UPDATE - added a small guide on how to plant grass
Hey Neogaf yard-havers, Spring is finally here, and you know what that means: Spring cleanup time! It's time to get off your bum and start raking up all the leftover sticks and leaves from last fall, and get your lawn ready for Summer.
Why am I making this thread? Well, I've been working as a landscaper between (and during) semesters for the past 8 years (started in highschool, now we here), and I've accumulated a fair bit of yard-tending knowledge over this period. I've been doing spring cleanups for the past few weeks, and would like to pass on some of my commercial knowledge so as many gaffers as possible can have a perfect yard this year!
First off, we're gonna need some equipment. I'm gonna order these by necessity. If you're poor as hell, all you really need is a spring rake and a tarp (or trash container if you don't have a place to dump), but a few more pieces of equipment can make all the difference.
EQUIPMENT
Number 1 - SPRING RAKE
Get you one of the metal ones. You'll thank me later.
Number 2 - TARP
Smaller is honestly better. (somewhere around 3-4' x 6' is my sweet spot. It's also good to have a larger one on deck) Don't be fooled by the landscapers using those big green trashcans to move leaves around. It's 100x easier to rake stuff onto a tarp and sling it over your back than it is to lug those green monstrosities around.
Number 3 - GLOVES
A good pair of gloves can make a huge difference. I use these Kobalt (Lowe's brand) gloves because they have an extra bit of leather covering the parts of the glove that tend to wear down first. That grey backing breathes super nice, too.
Trust me on this one.
Number 4 - EDGER
If you have beds. Use an ice scraper. You'll be surprised. Can double as a weed-removal tool.
Number 5 - IRON RAKE
Not necessary, but so soooo useful. Get one of these if you have mulched beds in your yard.
Number 6 - SUNSCREEN AND/OR HAT
This one goes without saying. Kiss My Face is a good brand. You don't want skin cancer. I don't want skin cancer. No one wants skin cancer. Don't go above 30spf.
Okay, now that we have the basic equipment down, you're gonna want to go out and pick all the sticks and leaves out of the corners of your yard with the aforementioned rake and tarp. If you've never used a tarp before to clean a yard up, you're welcome.
Now comes the important part:
DE-THATCH YOUR LAWN!!!
Your grass has been sitting dormant all winter, so now it needs some air. Last summer was one of the hottest and driest in years, so chances are you had a lot of dead grass. Well, all that dead grass needs to be cleared away to make room for new growth, so you're gonna have to scrape it all up and get rid of that thatch. There are two ways to do this: You can use your metal spring rake to roughly scratch up the lawn (don't be afraid to really dig in there; you can't really hurt your grass that bad). Or, you can visit your local equipment store and rent a push de-thatcher. They kind of suck to use, but are 100x better than manually scraping your entire lawn with a spring rake. It's worth the rental fee. While you're there, rent a backpack blower to blow all the thatch into piles, or into your woods. These are HUGE time-savers.
You can either rake all of the thatch onto a tarp, or leave it to blow in the wind and decay eventually. Raking it all up looks better, so I prefer to do it that way, but if you're lazy, you can just let it all sit and it'll disappear soon enough. The important bit was scratching everything up so the grass can breathe.
SO. You've got all the sticks and leaves raked up, and the lawn is freshly de-thatched and looking ready to go. Now what? Now, you FERTILIZE.
Fertilizing tips:
If you have a problem with crab grass and weeds in your lawn, you should find a fertilizer with "crab grass control" in it. Otherwise, just good ol' fashioned fertilizer will do the trick. I'm not a fertilizer expert (as I work landscaping, not fertilizing), so you should honestly just look up a lawncare fertilizing guide if you plan on doing it yourself for the year. However, if you can afford it, I'd highly recommend paying a local company to regularly fertilize your lawn. It makes a huge difference.
SO. Your yard is cleaned up and your grass is fertilized and ready to grow. Now what?
Now you get your BEDS ready, silly.
Bed Care
If you have mulched beds in your yard, you're going to want to edge these ASAP. Grab that ice scraper, or an edger, or even a flat shovel, and get to work. See that bed pictured above? Notice how the mulch goes to the bottom of the edges, leaving a noticeable wall going up to the grass above? This is what you should be aiming for. Get your edges nice and deep, and use the aforementioned iron rake to pull the dirt away from your edges so that there's plenty of room to put mulch down without drowning those edges out. Oh, and while you're at it, use that edger to pry weeds out of the bed and make sure to rake those up before you're done.
Now you're gonna want to get some weed prevention down. I swear by the PREEN brand of weed preventers. It comes in bags, and you just sprinkle a generous amount all over your bed BEFORE mulching and it kills all those weed seeds dead. Preen will also prevent seeds that you *want* to grow from growing, so make sure you keep it away from your garden. If you can find the commercial PREEN PLUS, then snap that stuff up fast, because it works twice as well as the homeowner's version of Preen. Make sure to wear a latex or nitrile glove when spreading, though, because it's not good for your skin.
Well, congratulations, you're done for now! It's still a bit too early to be mulching, but if you clean up your yard, fertilize, edge and prep your beds, you should be ahead of the game. And if it's mulching season at your place, then get to it! Mulching's pretty self-explanatory. Just make sure those edges have room to breathe once all that mulch is down.
