What’s Different About Spring Yard Work?
Why do spring yard clean up?
The idea behind spring yard work is the same as your typical household spring cleaning philosophy: out with the old, in with the new. The beginning of spring is a great time to take stock of your yard, do some yard maintenance, and get rid of any leftover debris from the winter season in order to make room for new growth in the warmer weather.
Although there’s a lot to accomplish in your spring yard clean up, one thing to keep in mind is that spring lawn care should be gentler than other seasons. You’ll want to add spring lawn maintenance to your spring yard clean up checklist. Spring is a sensitive time for your yard: The soil is likely damp or spongy this time of year, which means you should tread carefully — literally — during any yard clean up or yard maintenance. To avoid compacting your soil, wait until soil is no longer wet enough to form into a ball in your hand before you spend a lot of time walking on or maintaining your yard.
How Spring Lawn Care Benefits Your Yard
Adding lawn care to your spring yard clean up checklist can ensure your lawn stays green year round. When done properly, spring lawn clean up can give your yard the boost it needs to thrive throughout the entire warm weather season.
The main benefit of investing some time into spring lawn care is that it sets your yard up for a healthy growing season and gets it clean and ready for the new season. Taking care of your lawn in the spring can help prevent weed growth and encourages your grass roots to grow deep and strong — which results in a lawn that stays healthy and beautiful even when the weather is hot and dry.
Simply put, if you take the time to give your lawn a little extra love with a routine spring clean up — your yard and lawn will reap the benefits for months to come. Use these Spring yard cleaning tips to keep your lawn maintained.
Simple Spring Yard and Lawn Clean Up Tips
Spring yard work is all about timing and knowing the best yard cleanup tools and tips. Here are a few tips for early spring lawn care that will set your yard up for success as the weather continues to warm up.
Lawn Maintenance: Know Your Grass Type
Before you begin your spring yard clean up, it’s important to know what kind of grass is on your lawn so you can care for it properly and utilize the best spring lawn care tips.
• Cool-season grasses: A few examples of cool-season grasses include Kentucky Bluegrass, Bentgrass and Ryegrass. If your grass is a cool-season variety, it will have a moderate growth spurt in the spring so you’ll want to focus on strengthening it for the summer.
• Warm-season grasses: Varieties of warm-season grasses include Bermudagrass, Carpetgrass and Centipedegrass. Warm-season grasses don’t start growing until after the last spring frost so keep in mind that you shouldn’t start mowing until the grass has already started to grow.
Spring Lawn Cleaning: Wait to Fertilize
You might be tempted to start fertilizing the lawn the moment spring arrives, but if you fertilize a dormant lawn it can come back to bite you. Put lawn fertilization on your spring clean up checklist, but wait to fertilize your lawn until it starts to show signs of life — such as new growth and turning green — so you avoid feeding seeds of weeds that will compete for space in your soil. If you know exactly what kind of grass you have, you can also look up more specific fertilization guidelines for the best results.
To maintain a beautiful green lawn, check your lawn during your spring yard clean up routine, however, be sure it needs to be fertilized and know you can always wait until late spring or fall to clean it up with fertilizer.
Remove Yard Debris with Lawn Trash Bags
One of the first things you can do as the spring season kicks off is take some time for yard clean up to dispose of any debris around your yard that’s accumulated over the winter. Things like dead plants, branches, twigs, and leaves can be gathered up and placed in a compost bin, while things like rocks and litter can be thrown out in your strong Glad® Black Drawstring Bags to make spring yard cleaning easier. Use trash bags for heavier yard items and garbage and utilize composting to reduce yard trash waste. Learn how to make a compost bin for your yard scraps, plants, flowers, leaves and more.
Spring Clean Up Prep: Tune Your Mower
If you want to make lawn care less of a hassle in the later part of spring and throughout the summer, take the opportunity in early spring to do some routine cleaning maintenance of your lawn and gardening tools. Tune up your lawn mower by changing the oil, air filter, and spark plug, and sharpen its blades — and don’t forget to take time in the spring to sharpen the blades of tools like pruning shears and trowels, too.
Spring Clean Up Yard Landscaping
Once the season is in full swing and your soil is dry enough to handle more intensive spring maintenance, it’s time to get to work. Here are some tasks to add to your spring yard clean up checklist. For more details about yard maintenance checkout Glad’s DIY guide to yard work and waste clean up.
Step 1. Remove Thatch
Once your yard is dry, use a dethatching rake to remove thatch — AKA small pieces of dead grass — that has accumulated on top of your lawn. A regular yard rake will also work for this task, though it might not be as efficient if there’s a lot of thatch to remove. If you don’t remove thatch, it can build up and block essential things like sunlight, air, and moisture from reaching your grass, making it harder for your lawn to thrive.
Step 2. Prune Your Plants
Next, use the spring season to begin to clean up your existing flowers, shrubs, and other plants. Remove dead annuals and prune dead twigs and branches off of any perennials. If you don’t remove the dead bits, they could have a harder time getting proper amounts of sunlight, which can discourage new growth.
Step 3. Mow When the Time Is Right
Whether you’re eagerly awaiting or positively dreading the beginning of lawn mowing season or spring, it’s important to know when to start mowing. A good rule of thumb is to wait until it’s at least 40°F and your grass has grown 2–3 inches tall before you mow for the first time. Watch your lawn during the spring and clean it up when the time is right.
