Lawn Fertilization Tips for Spring in Tulsa

After Tulsa's wintery weather this past month, it might be hard to think past the cold, but believe it or not, it's never too early to start planning ahead. With these simple lawn fertilization tips, your grass can get a head start on looking great sooner and staying lush and green longer! Good fertilization builds a healthy foundation from which your lawn will grow and also protects agains stressful conditions later in the hot Tulsa summer.

Test Your Soil's pH

Depending on what kind of grass you have, it's typically time to start fertilizing your lawn once soil temperatures start reaching 60 degrees. Fertilization isn't a one-size-fits-all practice but is intended to correct and optimize the chemical and nutrient conditions that are unique to your soil. Start by having your soil’s pH tested to see what nutrients might be lacking.

Even the best-kept lawns have now spent the past few months under the strain of a cold winter. Testing your soil's pH will tell you how to provide good nutrition to get back up and running this spring. You may need to replenish nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium in order to build strong roots and turf.

Prepare for Spring Fertilization with Lawn Aeration 

You will also want to prepare your lawn by aerating. This helps remove thatch or dead grass and breaks up compacted soil to ensure that the nutrients can penetrate deep into the earth. Aeration also helps achieve better drainage and makes more room for oxygen—it's all about building the strong and healthy root system your lawn needs to thrive. While you're at it, you might consider overseeding to help fill in any gaps in grass coverage left after the winter.

Combine Fertilization with Pre-emergent Weed Control

Springtime isn't just about fertilization. Remember that the same nutrients that kick start your grass are also favorable for other organics hiding in your lawn, even weeds! Get ahead of the curve by utilizing pre-emergent weed control to prevent these troublesome plants from establishing themselves. There are even some weed control and fertilizer combos, including some organic options like corn gluten meal. These convenient solutions can both strengthen your grass and kill weeds at the same time.

Protect Your Work with Good Mowing Techniques

When it is time to start mowing, don't forget to start out with a higher blade height around three inches, cutting no more that a third of the grass blade at a time. This will help reduce strain on your lawn in this crucial time of growth and replenishment, keeping the soil cool and preventing weed seeds from getting sunlight. Make sure you do not over-stress the grass by scalping the lawn with an overly short blade height.

Make a Lawn Fertilization Schedule

When your done, it's time to sit back and watch your grass grow! We advise fertilizing your lawn again six to eight weeks after this initial treatment, so keep a fertilization schedule to know what's up next and don't hesitate to contact our Tulsa Lawn care specialists. You're well on your way to a vibrant and beautiful Tulsa lawn this spring!

The Benefits of Overseeding Your Tulsa Lawn

If your lawn has become damaged or is thinning, overseeding can help to repair your Tulsa lawn. Overseeding with new grass variations aids to build a dense, luxurious lawn, which not only will look better but will also act as a natural weed control. Overseeding your Tulsa lawn will also help your lawn become more impervious to insects and disease because the new seed assortments will be more resistant to these threats while producing a healthier lawn overall.

Why though does grass become damaged or thin? There are a variety of issues that can add to a lawn that’s less-than-lush, and it’s good to recognize the main causes of your lawn’s injury so as to help avoid it. Often, extreme heat can tax the lawn as well as simply the usual decrease in grass reproduction over time. Other sources of lawn stress and damage include soil compaction, thatch, poor drainage, lack of water, lack of nutrients in the soil, and poor grass varieties that are not well suited to the climate.

What steps are involved in overseeding your Tulsa lawn and keeping it looking great?

Prepare the ground. Unlike other mowing times, you should mow your lawn short before overseeding to allow the seeds to successfully reach the soil. Rake the lawn to remove debris and dead grass. Especially if thatch and soil compaction are the main causes of stress on your lawn, aerating your soil will be necessary. Core aeration removes small core spots of thatch and soil to better allow water, air, and nutrients to reach deeper into the soil. Aerating your Tulsa lawn will also help the new grass seeds germinate in the soil easier and faster.

Pick a good seed variety. Select a high quality grass seed that’s well suited for your area. Make sure you pick a grass seed that is weed-free. A high quality seed will be more drought-tolerant and more resistant to weeds and disease.

