It’s Almost Time to Wake Up Your Lawn!

If your goal is to finally grow that “look-at-me” lawn this year, then you’ve come to the right place. Because you and I both know that the secret to growing gorgeous, green grass is all a matter of knowing what to do and when to do it.

When the first balmy breezes start floating through the air, that’s your cue to get started with this three-step launch routine:

Step 1. Give your grass a dose of my Spring Wake-Up Mix: Mix 50 pounds each of pelletized gypsum and pelletized lime with 5 pounds of bonemeal and 2 pounds of Epsom salts in a wheelbarrow, and apply to your lawn with a broadcast spreader no more than two weeks before fertilizing. This formula will help aerate the turf, while giving it something to munch on until you start your regular feeding program.

Follow this immediately with a good healthy drink of my Get Up and Grow Tonic: Mix 1 cup each of ammonia, baby shampoo, and cola with 1 tablespoon of instant tea in a 20 Gallon Hose-End Sprayer, and apply to the point of runoff.

Step 2. Within two weeks of serving up that dynamic duo, give your lawn its first solid meal of the season. Add 3 pounds of Epsom salts to a bag of your favorite slow-release, dry lawn food (enough for 2,500 square feet). I like to use a 20-5-10 mix. Be sure to mix the salts in well. Apply half of this mixture at half the rate recommended on the label, with your spreader set on the medium setting, moving from north to south in parallel rows across your yard. Set the other half of the mixture aside.

Step 3. One week later, haul out the second half of the dry lawn food/Epsom salts mixture from Step 2 and pour it into your spreader. This time, apply it in rows moving from east to west. This “checkerboard” maneuver will guarantee that every square inch of turf gets fed, and you won’t have any light green lines in your lawn that mark the parts you missed.

Following these steps will help your grass get off to a super start—so you’ll enjoy the most terrific turf in town! Post a picture of your greened-up grass, and tell us what you did to get it up and growing.