Lawn after winter: The first care in spring

When the lawn wakes up from hibernation, maintenance begins again. But when and how do you fertilize and mow the lawn for the first time after winter?

The lawn - the favorite and most cared for area in many German gardens. A green, dense and healthy lawn is considered a status symbol in many places and distinguishes its caretaker as the owner of a particularly green thumb. Good lawn care after the winter should therefore give your home lawn the best starting conditions for the coming year. With this article we will help you with decisions regarding the timing of the first mowing, the correct mowing height after the winter and the first fertilization. We also explain why spring is also the best time for scarifying.

Mow the lawn after the winter

When the warming rays of the sun push the soil temperatures above 8 °C, the lawn begins to grow again. But it's not until growth has fully kicked in that you should bring your mower back from winter's slumber.

When should you mow the lawn for the first time after winter?

Sooner or later in the year, depending on what type of soil is under your lawn, it will start to grow. The first cut can only be made when it has almost reached twice the desired cutting height. This time is usually around April, but is strongly influenced by the weather. A first mowing that is too early can literally catch the lawn that is now drifting out of the base cold. The light green leaf tips are not yet sufficiently hardened and would suffer frost damage should late frosts occur.

But how does soil type affect when your lawn begins to grow? Soil temperature rises at different rates in spring in different soil types. A light soil—that is, a soil high in sand and low in clay—contains many large pores that are usually filled with air. The air in the pores can be heated relatively quickly when a heat source such as the sun is at work. The situation is different with a heavy soil - i.e. a soil that has a high proportion of clay or loam. Such a skin contains more small pores in which the water stubbornly stays like in a sponge. Water can be warmed up much more slowly than air and therefore damp or even wet soil stays cold longer in spring.

For the reader who is thirsty for knowledge: The fact that air can be heated up quickly and water is heated up more slowly is because water and air differ in their so-called “heat capacity”. The heat capacity of a substance indicates how much energy must be supplied to a defined volume before it increases its temperature by 1 °C. This unit is given in Joule/cm³. You may be familiar with the joule from the nutritional label on the back of food - it is the unit of energy. The fact is that the heat capacity of water is much higher than that of air. It would take around 1300 joules of energy to heat 1000 l of dry air by 1 °C – this corresponds to around one-thousandth of a bar of milk chocolate. After all, it took the energy of two bars of milk chocolate to heat 1,000 liters of water. However, this example is not intended to illustrate that we should eat less chocolate, but that water absorbs large amounts of energy without changing its temperature much.

Summary: when to mow the lawn for the first time after winter?

• The first mowing should only take place when the lawn has almost doubled its desired height.
• This time usually occurs around April, possibly earlier on light soils than on heavy soils - also depending on the weather.
• Mowing too early for the first time can lead to frost damage to the young leaves in late frosts.

By the way: While the grass plants above ground only start to stir properly at a soil temperature of around 8 °C, the roots start growing at a lower soil temperature of 3 to 5 °C.

How deep to mow the lawn after winter?

Depending on the type of lawn, the recommended cutting heights differ by several centimetres. After the winter, the lawn can initially be about 1 to 2 cm longer. Strictly adhere to the rule that no more than half - rather only a third - of the stem should be removed in one cut. Otherwise the suddenly very short lawn is at risk of sunburn. Mow in stages if necessary. From the third mowing you can mow at the usual height. You can find the best pruning time in the table below. In this case, tend to choose the higher value for the first cuts. If you have a lawn in a shady location, you should not cut it under 5 cm in length, because the reduced amount of light has to be compensated for with more leaf mass. In dry weather and without watering, the grass should never be shorter than 4 cm.

Your home turf is most likely a utility lawn or a hard-wearing lawn. Although the two types do not differ significantly in terms of the cutting height, they do differ in the composition of the grass and the frequency of cutting. A hard-wearing lawn – which incidentally also includes sports field lawns – is mowed a little more frequently and for this reason has a denser and more durable turf.

lawn type	Section at height [cm]	Target cutting height [cm]
ornamental lawn	3 – 6	2 – 3
utility lawn	6 – 9	3 – 4,5
hard-wearing lawn	6 – 8	3,5 – 4
extensive lawn	–	6 – 10

Tip: Extensive lawns include public green strips and little-used parking areas as well as wild meadows and all other rarely and slightly used lawns that have a less sure-footed turf exhibit. Lawns of this kind are already well cared for with two to three mowing cycles per year.

