A Year of Lawn Care in the Linden Valley, Month by Month

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This is the calendar our crews work from for the cool-season lawns that make up most of Larkhaven — tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass. Dates shift a week or two with the weather each year. Soil temperature and how the grass is growing matter more than the date on the calendar.

January and February: plan and prune

• Stay off frozen or soggy turf. Walking on frosted grass breaks the blades and leaves brown footprints.
• Prune deciduous trees and summer-flowering shrubs while they're dormant and you can see the branch structure. Leave spring bloomers like lilac and forsythia until after they flower.
• Service the mower. Sharpen the blade, change the oil and replace the air filter and spark plug before the spring rush.
• Plan projects. Patios, walls and new beds are easiest to schedule if you design them over the winter.

March: cleanup and soil test

• Rake lightly to lift matted grass and clear winter debris once the ground has firmed up.
• Take a soil test. It tells you pH and whether your lawn needs phosphorus or potassium. Most valley soils run slightly acidic; lime only if a test says to.
• Clean out beds and cut back last year's perennials and ornamental grasses to a few inches above the crown.
• First mow comes late in the month for most lawns, at about 3 inches to clean up winter tips.

April: crabgrass preventer and irrigation startup

• Apply crabgrass preventer when soil reaches about 55°F for several days in a row — in the valley that's usually when the forsythia finishes blooming, around mid-April. Remember: it also stops grass seed. Skip it on areas you plan to seed.
• Start up irrigation. Open the main valve slowly, a quarter turn at a time, to avoid a pressure spike. Run each zone, check every head for cracks or clogs, and adjust anything spraying the house or the street.
• Raise the mowing height to 3 to 3.5 inches as growth picks up.
• Edge beds and refresh mulch to 2 to 3 inches deep total. Don't add more if there's already 3 inches from last year — rake and fluff what's there instead.

May: the first heavy growth

• Mow every five to seven days. Cool-season grass grows fastest now. Follow the one-third rule: never remove more than a third of the blade at once.
• Feed lightly if needed. A modest spring feeding helps a thin lawn. A heavy one pushes leafy growth that struggles in July.
• Spot-treat broadleaf weeds like dandelions while they're actively growing.
• Plant annuals after the last frost date, usually early May in the valley.

June: mow high and set the watering habit

• Raise the deck to 3.5 to 4 inches. Taller grass shades the soil and keeps it cool.
• Water about an inch a week, including rain, in two or three deep sessions, early in the morning.
• Check for grubs late in the month if you've had damage before. Preventive grub control goes down in June or early July, only on lawns with a history of grubs.

July and August: protect, don't push

• Don't fertilize cool-season grass in the heat. It forces growth the plant can't support.
• Let it go dormant, or water it — don't flip-flop. A dormant lawn needs about half an inch every two weeks to keep the crowns alive.
• Keep the blade sharp and avoid mowing in the hottest part of the day.
• Watch for brown patch. Circular tan patches with a darker edge after hot, humid nights. Water only in the morning and avoid evening irrigation.
• Book fall aeration in August. The best weeks fill early.

September: the most important month

• Core aerate and overseed from late August through early October, when soil is warm and nights are cool. This is the single best thing you can do for a cool-season lawn.
• Keep new seed moist with light daily watering for about three weeks.
• Feed. If you only fertilize once a year, this is the time.
• Hold off on weed control in seeded areas until the new grass has been mowed three or four times.

October: leaves and late feeding

• Mulch-mow light leaf layers weekly; move heavy ones off the lawn.
• Treat perennial broadleaf weeds in established lawns. They're pulling energy down to their roots now, so treatments work better than in spring.
• Plant trees, shrubs and spring bulbs. The soil is still warm enough for roots to grow.

November: winterize and the last mow

• Winterize irrigation before the first hard freeze, usually early to mid-November. Shut off the water supply to the system, drain or blow out the lines with compressed air, and protect the backflow preventer. Water left in the pipes can split them when it freezes. (We blow out systems for customers; if you do it yourself, keep the air pressure low, around 50 psi for most residential systems.)
• Last mow at about 3 inches so the lawn doesn't mat down under snow.
• Final leaf cleanup — clear lawns and beds of heavy leaf layers before winter.
• A late fertilizer application after the grass stops growing but before the ground freezes helps spring green-up on many lawns.

December: rest

• Clean and store tools, run the mower out of fuel or add stabilizer.
• Go easy with de-icing salt near the lawn and beds. Calcium magnesium acetate or sand is easier on plants than rock salt.
• Keep heavy snow piles off shrubs and the same spots of lawn all winter.

If you're on a Full Season plan, everything on this list that involves the lawn is already on your schedule, and your visit reports in the portal will show what was done and when.