Seed the new grass varieties. There are many ways to seed your lawn with new grass. Often people use a spreader to lay the seed. Some use a mechanical slit seeder, which has vertical blades that open a slit or furrow in the soil, and then the machine deposits the seeds into the slit. Others may simply broadcast the seed manually. Make sure the seeds get good contact with the soil so that they can germinate.

Fertilize and water. After you’ve spread the grass seeds, you’ll need to apply a good seed starting fertilizer to help them grow strong. Then you will need to give the seeds a good watering. Grass seeds can easily die if they dry out so steady watering will be vital for the first few weeks after seeding. Shallow water is often recommended. If the weather gets hot, you may need to water more than once a day.

When the grass reaches about 3 inches in height, you can mow the lawn on a high setting.

Keep your Tulsa lawn looking beautiful all year with these overseeding tips. The Tulsa lawn care specialists at Oklahoma Landscape can take care of all of your lawn care and maintenance needs including aeration, weed control, overseeding, and lawn fertilization.

Lawn Fertilization Schedule for a Healthy Tulsa Lawn

Every homeowner wants his or her lawn to be lush and vibrant all year. Like an exercise or diet plan, maintaining a good Tulsa lawn care schedule is important to a lawn’s success. A good Tulsa lawn fertilization schedule is crucial in your endeavor for a lawn that’s the envy of your neighborhood. But what is a good lawn fertilization schedule for Tulsa lawns? First, we have to think about what your grass needs and why.

Like us, grass needs nourishment to grow. So especially when grass starts growing in early spring after a long winter, it needs adequate nutrition including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to build strong roots and turf. Experts recommend that when soil temperatures start to reach 60 degrees is a good time to feed your lawn, depending on the type of grass you have.

First, however, you should aerate your lawn. Aerating helps to remove thatch, or dead grass, in the lawn and break-up compacted soil so that your lawn can effectively use the fertilizer.

As grass grows, though, weeds grow also, so pre-emergent weed control will be needed to avert the spread of weeds like crabgrass. There are combination weed control and fertilizers that can feed your grass while stopping weed growth. An organic pre-emergent weed control agent like corn gluten meal, is also a good source of slow-release nitrogen, World of Lawn Care noted, so this type of weed control may also serve as a good lawn fertilizer as well.

In late spring, lawn fertilization is also important before the stress of Tulsa’s summer heat in arrives. Providing adequate lawn fertilization during this time, when the grass is still growing, will help to thicken the grass blades and help fortify the root system. Combination weed control and lawn fertilization programs are great for this time of year when both grass and weeds flourish.

Summer heat can be ruthless on lawns, along with the accompanying drought, insects, and increased outdoor activity to wear on the lawn. Once again, your lawn will need a suitable lawn fertilization application for the summer season to protect the grass and soil from these stresses, depending on if it’s a cool season or warm season grass.

Many say fall is the best time to apply a lawn fertilizer treatment. The cooler weather and increased rain, along with a good fertilizer, will help your lawn recover from the stress of summer. Applying a fertilizer just before winter comes will help ensure grass and roots get to store up the nutrients they need for the long winter. This nutrient storage will help grass recover faster and be more vibrant the following spring.

The Tulsa lawn fertilization and weed control experts at Oklahoma Landscape can help you get the right fertilizer and weed control treatments for your particular lawn to ensure it remains vibrant this summer.

Benefits of Tulsa Fertilization and Weed Control to Your Spring Lawn Care

With all the winter storms, the entire country is probably ready for spring.  With spring on its way, what lawn care tips can aid Tulsa lawns to be ready for the warmer weather? How significant are fertilization and weed control in a lawn care program? 

Making sure your lawn is clean is the first step in turf care. Remove any limbs or debris in the yard and lightly rake your lawn when the ground has dried out. This debris can stop your soil and lawn from obtaining the nutrients they need. 

You may need to test the condition or pH levels of your soil, particularly if you see various bare patches, to see what nutrients your soil is lacking. There are DIY kits available, or your local agricultural cooperative extension could have testing available. 

