Spring lawn care fails more often from bad timing than bad technique. Put pre-emergent down too late and the crabgrass is already up. Fertilize too early and you push tender growth into a hard frost. Here is how the season actually unfolds in northern Illinois — give or take a couple of weeks depending on the year.
Mid-March to early April: wake the lawn up
- Rake out matted areas and any leaves left from fall to let air and light back in.
- Look for snow mold — gray or pink matted patches — and gently rake to help them recover.
- Hold off on heavy fertilizer; the lawn is not ready to use it yet.
Early to mid-April: stop weeds before they start
This is the pre-emergent window, and it is the one most homeowners miss. A pre-emergent herbicide stops crabgrass and other annual weeds from germinating, but only if it is down before the soil warms. The old rule of thumb: apply when the forsythia blooms and before the lilacs do.
Pre-emergent and grass seed cancel each other out — the same barrier that stops weed seeds stops grass seed. If you need to seed bare spots in spring, you have to choose. This is one big reason fall is the better seeding season.
Late April to May: feed and mow
Once the lawn is actively growing and nighttime frosts are done, give it a balanced spring feeding. Start mowing regularly, and remember the one-third rule — that first cut after a fast-growing stretch should not scalp the lawn back to nothing.
May into June: spot-treat and water smart
- Spot-treat broadleaf weeds like dandelion and clover rather than blanket-spraying.
- Begin deep, infrequent watering as rain tapers off — about an inch a week, in one or two soakings.
- Raise the mower height as temperatures climb toward summer.
The mistakes that cost you the season
The two big ones: missing the pre-emergent window, which means fighting crabgrass all summer instead of preventing it, and fertilizing before the lawn can use it, which feeds weeds and risks frost burn. Both come down to reading the calendar and the weather together.
If keeping track of all that on top of everything else sounds like a chore, it is — pleasantly so for us, because we do it every year. Tell us about your lawn and we will run the spring program on schedule.