From mowing height to how often to water, here are 4 lawn care tips for the spring

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Spring is the time for magnolias, daffodils, dogwoods, and such. Other than throwing a bag of weed and feed out there in spring, most people think of lawns as a summer thing. But spring is key to a quality lawn. It’s key to setting the lawn up to best handle the heat and drought and all the other insults we all know are coming down the road.

But these days, even the mention of a turfgrass lawn at a cocktail party can get you tarred and feathered by self-appointed neighborhood enforcers. “Lawns are Beelzebub incarnate” they say. “Zero biodiversity. Zero sustainability. Zero socially redeemable qualities.”

I beg to differ.

I have long been a defender of the lawn. It is a wonderful invention. Try fielding a ground ball on an infield of wildflowers. Kicking a soccer ball around the yard with the kids? Good luck on that one too. “That’s what parks are for” they might say. Well, that’s all fine and good if you happen to have a well-maintained city park half a block from your house.

Sure, lawns viewed in a bubble, don’t offer much biodiversity. They don’t offer precious honeybees much nectar to harvest. Certainly, someone sitting on a gas-powered mower 10 or 12 hours a week to mow 10 acres of lawn just for the heck of it doesn’t make much sense. But lawns don’t exist in a bubble. Integrated into a well-planned, diverse and varied landscape, lawns can be part of the kind of solution that seems so rare these days — a reasoned, intentional, and reasonable balance of varied interests. And if a lawn happens to encourage parents to get outside with their kids for a game of ball, maybe lawns even strengthen families.

But now to the lawn itself.

There are four main components that contribute to a quality lawn. And understanding each is essential to maintain a quality and ecologically sensible lawn.

How to improve soil quality in your lawn

Ok, this is the toughest one. It’s not very realistic to expect a new homeowner to excavate three feet of compacted construction rubble that so often exists as “soil” surrounding most residential homes — especially newly constructed homes. The only other approach is to employ what cultural measures you can to slowly and over time improve the soil environment below your lawn.

Using a mulching mower — a mower that carves up those leaf blades into tiny, quickly broken-down pieces, is a great place to start. As those grass blades slowly decompose, they release organic acids to the soil that help to improve soil structure, aeration and drainage. It’s a slow process but it does work over the long haul. In addition, managing your mowing height (see below) can greatly improve root growth and in turn help to move organic matter deeper into the soil horizon.

How often should you water your lawn?

We’re in April. Nobody is thinking about water — at least not about the kind referred to as irrigation. But as with all things, too much or too little of a good thing ...

Overly saturated soil in spring can lead to poor root growth and predispose lawns to take over by some weeds and attack by certain diseases. But you can’t just turn off the spring rains so how can you alleviate overabundance of water this time of year?

The best answer is by managing surface water. We always hear about grading soil to direct water away from the house’s foundation but we can do the same for the lawn.

If you have the potential to do some grading work, that’s a great fix. The more water you can keep from puddling in lawn areas, the better. But there’s another source of excess water that can lead to lawn problems — your downspouts.

Most houses come equipped with those 24-inch long gutter extenders that do a great job of directing the water away from the foundation but deposit all that stormwater right onto the lawn. Extending the downspouts to the curb or to a designated rain garden area through buried drain pipe can help a great deal. And if you go this direction, do yourself a favor and skip the cheap, black, corrugated pipe. It almost always collapses over time. Use a good quality PVC pipe with nice, smooth sides. You’ll be glad you did.

Which fertilizer should I use this spring?

As our houses continue to get bigger and our lots smaller, it gets harder and harder to even think about allowing all the rainfall on your plot of land to percolate into the soil. Some is going to run off and end up in a storm drain or local creek — and if you’re not careful, it will carry fertilizer nutrients along with it. Not a good thing for our collective interest in good water quality.

And fertilizing a lawn can be a tricky thing. It’s easy to get a soil test that will tell you much about the nutrients available to your growing grass. But for nitrogen, the most important nutrient when it comes to lawn health, a soil test normally tells you little to nothing. You can get recommendations on nitrogen needs from Cooperative Extension publications and elsewhere. But those recommendations don’t always tell you how to apply.

Any fertilizer applied incorrectly can lead to much, if not all of it, getting washed away in a spring thunderstorm. Organic fertilizers that break down and make nutrients available slowly, over the course of the growing season mean less of it running off into local streams. Soluble fertilizers are easily dissolved and washed away by strong spring rains so if you do use soluble mineral fertilizers, apply in small doses (I usually recommend one third to one quarter of package recommendations per application) applied in two or three week intervals rather than all at once.

Avoid applying before a significant rain. Apply when there’s little chance of rain and then gently water in with a sprinkler or your irrigation system.

How high should I cut my grass?

This is one of the most important ways to build a healthy lawn and reduce weed growth. In fact I’d go so far as to say that the lower height adjustment holes on your lawnmower should never be used. The lower you cut your lawn, the more you favor the weeds. The lower you cut your lawn the shallower the roots of your grass plants. The lower you cut your lawn, the more likely you will spend July and August pushing your lawnmower through a cloud of dust.

A 4-inch mowing height doesn’t mean you have to cut the lawn more often. It just means you’ll have a healthier and happier lawn.

Paul Cappiello is the executive director at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, 6220 Old Lagrange Road, yewdellgardens.org.