Summary: How deep to mow the lawn after winter?

• At the beginning of the growing season, let your lawn grow 1 to 2 cm longer than usual.
• The right lawn height depends on the lawn type and is 3 to 4 cm for most lawns in private gardens.

Fertilize lawn after winter

Fertilization can only be optimally effective if it is applied in the right time frame. The right time to fertilize varies depending on the type of soil, intensity of use, type of fertilizer and weather. If your lawn turns yellow or brown after the winter, or is muddy, it is probably at the Preparing the lawn for winter something went wrong. Perhaps this article will help you find out what you could have done better.

When to fertilize the lawn after winter?

The fertilization date is influenced by the type of soil in that light, sandy soil is fertilized early, while rich, clayey soil is fertilized late. This can be explained as follows:

• A sandy soil is less able to store nutrients because it lacks soil particles that can bind nutrients. Humus molecules and clay minerals are the soil particles that are particularly good at doing this. However, both are rare in a light sandy bottom.
• A rich, nutrient-rich soil has many of the nutrient-storing soil particles. Clay minerals and humus molecules are able to form so-called clay-humus complexes, which are particularly effective at binding nutrients.
• For this reason, a lawn on light soil is fertilized as early as March or April to stimulate growth by providing readily available nutrients. A heavy soil still contains the necessary nutrients for the first growth spurt from the previous one Autumn fertilization and therefore does not need to be fertilized until late May or early June when natural growth has stopped begins to subside. If your soil is roughly in the middle between a light and a heavy soil, the natural growth spurt will also subside sooner. You can tell by the fact that you don't have to mow as often. By making a note of this point in time, you can use it as a guide for the coming year. If scarifying, aerating and/or sanding is done in spring, the first fertilization takes place after the last work step.

The important general fertilizer rules also apply in spring:

1. Dose mineral fertilizers very carefully, if at all.
2. Even distribution - best with a fertilizer spreader over large areas - protects against "burning" or visibly unfertilized areas.
3. If possible, carry out fertilization if rain is to be expected on the same day or is already falling; otherwise use irrigation after fertilizing.

Tip: When it comes to fertilizing your lawn, use primarily organic fertilizers long-term fertilizer, whose many advantages we have compiled for you here.

Summary: when to fertilize the lawn after winter?

• Light soils are fertilized for the first time in March/April.
• Heavy soils are fertilized for the first time in May/June.
• All soils that are neither one extreme nor the other receive their fertilization when natural growth noticeably slows down.
• Observe the general fertilizer rules to avoid damage to your lawn.

How to fertilize the lawn after winter?

As in all areas of the garden, there are many products to choose from when fertilizing your lawn. Because even a lawn can be supplied with organic, organic-mineral or purely mineral nutrients. For a good overview, we summarize the advantages and disadvantages in the following table.

Organic or primarily organic lawn fertilizer

Advantages:

• Sustainable soil improvement
• Less work
• Natural long-term effect
• No risk of over-fertilization
• Ecologically sustainable
• Good for soil life

Disadvantage:

• Slower casting speed
• Often a bit higher in price

Application: 1 - 3 times a year

Mineral lawn fertilizer

Advantages:

• Faster availability
• Lower price
• Higher nutrient content

Disadvantage:

• Over-fertilization with plant damage likely
• environmental damage possible
• Depletion of soil when used alone
• Without long-term effect
• Application every one to two months necessary

Use: 3-6 times a year

Generally applies to the fertilization of lawns: In spring or early summer, fertilizer should be concentrated on nitrogen and in autumn, on potassium. Nitrogen, which is available very quickly, is only contained in mineral or organo-mineral fertilizers. So if you primarily want to fertilize organically, which we clearly recommend, you have to because of something slower implementation, fertilize about two weeks earlier and keep the lawn slightly damp from this point on keep.

Summary: How to fertilize the lawn after the winter?

• Organic or mineral lawn fertilization is possible from spring to early summer.
• The strengths of organic fertilizers are above all the low effort, the great safety in use and the sustainable supply of the lawn.
• The strengths of mineral fertilizers are the quick effect and the low price - the big weaknesses are those Danger of over-fertilization, which can cause damage to plants and the environment, as well as the more likely impoverishment of the soil.
• Compost or manure can be natural alternatives, but should initially be applied sparingly.
• Choose a nitrogen-rich fertilizer for the first fertilization of the year.
• We recommend using a mainly organic long-term fertilizer, like ours, for fertilizing in spring and summer as well as in autumn Plantura organic lawn fertilizer and Plantura Organic Autumn Lawn Fertilizer.

