Do It Yourself 💪

Many of my clients ask for advice on how to manage their own lawns by themselves. Fortunately, having a beautiful, low-maintenance lawn is easier than you think! Here’s most of what I recommend:

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Minimum Viable Lawn Maintenance

If you want the executive summary, here's how to get decent results with minimal effort:

1. Mow your lawn on the tallest setting you can, at least once a week, using a blade that is sharpened at least once a season, and do NOT bag the clippings.
2. Get a broadcast spreader and put down fertilizer 2-3 times per year. See below for more info.
3. You don't need to water your lawn unless it's sunny and +80°F for a few days. When you do, water it first thing in the morning for at least 30 minutes in each zone.

Most common lawn problems can be avoided by having a long, thick canopy of grass. It shades out weeds and allows the grass to flourish, and also does a decent job keeping the soil moist after it rains so you don't need to water.

Shorter lawns invite weeds. Over-watering, watering at night and using dull mower blades invites disease. If you don't fertilize, the soil will become exhausted over time and your lawn will get thinner and weaker.

Do those things, and you'll be well on your way to having a great lawn!

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Lawn Chemicals

There's really too much to say about lawn chemicals to do it justice on my website. But there are generally two pretty safe lawn chemical regiments I recommend for my clients:

1. Milorganite: Organic-ish (not technically USDA certified, see their FAQ, but the closest you'll get without spending a ton). Made from refined sewage by the city of Milwaukee (really!), it has tons of iron and micronutrients that help your lawn stay resilient and give it a deep, dark green color. Really hard to screw it up or over-do it, probably the best bet for most beginners.
2. Scotts 4-Step: A tried-and-true American classic. If you go to the hardware store, they'll usually have whatever the currently correct step is on display. Scotts aims to take out most of the guesswork about all of the various chemicals you may want to add to your lawn throughout the season.

For either of these programs, you'll need to have a rotary spreader, and a basic understanding of the square footage of each area of your lawn, so you know how much product to put down, following the recommended rate on the bag.

You'll also probably want a heavy-duty scale to weigh the product, to ensure you're using the correct amount for the area you're planning to cover. Some people eyeball it to get "close enough" but I always use a scale to get it right.

Please do NOT buy any of the Scotts spreaders (even the "elite" one). They are cheap, overseas garbage that do not stay calibrated properly and have all sorts of issues spreading a consistent layer of product, which leads to weird stripes and can even kill your grass.

I used an EarthWay 2600A-Plus 40lb walk-behind spreader. It can hold a lot of product, has large pneumatic tires that handle bumps with ease, and -- importantly -- does not use a cable to control the opening, so it never stretches or comes out of calibration. It survived years bumping around in the back of my truck and will probably last your lifetime.

You can measure your front & back lawn using Google Maps satellite view. Right-click, and "Measure Distance", then click around the perimeter of your lawn to add points to the polygon. Once you close it by clicking back on the initial point, it will display the total area. Round up to the nearest 500 sqft.

More info: understanding N-P-K numbers on the bag

Any bag of fertilizer will have three large numbers on it, separated by dashes. These represent the three main macronutrients found in all fertilizers: Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. To keep it simple:

• You usually want a fertilizer with high nitrogen (ie a higher "first" number) for most of your applications.
• When seeding, you want to use a fertilizer that has high phosphorus (ie a higher "second" number, or sometimes all three numbers are balanced).
• To help your lawn handle the stress of summer, you want a fertilizer that has high potassium (ie a higher "third" number).

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Annual Calendar

To give you a rough idea of what to do -- and when to do it -- in northeast Ohio.

❄️ Early Spring (March)

Once the forecast doesn't show any more days below freezing, it's a good idea to help "wake up" your lawn:

1. cleanup: Pickup branches, blow leaves & rake up the grass to help clear out "snow mold".
2. mow: Your first mow of the season is one of the few times you should bag the clippings to pick up any leftover winter debris. It also helps clear out any grass diseases.
3. fertilize: Get your first fertilizer down to help kick start the grass so it can out-compete the weeds (as long as there's no more frost in the forecast!).

🌷 Mid Spring (April)

This is when the rain is picking up and weed pressure is the highest. You may need to mow your lawn twice a week since it'll be growing fast. Extra mowing encourages extra growing.

If you want to put down a pre-emergent (chemical weed control barrier), now is a good time to do it.

It's also a good time to think about mulching your beds and doing any other landscaping projects you're planning to enjoy this season.

🌤️ Late Spring (May)

Your lawn should really be hitting its stride and looking thick & tall.

You may need to spot-spray weeds using a post-emergent herbicide. This is what I used and it is very effective, available at SiteOne in Chesterland, which is a commercial landscape supply store. Call ahead to make sure it's in stock. To use it, you need to be comfortable mixing and using your own hand-pump spray canister. You can also buy pre-mixed stuff from stores like Ace Hardware or Home Depot, make sure the label says it treats the weeds you have in your yard.

🌞 Early Summer (June)

Make sure you're getting out and using your lawn!

You can put down your second fertilizer application. I'd recommend using a "stress blend" that has some potassium (ie the "third" N-P-K number) to help the grass prepare for the summer heat.

If you have an in-ground sprinkler system, make sure you've turned it back on for the season and that all the heads still work, so you have time to make any fixes before you'll start needing to use it in July and August.

🥵 Mid Summer (July and August)

Your grass will be stressed, especially during weeks where there is lots of sun and temps over 80°F. Best thing you can do to help is to keep mowing it as tall/long as you can, and start watering it every 2-3 days when temps are brutally hot.

Avoid the temptation to water a mature lawn daily, as it can cause disease. Also make sure you water first thing in the morning so that any dew that stays on the grass can burn off in the mid-day sun and not sit there for hours, which would cause fungus and rot.

Despite your efforts, some parts of your lawn may start to go dormant, especially if they are older or weaker grass varieties, especially bent grass. It's just nature doing its thing, not always something we can realistically "fix" unfortunately.

Do NOT try to fertilize, as pushing growth will stress the grass further and cause it to go dormant much faster.

🌱 End of Summer (September)

Once Labor Day has come and gone, and temps are no longer forecast to be above 80° anymore, that's the best time of year to do projects on your lawn. You don't have to worry about stress from the heat and you have 2-3 months before you have to worry about stress from winter cold. Plus weed pressure is a lot lower than it is during the similar shoulder season in the spring.

🍂 Fall (October)

You can start cutting your grass a bit shorter, so that it's better able to handle the weight of falling leaves. Shorter grass also makes it easier to blow or rake leaves as well.

If you'd prefer not to blow or rake, you can probably get away with mulching the leaves into your lawn with a mower, unless they're so thick that you can't see any grass, at which point you should really plan to remove them for city pickup, so you don't smother the lawn.