Lawncare 101

OK, so it's that time for everyone to start posting about lawncare. This is our first spring in the house and I've never worked on a lawn before and have no idea what to do. I see posts with advice about doing things like "thatching", but I have no idea what that is or what tools you need for it. Step by step instructions on what you do to you lawns, why and with what would be appreciated. Thanks!

Oh, and any advice for keeping a lawn when you have a dog going on it would be helpful too!

Re: Lawncare 101

Thatching is removing the dead grass. You can either rent or buy a power rake and do it with that or you can rake it out yourself by hand (not fun ) but much cheaper. If you do it yourself then you really have to dig in with the rake and get the dead grass out.
You should do that first, then cut the lawn as short as possible, then put down a fertilizer with crabgrass preventer, then put down lime.
This is usually done in early spring.
You shouldn't have to cut the lawn again for a few weeks and you can set the lawn mower at a higher level for regular cutting.
Hope that helped!

Re: Lawncare 101

Posted by Gertyrae

Thatching is removing the dead grass. You can either rent or buy a power rake and do it with that or you can rake it out yourself by hand (not fun ) but much cheaper. If you do it yourself then you really have to dig in with the rake and get the dead grass out.
You should do that first, then cut the lawn as short as possible, then put down a fertilizer with crabgrass preventer, then put down lime.
This is usually done in early spring.
You shouldn't have to cut the lawn again for a few weeks and you can set the lawn mower at a higher level for regular cutting.
Hope that helped!

Re: Lawncare 101

that's why we have a landscaper. Both DH and I are clueless.

Re: Lawncare 101

Your lawncare depends on what type of sun your lawn gets...is it mostly shady or sunny, or a good mixture of both.

Lawns that are shady do not need crabgrass preventer (crabgrass doesn't grow in the shade)...and when you put crabgrass preventer down, you can't put down seed for the lawn...crabgrass preventer will also kill regular grass seed. So it regular seed for the lawn should be put down at a different time of the year than crabgrass preventer.

My family is in the garden center business....any questions, please feel free to FM me.


There's more to lawncare than what I wrote, that's just some basic info on crabgrass preventer.