Goodbye, Winter. Hello Lawn Maintenance!

After a long cold lonely winter, our Illinois lawns are happy to be emerging from the chill again. And we’re pleased to see some growth and some green! But with green growth comes regular lawn maintenance, and Pristine is happy to get back to doing that.

Now, if you’re not a professional landscaper and haven’t yet had the good fortune to work with Pristine, you may not know what lawn maintenance entails. It involves a lot more than mowing, after all. So today, we’ll give you the lowdown on everything it takes to keep your Bradley lawn green, gorgeous, and thriving.

First, Bye Bye Winter!

Before we celebrate Spring with regular lawn maintenance, we need to pour one out for winter, even if it has done our landscaping no favors. We can’t go into regular maintenance until we take the first steps of saying bye to winter and prepping your lawn for what will become its new Spring routine. That starts with proper yard cleanup and the first mow of the season.

Clean Up

Yard cleanup is always essential for your landscaping. Not only is it required to keep your lawn looking neat and trim, but it also improves your grass’s health. That’s because anything on top of your lawn blocks out what it needs and traps the moisture it doesn’t, causing mold.

But in between seasons, cleanup is even more vital. Winter tends to create some extra mess. It knocks debris off the trees and other plants onto the ground. It also kills plants. Before we can start mowing and giving your lawn other regular care, we must clear the way.

First Mow

Now we get to the first mow of the season. Though it’s not entirely dissimilar from regular mowing, the first mowing is a bit different.

For your first mow, the goal is to remove all the grass useful during the winter for insulating the roots, but it doesn’t look so great now because it’s gotten scraggly. So we sometimes cut the grass a little shorter for Spring’s first mow.

Regular Mowing

Now, to get to the star of the lawn maintenance show – regular mowing. Mowing is the element of landscaping that most people are familiar with. Most people have done it at some point since grass takes up a large percentage of our landscape’s surface area.

But just because you’ve mowed doesn’t mean you know everything you need to know about mowing. For example, different grass species have different optimum heights. And the height of your grass should change depending on the weather, with long grass in the heat to protect it from getting the grass equivalent of a fatal sunburn.

Likewise, your equipment matters. In addition to a good quality mower, you need a sharp blade. Dull blades can damage your grass and lead to yellowing and dead spots.

Edging

Of course, mowing is just the beginning of good lawn maintenance. Mowing handles the broad strokes while edging, trimming, and blowout are the detail work and finishing touches.

Edging creates an edge between your grass and other elements of your yard, like your driveway, hardscaping, and gardens. We do this by using an edger to dig a small trench that acts as your lawn’s frame.

Not only does edging help your lawn stand out with bold lines, but it also makes the rest of your lawn work easier. The edge helps to prevent grass from creeping into places it doesn’t belong. It also limits the amount of time you have to spend trimming later.

Trimming

Trimming is how you even out what your mower missed. Between obstacles and yards that aren’t perfectly even, it’s nearly impossible to get a perfectly level mow with the mower alone.

So after a mow, we trim all the spots where the grass is sticking up like it has a bad case of bed head. We also trim where the mower can’t reach.

Blowouts

The final finishing touch for your lawn is the blowout. Grass clippings get everywhere. And while we love our green grass, it doesn’t belong in our driveway, hardscaping, gardens, or anywhere that isn’t the lawn. Blowouts make it neat again.

Call Pristine for All Your Lawn Maintenance Needs

If you’re ready to level up your lawn, call Pristine! Our professional team knows what it takes to make your yard gorgeous and healthy. And we’ll take the time to do it!

Designs are the first step to creating the landscape, including beautiful hardscaping. After that, you won’t have to worry about the functionality or theming being lost when Pristine is the team on your side!