Soil can become compacted during wintertime and patches of dead grass, or thatch, may need to be removed. Core aeration can help loosen the soil and remove thatch. This thatch not only stops proper drainage, but also permits weeds and pests to more easily overrun the turf. Lawn aeration removes small patches of soil to better let water and nutrients to reach the roots. 

Overseeding your Tulsa lawn will help to fill-in any bare spots and improve your lawn overall. The new varieties of seed planted can have a higher resistance to disease than those varieties already in the lawn, making your lawn tougher and easier to maintain. 

And, of course, your lawn must be feed. As grass begins to grow, it’s imperative that it has the nutrients it needs to grow strong and vibrant enough to block weeds. Slow-release fertilizers and regular watering will help the soil and grass flourish. Timing of lawn fertilization is important to having healthy grass. Fertilizing too early or too late could harm the growing turf.

Oklahoma Landscape uses a 6-step fertilization and weed control program customized to your lawn to give it just the nutrients it needs at the right time. An effective pre-emergent and post-emergent weed control system is needed to thwart weeds from overtaking the lawn; however, weed control also must be applied at the right time. 

But healthy grass will ultimately do the best job in thwarting weeds by naturally blocking out sunlight and choking the weeds. That’s why a good lawn fertilization program will ensure the lawn stays healthy. 

Correct mowing is also essential to a healthy lawn. Although it may be easier, mowing your grass too short can harm the lawn in the long run by causing the soil to dry out faster, giving weeds more sunlight to grow, and putting more stress on the grass. 

Thus, you’ll need to mow at the uppermost level so that you only remove the top one-third of the grass blade. Taller blades will be stronger and better able to choke out weeds and hold in more moisture in the soil. A lush, thick lawn will actually need less maintenance and be more resistant to disease. Make sure your lawnmower is in good repair and the blades are sharp to allow for cleaner cuts and thus healthier grass. Each new lawn mowing season, you can alternate the direction you mow to prevent putting unnecessary stress on your lawn. 

So while spring hasn’t arrived yet, you can still begin planning for a healthy, vibrant lawn now. Oklahoma Landscape can alleviate the stress of lawn care with a custom fertilization and weed control schedule and lawn maintenance program for your Tulsa landscape.

Weed Control in Tulsa - What is the Best Defense?

Lawn Care Tulsa

Weed Control…Tulsa homeowners know that to have a beautiful, healthy lawn you have to keep weeds in their place…virtually nonexistent, right? But what does that involve? Consistent lawn care all year round is the best defense against weeds. With a thick, healthy lawn, there’s less of a chance of weeds taking over.

For broadleaf weeds, you can start by using a weed herbicide to kill the weeds; and then after they turn brown, you can remove the thatch. But removing the weeds is only the beginning of consistent lawn care and a subsequently healthier lawn.

Aerating your lawn in the fall (for cool-season grasses) and in the spring or early summer (for warm-season grasses) can greatly improve the health of your lawn. Core aeration, as it’s sometimes called, breaks up compacted soil that over time can harden, keeping the roots from growing and preventing rainfall, fertilizer, and other nutrients from penetrating the soil. Aeration is done by making small holes in the grass and soil or by removing small core patches of soil and dead grass, or thatch. These small holes allow oxygen, water, and nutrients to reach the soil and grass roots. Oxygen helps prevent diseases and increases growth, and with enough room in the soil, roots can continue to grow and flourish. Thus, this simple procedure can greatly increase the health of your lawn, giving it the strength and thickness it needs to choke weeds out.



Weed Control

Fertilizing your lawn in the fall, just after aerating, will allow the nutrients to reach the soil and roots. And with temperatures cooling, there will be better conditions for the soil and grass to repair and rebuild itself.

Overseeding your Tulsa lawn with cool-season grass varieties in the fall will help to fill in any bare patches of grass and strengthen your lawn with new grass seeds. This will help grass stay healthy and more resistant to diseases and weeds. Again, a healthy, vibrant lawn is the best defense against those pesky weeds.

While herbicides can help keep weeds at bay, truly healthy lawns require a regular maintenance program of aerating, fertilizing, and overseeding to have effective weed control.

For more information visit, Weed Control Tulsa.