It’s fair to assume most homeowners would like a healthy, green lawn. Not only does a well-maintained yard improve the curb appeal of your home, but it’s also a source of pride for many of us. Fortunately, maintaining your lawn isn’t rocket science, but it does require a bit of effort. 

In order for your St. Charles County lawn to grow thick, evenly, and, most importantly, healthy, you’ll need to adhere to the following seasonal lawn maintenance tips. 

Importance of Lawn Maintenance

Many homeowners believe they can water their lawns once or twice a week and call it a day, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. Without proper maintenance, your lawn can quickly go from green to dormant. Not only is a dormant, unmaintained lawn a neighborhood eyesore, but it can also hurt your home’s resale value if you’re planning to list it. Additionally, like all plants, a healthy lawn can help improve air quality by removing carbon dioxide.  

St. Charles County Seasonal Lawn Maintenance Tips

Spring Lawn Care

Spring is the most important season when it comes to caring for your lawn. Why is this? Well for Midwestern cities like St. Charles, O’Fallon, or St. Peters, grasses have laid dormant since early winter. When the winter frost subsides, your lawn is essentially “hungry” and requires proper nutrients in order to grow strong, healthy roots. It is important to fertilize in the spring in order to make your lawn better resistant to pests, drought, and disease. However, it is important to rake out dead grass and debris from winter before the fertilizer application. This includes sticks, leaves, weeds – anything that could impede early grass growth after fertilizing.

According to most lawn care experts, it’s never too early to start watering your grass. When it comes to mowing, it is important to set your mower at its highest setting. This will promote grassroots to grow deeper instead of the plant needs to focus its energy on regrowing the grass blades. Aim to cut no more than ⅓ of your grass’ height during the spring. Additionally, spring is one of the best times to overseed patchy or thin areas. 

Summer Lawn Care

If you prepped your lawn during the spring, your yard should be in good shape heading into summer. Due to Missouri’s hot, scorching summers, it’s incredibly important to continually water your lawn. Experts recommend watering between the hours of 6 am and 10 am a minimum of three times a week. Any later in the day and you risk wasting water (and your money) due to summer heat and evaporation. Continue to mow your lawn high during the summer to promote healthy root growth. 

Fall Lawn Care

Grass types found throughout St. Charles and O’Fallon counties are considered “cool season” grasses. Cool season grasses are capable of surviving extreme temperature fluctuations, such as freezing winters and scorching summers. However, they typically grow best in the autumn months when temperatures are milder. 

In order to prepare your lawn for the winter months, homeowners should apply a fall fertilizer around labor day and once again 6 to 8 weeks later. This will help ensure your lawn has the nutrients needed to last all winter long. Fall is also the time when you can begin cutting your lawn shorter, as its root system is fully developed. Lastly, make sure to rake and remove leaves, brush, and other debris from your lawn before winter hits.

Winter Lawn Care

In moderate climates with extreme winters like St. Charles, lawns go dormant. If you’ve properly maintained your lawn up until this point, there isn’t a whole lot left for you to do. Try to minimize foot traffic on a dormant lawn. While a moderate amount of traffic is fine, a heavily worn area will cause compaction and be slower to green in the spring.

Is your lawn properly maintained?

Maintaining a healthy lawn isn’t rocket science, but it does require time and effort. If you can manage that, great! However, if you’d rather not get your hands dirty and let a professional take care of it instead, give Greenside Lawn Care a call at 314-479-4005 for a free lawn maintenance quote.

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