Lawn Care 2013

Posted on April 7, 2013 by admin

Step 1: Raking the Lawn

Ready to start!

April 7, 2013 – Rake, rake rake! I like to rake the lawn in the Spring, as much for cleaning the remaining dead leaves as thatching the dead grass. The instant gratification is that the lawn startes looking green! My scheme is to rake out the lawn, then spread lime pellets to adjust the pH and then spread some grass seed, hopefully getting a few days of rain between the lime and the seeding. The raking should clear out some of the dead grass as well as scrape the soil underneath making it more receptive to the lime and seeding. Plan to spend hours raking though on a sunny spring day, the work will go fast!

Step 2: Adjusting the pH

Pelletized Lime and garden spreader

All lawns in Northern New jersey are acidic, remember acid rain? Well acid rain plus other environmental factors cause the soil to be acidic which is great for roses or tomatoes, not so much for you lawn. I don’t use any pesticides or herbicides on my lawn, just a springtime addition of lime which seems to do wonders in making the lawn full and green, the bunnies seem to like the “organic” dandelions, a natural weed control. I set the broadcast spreader at about 9 1/2 for the pellet lime, this covered less than 1000 sq. ft.. I looked for another bag or two of palletized lime and no place in the area had it so I bought two bags of pulverized kime. The pelletized lime is easier to apply, but the pulverized white powder is harder to work with. So I filled my spreader about halfway with the white powder-like lime and changed the setting to 3 for the smaller particle size. A white cloud followed me and the spreader around the front lawn making white paths. That finished the front lawn and later in the day, thunderstorm and rain, perfect, ready for step 3: seeding!

Step 3: Seeding

Tools and supplis for lawn seeing

Tools and supplis for lawn seeing

Usually I just throw handfuls of seed onto the lawn concentrating on bare spots. I had a leftover bag of Scotts Turf Builder 18121 Sun & Shade Grass Seed Mix Bag, 7-Pound
from last year and decided use my Scotts 76121 Turf Builder EdgeGuard Mini Broadcast Spreader, 5000-Square-Foot Coverage
. I set the dial on the spreader to 3-1/2 and covered a large area with half of the seed bag.


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