Doing a thorough clean-up of the yard should be at the top of your spring cleaning checklist! Realistically, the clean-up inside the house can wait, but your yard can’t—you want to get these tasks done so that your lawn stays on track for the rest of the year. Things like compacted soil, pests, and weeds can be easily dealt with now, but they’ll be much harder to treat by summer. 

Cross Off These Yard Care Tasks From Your Spring Cleaning Checklist 

Got a mountain of laundry you need to fold? Throw a blanket over it and pretend it’s an ottoman. Let’s get the important tasks out of the way first: a top-to-bottom clean-up of the front and back yard. 

Dethatch the Grass

Dethatching is basically a fancy word for combing out the knots in your grass. If you left your hair uncombed all winter, it would be a matted mess, right? Well, your grass is the same way—if you don’t untangle it, it won’t grow properly, and it will look pretty terrible.

They don’t sell Vidal Sassoon combs big enough for your yard, so a garden rake will get the job done! Drag it across the grass in your yard to tear up all the knots and tangles, and it will grow much better throughout the rest of the season. 

Apply Pre-Emergent Herbicide

Instead of relying on heavy-duty chemical herbicides to kill weeds after they emerge, use a gentler formula—a pre-emergent herbicide—to prevent weeds from sprouting in the first place. Weed and Feed formulas contain fertilizer, so you can enrich the soil in your yard with nutrients while also tackling weed prevention. 

Aerate the Soil

A heavy blanket of wet snow combined with several months of foot traffic will cause your soil to get compacted, making it hard for water to soak into the soil, and instead, it will pool on top. Grass roots will have trouble spreading and taking root, and your yard will become more susceptible to pest infestations and disease.

The solution to soil compaction is aeration! You can use a spike aerator, which drives holes deep into the soil to loosen things up and improve air circulation. Alternatively, you can use a plug aerator, which pulls cylindrical plugs of soil out from your yard. Aerating the soil in your yard every spring and fall will do wonders for the health of your grass, and it’s also great for flood prevention.  

Inspect for Disease and Pests

The sooner you spot pests and diseases, the easier they are to beat. Look for telltale signs like discoloration, dead patches or rings, and powdery or cottony fungal growth in the soil. If you’re unsure of what you’re dealing with, you’re welcome to take a photo and bring it into the store! Our experts can help you identify the problem and provide you with the simplest solution to beat it. 

Reseed Where Necessary

If your grass is looking a little thin, or if you’ve got some dead patches from where your dogs were relieving themselves in the yard, spread some new grass seed! However, if you’re using a pre-emergent herbicide, you’ll need to wait a while before applying grass seed because they can inhibit the germination of grass seeds as well as weeds. Read the instructions on the package of your pre-emergent herbicide to make sure your timing is on point.  

Clean Up and Replace Old Mulch

If you have mulch in your garden beds or around the shrubs and trees in your yard, now is the perfect time to clean up the old stuff and spread a fresh layer. Use a rake to remove the old chunks—if a bit is left behind, that’s fine. Biodegrading mulch helps feel your soil, just like compost! Removing the big chunks and replacing them with new stuff will make it look more aesthetically appealing.  

Need any tools or supplies to complete your spring yard clean-up on Long Island? Visit Dees’ Nursery, and we’ll hook you up with all the goods to get the job done right!