Lawn Care

Lush green surrounds your home and you’re so proud of your lawn. Thanks to the experts at Burke Nursery & Garden Centre, rejuvenating or re-establishing your lawn is no longer a chore. Depending on your needs, you can implement a calendar for treatment and improvement of your lawn.

The most common grasses found in Northern Virginia are your cool season grasses: tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and perennial ryegrass. Tall fescue seed or a blend of tall fescue, bluegrass, and perennial ryegrass seed are your best choices for locations from sun to partial shade. This grass may go dormant in the winter months, but its lush texture vibrates through the growing season.

Lawn Care Calendar for Cool Season Grasses

March and April are the best months for putting down pre-emergent that prevents crabgrass and Japanese Stiltgrass from coming back year after year. You can choose from a number of products: organic pre-emergent that contains corn gluten or traditional crabgrass pre-emergent with Dimension. You may even decide on a second time to put down the pre-emergent during the first week of May because crabgrass also likes to come back a second time.

Spring fertilization can be done anytime between March and May. If you chose to use the organic pre-emergent corn gluten, you are already adding nitrogen to your soil. Or, you can choose to use one of the organic or traditional fertilizers that contain no pre-emergent or weed kill.

If those pesky weeds keep coming back, a weed killer is required between the March and the beginning of June. You can find those products either in granular or liquid form. Both forms are easy to apply.

The busiest time period for your lawn will be during the months of August through October. Grass seed loves to grow during that time period. So, if you need to overseed your yard to fill in those bare spots or want to seed large areas, plan on doing that in very late summer or fall. This is also the best time to dethatch and aerate your lawn. If you dethatch and aerate your lawn at least every two to three years, you’ll find the grass grows better.

The fall months are also when you need to think of fertilizing your lawn at least two times. Most of the slow-release fertilizers last for two months. This will increase the strength of your grass roots and give you a healthier lawn the following year.

The soil in Virginia tends to acidic due to the amount of clay found in the soil and the number of trees in the landscape. For that reason, it’s important to lime your lawn. Grass likes a pH of around 6.2. Lime can be applied at any time of the year when the ground is not frozen. If you don’t know your pH, you can purchase a soil test kit which will measure the pH level in your lawn.

Lawn Care Calendar for Warm Season Grasses

Warm season grasses grow better in the Tidewater area of Virginia. However, some homeowners do have the warm-season Zoysiagrass in their lawns. If you do, your maintenance calendar is different from homeowners with cool-season grasses.

If you’ve been having problems with weeds, you will want to put down your pre-emergent in March or April. But the time to fertilize and aerate your lawn is different. You want to fertilize your lawn between the months of May and August when the grass is growing. If you need to dethatch and aerate, you also do that during the growing season in May or June.

Products you’ll find to help maintain the health of your lawn

  • Pre-emergent crabgrass control
  • Organic fertilizer with corn gluten
  • Fertilizer with pre-emergent crabgrass control
  • Fertilizer with weed killer
  • Organic fertilizer
  • Traditional fertilizer with slow-release nitrogen
  • Weed killer
  • Crabgrass killer
  • Nutsedge killer
  • Grass seed with various blends for sun, partial sun, and shade locations
  • Moss killer
  • Grub control
  • Grub killer
  • Fungicides and other insecticides

Confused about the best plan for you?

The horticulturalists at Burke Nursery & Garden Center are always available to help you develop the best lawn care plan. Just stop by the Nursery to discuss your lawn care needs.

Time to let someone else take care of your lawn?

Burke Lawn Care, a division of Burke Nursery & Garden Centre, provides full lawn care services throughout the calendar year which are designed for the unique needs of your lawn. Among some of the services they provide are: lawn fertilization and weed control, aeration and seeding, dethatching, powerseeding, total lawn renovations and sodding, fungicide and insect (including grub control) program. Just go to burkelawncare.com for complete information.