JW: They say that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but what if you want the grass to be nice and green on your side of the fence? I'm Judy Wagley. This is “From the Ground Up!” Brent Schultz is the manager at North Star Gardens here in Gaylord, and he knows a thing or two about lawn care. Brent, what should we be doing in the spring time to get our lawns ready for the season?
BS: Spring time is really quite simple here. With lawn care, the first thing you want to do is rake the lawn. You want to get the snow mold the snow fungus up off the grass, gently raking the lawn--or a lot of people just drive their tractor over the lawn and mow it for the first time to clean it up. You're doing a spring clean up by raking the lawn early in the spring. You get the debris up. You let the air and the moisture and the nutrients get down to the soil. Really a light raking or a light mowing is the very first thing to do. Obviously you're going to clean the leaves out of the beds around the house, and the leaves out of the grass. Most lawns, that's all there is to the first step of spring. Then we'll get into mowing and watering later in the year.
JW: What about applying any fertilizer this time of year, or even seeding the lawn?
BS: Yes, after the spring cleanup is done is when you can overseed the lawn for some bare spots. You can start a fertility program absolutely as necessary. Lawns and turf are living things, they need nutrients just like people. So here in Northern Michigan we have a five-step fertility program. If you've had a weed problem, there's some granular weed control or some liquid weed controls. But the biggest thing in the spring is getting a crabgrass preventer down. Crabgrass comes up later in the year when it's hot and dry. But in order to control crab grass, if you've had that problem, you have to put a pre-emergent down early in the spring. So spring cleanup, a little crabgrass preventer with some fertilizer and then every five or six weeks apply a fertilizer to the lawn to feed the lawn. Proper mowing is next. A lot of people like to mow their lawn real short. That's not great for the lawn. Turf likes to be cut off at a certain height regularly. So regular mowings with a sharp blade is very important. Dull blades tear instead of a clean cut, and that allows for disease and fungus to get into the turf, and then it's just watering throughout the rest of the summer. Watering should be done early in the morning instead of late afternoon. It's convenient for most of us to water at night, and that's fine as long as the sprinklers come on at two or three in the morning and shut off right around morning time so that the sun can dry out. We don't want wet, damp grass going into the heat part of the day. Really, that's what there is to taking care of a lawn here in northern Michigan.
JW: You make it sound so easy! And I must confess that my plants in my garden, my plants, my flowers, herbs and vegetables get much more attention than my grass. So you've been an inspiration.
BS: Thank you. The only other footnote on spring-time, turf maintenance is if you've had a problem in the past with your lawn-- after you do the spring cleanup, you should pull a soil sample. Get a soil sample into your local nursery or ag department. They can tell you exactly what the turf, the soil needs. And that fertility program that you're going to start then would be specific for your lawn.
JW: Brent, it sounds like the grass can be greener on your side of the fence! Thanks so much for joining me today for “From the Ground Up!”
BS: Absolutely. Thanks for talking with us. See you out in the yard!
