7 Ways To Get Your Yard Ready For Summer
We are so ready for summer, are you? After such a hard winter here in New York, the sun is shining and the grass is growing. To keep your grass from turning brown, getting patchy spots, and keeping the weeds away, here are 7 ways to get your yard ready for summer.
With these tips you are set up to have a lush, green, lawn in no time. Here are some of our most cost-effective ways to keep your lawn looking perfect this summer.
Our Lawn
Winter drags on in New York, we still have snow well into April and May. This can make prepping your lawn in spring for summer months. For us we usually can’t start lawn maintenance until the end of May. We usually find a quick-release fertilizer.
This will get to the roots and green up your yard within a few days usually. You need to be careful as if you use too much in one space, it can kill your grass.
1: Cleaning Your Lawn
This is the first step you need to get your lawn looking good. Walk around your lawn and collect any twigs, branches, and debris that may have gathered over the winter.
Be sure to rake your debris into piles, and make sure your lawn is dry. You don’t want to walk around on a soggy lawn, it can damage the soil and roots.
By following these next five steps you can keep your lawn looking good, avoiding weeds, and protect it from the heat.
2: Cutting Your Grass
Once you have cleaned your yard, it is time to cut your grass. When spring rolls around your grass will be growing faster, and have more leaf development. So it is important to remove the thatch or mat mat layer. This can easily be done by moving at least twice a week. Be careful you do not severely cut your lawn, just take the top off. One helpful hint is to make sure your lawn mower blades are sharp.
My husband loves this time of year, and especially cutting our grass. Since he retired from the military, three years ago, yard work is where he is happiest. He has always been a tech guy, and loves to automate things inside the home, and create more efficient ways to do things.
We have a Roomba inside our house, so when I found out about the Gardena Robotic lawnmower SILENO city, 250 m2, I knew he would be a huge fan. This was a happy day when this beauty arrived, it was like watching a kid unwrap a present on Christmas Day. He certainly was a kid in a candy store with his new Gardena Robotic lawnmower.
To say it was a happy day to come home to this giant box, is an understatement.
It was packaged so well, and everything was already put together which was an amazing bonus.
The only thing we had to assemble was the base and that was super quick.
The owner’s manual explained what we needed to do step-by-step, and was easy to follow along with.
Installing the Boundary Wire
Me and my hubby installed the boundary wire. This perimeter helps keep the Gardena mower from planning an escape to the neighbors yard. It helps define the given area that we want to be cut, and where the mower needs to cut.
The boundary wire clips right into the home base, and we staked the wire around the yard and back into the terminal. Gardena includes a ton of plastic stakes in the box that you secure the boundary wire with. This was probably the most time consuming part of the project.
We worked our way all around the yard, until we looped back to the home base. The home base looks cool, and blends right into our lawn. We set it up right next to our garage.
Test Run
I could not believe how quiet the Gardena Robotic lawnmower SILENO city is. This lawnmower navigated around the lawn, while tackling the narrowest spaces and tightest corners. It is also pretty cool, that come rain or shine it can keep our grass cut and looking great. The Gardena SILENO city is so simple to keep clean. You simply spray with the garden hose!
Want to know the best part? You can control it using the SILENO city with the GARDENA Bluetooth® App from up to 10 m. This includes EasyApp Control, auto schedule, and easy configuration for easy installation and use with zero fuss.
3: Aerate Your Lawn
Now it is time to aerate your lawn. Once you have cut your lawn, remove the thatch and moss. Large layers of thatch can limit the movement of air, water, fertilizer, and other nutrients that your grass needs. This part is a must for your lawn maintenance. Long-term your lawn will be much happier, so don’t skip this step friends.
4: Dressing Your Lawn
Think of this as a way of feeding your lawn, and giving your lawn the antibiotics it has been craving. You can apply a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent weeds.
This is a very important step, you need to add a top coat to your lawn to help prevent weeds, and maintain water in the warmer months. It also keeps the soil moist and will increase growth. Always check with your local nursery, they can help you find the one that is appropriate for your region.
The Gardena Robotic lawnmower SILENO city has a Mulch Function, which allows small grass clippings, left behind by the mower, to provide shade that supports moisture retention and protection from the sun. These clippings also turn into fertilizer that enrich the soil with nutrients.
5: Fill in Your Holes
You will want to treat any bare or balding spots with grass seed in the spring. This way by summer they will have grass growth. Usually within two weeks of adding seed you should see grass sprouts.
6: Look For Weeds
Be sure to identify poisonous plants and learn how to pull them and dispose of them safely. Be sure you are using the right fertilizer and composts on your lawn. This will help keep weeds at bay, and your grass growing strong. When your grass is strong, weeds won’t survive.
7: Irrigate Your Lawn
Let’s talk about water! My tip is to water slowly, deeply, and infrequently. You should water at least two times a week. Do not water every single day. Watering daily can actually make your lawn at risk of diseases. By watering just a few times a week, it will keep the roots growing strong.