Scarify lawn after winter

Spring is the best time to scarify. The months of April and May are ideal, provided that the weather is vigorous, i.e. humid and warm. It is particularly important that the lawn has enough time to regenerate and to close the gaps that have arisen. So if April and May are dry and cool, it makes sense to postpone the activity to late summer or early autumn. If you really want to improve your lawn in the long term, sanding, heavy fertilization and overseeding are essential.

Tip: scarifying against moss or felt?

The scarifying the lawn is intended to cut through tangles and moss carpets above the turf or open up encrusted soil surfaces again, so that the growth of the grass is promoted. When used correctly, it has a positive effect on grass plants and a negative effect on many unwanted weeds. However, wild herbs that form runners, such as couch grass, field horsetail or goutweed, can be widely distributed over the area. As a pronounced regeneration measure, scarifying should only be used at intervals of several years, but at least one year apart.

However, scarifying alone does not help to permanently combat moss in the lawn. Large amounts of moss in the lawn occur when conditions are poor for the lawn but good for the moss. Good conditions for moss prevail on nutrient-poor, shady and moist surfaces and soils a pH well below 6 (i.e. acidic), which compacts and is therefore poorly ventilated are. Creating optimal conditions for the lawn is therefore the only way to permanently displace moss. We therefore advise against annual scarifying just to combat moss.

Scarify in 8 steps:

1. Mow the lawn very short to a height of 1 to 3 cm and remove the clippings.
2. Work the area lengthways and crossways with the scarifier. If you are working by hand, rake lengthwise and crosswise as well.
3. Remove the worked-out material after each run over with the scarifier. For example, you can use it as mulch material or compost it.
4. If necessary, sand the surface with about 2 to 3 liters of sand per square meter. Use fine sand (grain size 0/2) for this. If you want to aerate your lawn after scarifying, proceed as described in the following paragraph.
5. Spread the sand evenly with a rake or coarse broom.
6. For large gaps, backsow with the correct seed mix, rake in flat and press down.
7. Fertilize and water the lawn extensively. If you have overseeded, fertilize only half of the amount indicated on the lawn fertilizer.
8. Do not step on the lawn again until the turf has closed and water daily in the meantime.

Aerate (aerate) and sand the lawn after winter

Aerating the lawn eliminates superficial compaction and creates voids in the top layer of soil. Even without sanding, this leads to a better supply of oxygen, water and nutrients, because everything that falls or flows from above onto the lawn is absorbed more easily. Possible devices for this are nailed rollers, shoes with nails or simple digging forks, which many garden owners already have in their sheds. There are also motorized devices - with slotted knives or hollow tools (so-called "spoons", i.e. "spoons"), which are attached to a rotating shaft, either slitting or entire cones of earth cut out The latter of the two methods is more effective on very compacted soils. The resulting holes are about 10 cm deep.

After the aeration, sanding can take place. Cohesive, heavy soils in particular experience improved aeration and drainage through sanding. A well-drained soil has the ability to drain excess water into deeper soil layers, preventing waterlogging. This positive effect results from the relatively coarse grain size of the sand: due to the large Grains of sand create soil pores from which water quickly drains, leaving them filled with air instead are. Shifting the composition of the soil in favor of the proportion of sand also makes the lawn more resistant to shearing forces. Therefore, sanding is carried out in particular on sports fields.

Through the combination with the previous aerating, the sand penetrates into the resulting cavities and thus deep into the soil structure. Accordingly, more sand is required than if sand is applied after scarifying. The sand used should have a grain size of 0/2, i.e. grain sizes between 0 and 2 mm. The use of washed sand is optimal, because it contains only the smallest fines, so that many large air voids can form.

Summary of aerating and sanding the soil:

• Mow and rake the lawn.
• Aerate the area with an aerator or any of the other methods mentioned above.
• Sanded with 3 to 5 liters of sand per square meter. Aerating with a hollow tool uses a lot of sand, other methods use less. If possible, washed sand with a grain size of 0/2 should be used.
• Distribute the sand with a broom or (if available) a trawl net and trickle it into the holes.
• Then fertilize and water.
• The lawn should not be walked on for the next three to four weeks.

Do you want to know which one? lawn guy is best for your garden? In our special article we present various lawn mixtures.

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