NWI Late Spring Lawn Care Tips
Being as the month of May is well underway, you guys have most definitely (hopfully) gotten out and started trying to salvage your lawns for the season. The winter here can kick your crowns for real … but that just makes for a fun and rewarding challenge — It is lawn care season whether you like it or not, and this should be the year you win the battle against the weeds and crab grass!!!
In fact, my friend and fellow Crown Point resident Chris Hedges has been Tweeting with me about his lawn fertilizing efforts thus far, results expected and so-forth (he is doing well too BTW) — so I figured I’d write a quick note to give you all some pro tips on turning that little patch of love into something green and pretty! (yeah I am a lawn pro in the real world – which means I hold Indiana and Illinois pesticide application licensing and cool stuff like that LOL … I drive a big diesel truck too 
… watch out for the short dude in the big white Ford LOL) .. oh, and here is a picture of my lawn, in case you were wondering:
Lawn Tips – Green It Up
I have written a complete step-by-step lawn care ebook you can get here for $7 and the tips that follow are just a couple that come from that book. Keep reading too because I am going to show you some pics from another friend of mine’s lawn who has followed my tips.
Above All, Aerate The Lawn
If your lawn is a perfect freen golf course, or a recovering corn field, you need to aerate! In fact, I will probably mention aeration in at least 5 out of 6 articles I write because it is just that important.
Aeration is a 100% chemical free mechanical process whereby a large machine is used to punch and remove cores of soil from the lawn space. These cores are left deposited on top of the lawn when finished. Aerating the lawn will do a couple things for you included:
Relieve Soil Compaction: in Crown Point and much of Lake County we have clay soil that gets hard like a freaking clay pot in the summer heat. You can’t grow grass on something that hardened! If you aerate, you are helping to relive that compaction and allow grass roots to spread out.
Break Down Thatch: thatch is a layer of dead and decayed organic material in every lawn that resides just above the soil line. We want some thatch in the lawn but if it gets too thick (more than 1/2 inch) then grass roots will grow in the thatch layer instead of in the soil causing a spongy effect that will very quickly thin out the lawn. Aerating puts holes in this thatch layer, enough to keep it under control.
Use Lawn Starter Fertilizer
This is a big secret we pros use on lawns that are in the crappiest condition. Get fertilizer that is labeled “starter fertilizer” and put that on your existing lawn and see what happens. Trust me, the extra potassium and phosphorus in that fert, along with the nitrogen will do wonders for your grass. Scott’s Starter Fertilizer is available at most Home Depot or Lowes stores. Lay this down at a 3lbs per 1,000 sq ft of lawn rate, water it in and send me a picture of the results! Trust me!
Add Iron
A couple weeks after your starter fertilizer application, you should apply an organic fertilizer that contains some iron. Iron is a micro nutrient that makes Kentucky BlueGrass look blue for real! (90% of you who read this: your lawn is KY blue) If your lawn is dark blue, it will surely stand out from the neighbors’! In the book, I tell you of my favorite organic iron source and where to get it. The reason we want organic sources or iron is because they are chelated and won’t stain your sidewalks or driveway.
So get out this week and make sure you apply that fert and aerate that lawn, you can do both in the same day back-to-back. Your lawn will surely “thank” you and your neighbors will appreciate it too! Look below for some “before” and “after” pics of a lawn in Crown Point that a buddy of mine did following my step-by-step program. (this is after just two treatments)
Front Lawn Before Treatment
Front Lawn Before Again
After 2 Treatments – Front Lawn
After 2 Treatments – Front Lawn Again
Back Lawn Before Treatments
Back Lawn After First Two Lawn Treatments
So you can see here the dramatic results, and these are just after two simple treatments and some zone spraying of weeds. My buddy did these treatments following my instructions. Very simple and great results! Make those lawns beautiful guys!
I’m enjoying seeing the lawn advice in action. My yard is a recovering corn field that loves to pump out all sorts of vicious weeds (big thick ones that laugh at the lawn mover) and also is filled with that lovely Crown Point clay.
I’ve noticed a difference since spraying for weeds and putting down some lawn fertilizer — I still need to aerate to break up the ground and thatch as well as throw down the starter fert to get things going really well. (I wish I had done that this weekend since it has been raining overnight and this morning).
Since fertilizing, my lawn doesn’t look that much different than the neighbors’ lawns — and they have professional lawn care services that come out every so often to spray fertilizer.
Last year, we overseeded with a blend of three types of grass seeds, instead of just the standard KY bluegrass. The thought was that having different varieties would protect against disease. (Plus we were having fun scooping seed out of bins with all sorts of fun names that I can’t remember now).
Is it too late to overseed this year, or should I wait until the fall when the weather will be cooler?
Hey Chris,
sorry I didn’t respond here any sooner.. I am such a bad blogger!
you should def wait until fall to seed now. You need to get that crab grass pre-emergent down too, like yesterday!
Hit me up on Twitter if ya need some specifics!
AL