Don’t be discouraged, getting your lawn ready for summer can definitely be a process. The reward is amazing when you have a beautiful lush green lawn all summer long. It is so worth the regular maintenance you put into it. We hope these 7 ways to get your yard ready for summer are helpful.
I love a good DIY project, and helping people create warm and cozy spaces in their homes. So if your someone who is ok with me being a hot mess express, a legging wearing, top bun sporting, kind of girl, then let's be best friends! You can never have enough friends right? I am a natural born nurturer, who always leads with my heart. I have learned it is ok to say no sometimes! My advice to you, take chances, in the end, you will regret the chances you did not take.
5 Ways To Clean Up Your Garden
For Summer
Products We Love
I am so excited to share 5 Ways To Clean Up Your Garden For Summer. Now that summer is on our doorstep, it’s time to clean up your garden!
If you are anything like me, you might be getting anxious to clean up your garden or to engage the help of professional landscapers to do so.
We all want to enjoy the beauty of a groomed garden when it’s in full bloom.
As the days get warmer, my gardening to-do-list seems to be growing longer each day.
So grab your favorite clippers, rake, wheelbarrow, and let’s get this garden clean-up started.
Let’s look at 5 ways to clean up your garden for summer friends!
1: Clean Up Your Garden Beds
First you want to trim off any dead foliage from last summer, if you didn’t do this in the fall. You also want to remove any leaves, or other debris that may have accumulated over the winter months. You can use a rake to remove debris, just be careful not to harm any plants coming up.
Some foliage can be easily removed by hand, and others may require pruning shears.
No gardener can truly be ready for the season, without a few tools up her sleeve. I am a huge fan of Gardena products. I use them all the time, and they make pruning so much easier for me!
This year we are using Gardena Garden Secateurs to help prune back our garden. The Bypass secateurs offer precision, and are suited for cutting living plant tissue. They can be used to cut young or soft wood, as well as semi-woody garden bushes and shrubs. Not only are they light weight, they are extremely comfortable to hold while working in your garden. The durable buffer protects your hands and wrists and allows you to work longer, and get all your gardening tasks done effortlessly.
We usually have a ton of leaves left over from fall. So many branches and twigs that need to be cleaned up. Having a wheelbarrow or garden container nearby is always helpful. These are easy to move around, and can hold a lot of debris.
Remove Dead and Unwanted Plants
If you have any annuals you planted that are dried out or dead, be sure to pull them out or cut them back. Sometimes these come back, sometimes they don’t. Tip- you will know if they surveyed your winter if they are showing signs of life. For example, green stems or foliage. If you are not sure just let them be until you are completely sure they are dead.
2: Let’s Chat Weeds
Next you want to make sure you weed the area. Tip, the quicker you can get rid of the weeds the better. Be sure to remove the root of the weed, or it will keep coming back.
3: Who is in the Mood to Plant?
Spring is a great time to plant new annuals, perennials, and shrubs. If you are like us and live in a colder region, right before summer is our prime time to plant. Usually we start after Mother’s Day, as we can have snow well into May.
This is a fun time to visit your local nursery or garden center and see what is blooming in your area. Does something fun catch your eye as you are driving down the road? Maybe you can add that to your garden?
This is also a good time to see what isn’t working in your garden. Maybe you have a plant that just doesn’t seem to do well each year. Does it need more sun, maybe less water? Research and see if you need to transplant it to a new area. You may have a plant that is just thriving, and maybe you want to divide it, and fill in another area.
Soil
Let’s talk about soil. After a long winter, this is the perfect time to revitalize your soil. If you are looking to make your plants happy, a good dose of fertilizer will do the trick.
We like to flip our soil, and mix it up and add some compost in our vegetable garden.
4: Let’s Talk Mulch
Some people like to mulch, some people don’t, this is truly this is your preference. Personally, in my opinion 1-3 inches of mulch, can have huge benefits for your garden. It not only keeps weeds away, it gives nutrients back into the soil. You don’t want your soil to dry out, and mulch helps keep the moisture in, which gives your plants that beautiful pop of color!
5: Keeps Tabs on Your Plants
I always take a photo of our plant tags, so I can easily refer back to the care directions. This year we have decided to keep a gardening notebook. This can be helpful to easily refer back to plants/care. You can even tape your plant tags right inside the notebook or by the garden bed section.
Summer Maintenance
You will want to water your garden beds thoroughly, on a weekly schedule, with a good soaking. This is important if you haven’t been getting too much rain. We also water our beds in the morning, so that the surface can dry out before nightfall. This keeps your micro colony of bugs and insects down in the soil, instead of coming to the surface and eating all your new growth. Slugs are our main culprit, so we plant more than we need to give Mother Nature her fair share.
Watch Your Plants
Be sure to keep an eye on the color of your plants, so you can know if they need more nutrients. If they are turning yellow, this is a sign it’s probably time to add some kind of fertilizer to your water, or a dry mix. You can add this directly to the soil. Just be sure to follow the directions, per the fertilizer that you pick, as each one is different.
Does this get you excited and ready to get back to your garden? We hope these 5 Ways To Clean Up Your Garden For Summer are helpful for you this garden season.
