil. That’s if you’re grass-cycling, if you aren’t you should definitely check it out (free nutrients!). For an average lawn, blades should be sharpened every couple months. Why not start with spring?

Watch for Weeds through Season

  • Young weeds are weaker and easier to tackle than grown up weeds. Whether you are pulling them out or using our lawn health service, early weed control is always better than letting them get established. Spring is a great time to get in the habit of looking out for weeds. Once a month assessing your lawn would probably go a long way to keeping them in check.

Should I aerate my lawn or not?

  • If your soil is compact and it’s affecting your grass’ ability to grow, Spring is a great time for Gainesville aeration. Aeration helps soils to allow oxygen, water, and nutrients to penetrate past the topsoil and reach the root zone, but aeration is not for all lawns. Liquid Aeration is actually proving to last longer and have better effects on your lawn than manual core aeration, and we are always testing new products coming out on the market to increase your lawn health and mnimize costs associated with doing so. Gainesville Liquid aeration has proved as one those examples.

Frequently Observing Your Lawn 

  • Lawn problems usually can be reduced greatly when they are spotted and resolved early. Spending regular time in your lawn making observations can help you and your Gainesville lawn spraying company stay ahead of lawn issues.

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