Hey Neogaf yard-havers, Spring is finally here, and you know what that means: Spring cleanup time! It's time to get off your bum and start raking up all the leftover sticks and leaves from last fall, and get your lawn ready for Summer.
Why am I making this thread? Well, I've been working as a landscaper between (and during) semesters for the past 8 years (started in highschool, now we here), and I've accumulated a fair bit of yard-tending knowledge over this period. I've been doing spring cleanups for the past few weeks, and would like to pass on some of my commercial knowledge so as many gaffers as possible can have a perfect yard this year!
First off, we're gonna need some equipment. I'm gonna order these by necessity. If you're poor as hell, all you really need is a spring rake and a tarp (or trash container if you don't have a place to dump), but a few more pieces of equipment can make all the difference.
EQUIPMENT
Number 1 - SPRING RAKE
Get you one of the metal ones. You'll thank me later.
Number 2 - TARP
Smaller is honestly better. (somewhere around 3-4' x 6' is my sweet spot. It's also good to have a larger one on deck) Don't be fooled by the landscapers using those big green trashcans to move leaves around. It's 100x easier to rake stuff onto a tarp and sling it over your back than it is to lug those green monstrosities around.
Number 3 - GLOVES
A good pair of gloves can make a huge difference. I use these Kobalt (Lowe's brand) gloves because they have an extra bit of leather covering the parts of the glove that tend to wear down first. That grey backing breathes super nice, too.
Trust me on this one.
Number 4 - EDGER
If you have beds. Use an ice scraper. You'll be surprised. Can double as a weed-removal tool.
Number 5 - IRON RAKE
Not necessary, but so soooo useful. Get one of these if you have mulched beds in your yard.
Number 6 - SUNSCREEN AND/OR HAT
This one goes without saying. Kiss My Face is a good brand. You don't want skin cancer. I don't want skin cancer. No one wants skin cancer. Don't go above 30spf.
Okay, now that we have the basic equipment down, you're gonna want to go out and pick all the sticks and leaves out of the corners of your yard with the aforementioned rake and tarp. If you've never used a tarp before to clean a yard up, you're welcome.
Now comes the important part:
DE-THATCH YOUR LAWN!!!
Your grass has been sitting dormant all winter, so now it needs some air. Last summer was one of the hottest and driest in years, so chances are you had a lot of dead grass. Well, all that dead grass needs to be cleared away to make room for new growth, so you're gonna have to scrape it all up and get rid of that thatch. There are two ways to do this: You can use your metal spring rake to roughly scratch up the lawn (don't be afraid to really dig in there; you can't really hurt your grass that bad). Or, you can visit your local equipment store and rent a push de-thatcher. They kind of suck to use, but are 100x better than manually scraping your entire lawn with a spring rake. It's worth the rental fee. While you're there, rent a backpack blower to blow all the thatch into piles, or into your woods. These are HUGE time-savers.
You can either rake all of the thatch onto a tarp, or leave it to blow in the wind and decay eventually. Raking it all up looks better, so I prefer to do it that way, but if you're lazy, you can just let it all sit and it'll disappear soon enough. The important bit was scratching everything up so the grass can breathe.
SO. You've got all the sticks and leaves raked up, and the lawn is freshly de-thatched and looking ready to go. Now what? Now, you FERTILIZE.
Fertilizing tips:
If you have a problem with crab grass and weeds in your lawn, you should find a fertilizer with "crab grass control" in it. Otherwise, just good ol' fashioned fertilizer will do the trick. I'm not a fertilizer expert (as I work landscaping, not fertilizing), so you should honestly just look up a lawncare fertilizing guide if you plan on doing it yourself for the year. However, if you can afford it, I'd highly recommend paying a local company to regularly fertilize your lawn. It makes a huge difference.
SO. Your yard is cleaned up and your grass is fertilized and ready to grow. Now what?
Now you get your BEDS ready, silly.
Bed Care
If you have mulched beds in your yard, you're going to want to edge these ASAP. Grab that ice scraper, or an edger, or even a flat shovel, and get to work. See that bed pictured above? Notice how the mulch goes to the bottom of the edges, leaving a noticeable wall going up to the grass above? This is what you should be aiming for. Get your edges nice and deep, and use the aforementioned iron rake to pull the dirt away from your edges so that there's plenty of room to put mulch down without drowning those edges out. Oh, and while you're at it, use that edger to pry weeds out of the bed and make sure to rake those up before you're done.
Now you're gonna want to get some weed prevention down. I swear by the PREEN brand of weed preventers. It comes in bags, and you just sprinkle a generous amount all over your bed BEFORE mulching and it kills all those weed seeds dead. Preen will also prevent seeds that you *want* to grow from growing, so make sure you keep it away from your garden. If you can find the commercial PREEN PLUS, then snap that stuff up fast, because it works twice as well as the homeowner's version of Preen. Make sure to wear a latex or nitrile glove when spreading, though, because it's not good for your skin.
Well, congratulations, you're done for now! It's still a bit too early to be mulching, but if you clean up your yard, fertilize, edge and prep your beds, you should be ahead of the game. And if it's mulching season at your place, then get to it! Mulching's pretty self-explanatory. Just make sure those edges have room to breathe once all that mulch is down.
Use the same gloves btw and they're great
