Prepare Your Lawn & Garden for Spring: 2025 in 6 Steps

4 min readUpdated Mar. 04, 2025Lyle WeischwillRiding Mower
Get your yard ready for spring with these tips and tricks.

Prepare your yard for the vibrant resurgence of spring with these essential lawn care steps. From cleaning up winter debris to applying fertilizer and weed killer, follow these expert tips to ensure your lawn emerges lush and healthy after the cold season. With proper care and maintenance, you can enjoy a beautiful and thriving yard throughout the spring and beyond.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Clean up debris like leaves and twigs to prevent blockages in your lawn mower and ensure proper absorption of fertilizers and nutrients.
  • Mow your lawn every five days for the first six weeks of spring to promote healthier root growth and a thicker lawn.
  • Use hardwood bark mulch for beds, trim trees to remove dead branches, and avoid seeding until fall to avoid issues with pre-emergent herbicides or weed killers.

Winter is finally over, which means it’s time to put away the snow shovels and start thinking about spring projects, such as your lawn.

Winter weather can leave your grass, shrubs and trees weak and hungry, especially after months of lying dormant under a blanket of ice and snow. If you want them to come back fuller and lusher than ever, follow these simple tips from Ed Laflamme, a Landscape Industry Certified Manager in Connecticut and author of Green Side Up: Straight Talk on Growing and Operating a Profitable Landscaping Business.

  1. Do some cleaning.

The first step to prepping your lawn for spring is to clean up the leaves, twigs and other debris that have gathered over the winter. Rakes work, but air blowers are even easier. “Debris can get stuck in your lawn mower, and it will block fertilizers and other materials from being properly absorbed by the lawn,” Laflamme says.

  1. Mow early, mow often.

One of the big mistakes homeowners make is only mowing once a week in the spring. “If you let the grass grow too high and then cut it, it stunts the roots so they can’t reproduce properly,” he warns. Instead, mow every five days for the first six weeks of spring, depending on the weather, to ensure a thicker, fuller lawn.

  1. Pick a good, heavy mulch.

Once your lawn is cared for, edge out your beds, trim back dead branches on shrubs and replace the mulch. Laflamme prefers hardwood bark mulches over ground wood chips that have been dyed brown. “They look better and they last longer.”

  1. Trim the trees.

“It’s hard to tell if a tree has dead branches unless you get up into it,” Laflamme says. If dead branches are left untended, they can fall, causing property damage and potential injury. Consider hiring a tree trimmer to do a “safety prune” once every three years — ideally before the leaves come out, when it’s easier to see the condition of the branches.

  1. Don’t seed until fall.

It’s tempting to fill brown patches with grass seed, but if you are also applying pre-emergent or weed killer, the seeds won’t germinate. Instead, fertilize the lawn, and in a few weeks shoots will grow and fill in the brown spots, Laflamme says. “If the brown patches are too big, or you just can’t wait, sod is the better option.”

  1. Apply fertilizer, pre-emergent and weed killer.

Early in spring, use a combination of fertilizer, which feeds your grass, and pre-emergent, an herbicide used to prevent crabgrass. Then, six to eight weeks later, apply both products again, along with a broadleaf weed killer. “You don’t want to let crabgrass come up or you’ll be fighting it all season,” Laflamme says. He notes that many lawn care brands offer a combination of pre-emergent and weed killer in one application, which will lower your cost and the time it takes to apply them.

Corn gluten, combined with fertilizer has become a popular alternative to using a chemical pre-emergent herbicide and fertilizer combination to help prevent crabgrass and other weeds. Corn gluten is also a rich, organic additive for the soil under your lawn. Additionally, corn gluten is safe to use around children and pets.Consider using corn gluten combined with fertilizer instead of a chemical herbicide/fertilizer to treat your lawn in early spring.

Following these tips in spring will set the stage for a healthy and lush yard. And remember spring is the perfect time to tune-up your riding lawn mower. Keep your yard in shape all year long with these lawn care tips from our experts. And if you need repair or maintenance for your riding mower, you can trust Sears Home Services to help.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main steps to get the lawn ready?
Raking debris, aerating the soil, fertilizing, checking irrigation, mowing properly, and pruning. Sears Home Services can tune up mowers for a hassle-free start.
When should I begin spring prep?
Late winter or early spring, once the ground is thawing. Sears Home Services can also advise on regional timing.
Is aeration always necessary?
If you have compacted soil or heavy foot traffic, yes. Sears Home Services can recommend whether it’s beneficial for your yard.
Does Sears Home Services help with gardening tools?
Yes, they service many outdoor tools and can advise on best practices to keep your equipment in shape.

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