Home Trends: Spring Cleaning

Get a head start on sprucing up your lawn and garden for the season with this helpful guide.

Garden - Avoid digging too early. Soil should be damp but not sticky. Grab a handful. Is it moist enough to clump together, but dry enough to crumble apart as you open your hand? If so, then your soil is ready.

Beds - In planting beds, remove perennial stems that were left through winter to protect plant crowns and offer forage for birds. Don’t pull stems; instead, clip them at ground level. Allow bulb foliage to ripen and die naturally. Gently remove winter mulch and leaves that have accumulated on planting beds. Remove winter mulch on a cloudy day so that the spring sun doesn’t burn plants that have already emerged.

Fertilizer - Before a rain, sprinkle slow-release organic fertilizer around bulbs, perennials and roses, scratching it lightly into the soil. Add a fresh 2- to 4-inch-thick layer of organic mulch, such as compost or composted manure.

Planting - Germinate flower and vegetable seeds indoors, making sure seedlings receive 16 hours of light per day. Dig and divide summer- and fall-flowering perennials. Plant cool-season vegetables, broccoli, potatoes, onions, greens and lettuces as soon as you can work the ground.

Lawn

Weeds - In early spring before forsythia finishes blooming, apply a pre-emergent herbicide to turf to control crabgrass. Tackle dandelions and other broadleaf weeds by digging or spraying.

Repair - Overseed bare spots in cool-season lawns; however, wait until late spring or early summer to patch warm-season turf. Do not use pre-emergent herbicides if you plan to overseed.

Mower - Start mowing cool-season grasses when they show green. Raise the mower blade after the first spring cut, and never remove more than one-third of the grass-blade length.

Outdoor Living Areas

Deck - Remove dirt and mildew stains from your deck using a specially formulated deck-cleaning solution. If the deck is new construction, be sure to purchase a new wood treatment instead of a deck cleaner. Follow this step with a power wash. Choose a nozzle with a vertical slit to avoid scarring the wood. Don’t use bleach, which eats away at the wood. Follow with a high-quality deck stain.

Grill - Double-check the gas connection on your grill. Mix a solution of warm water with a small amount of dish soap, brush some on the connection, turn on the gas and watch. Bubbles signal a leak, which means you should replace your connector.

Use a wire brush and degreaser on the grill to remove baked-on grease on the cooking grate and grill pan. Heating them first can make grease easier to remove. Use a piece of wire to ensure burners and holes are clear.

This article is excerpted from Lowe’s Creative Ideas magazine. For more information, visit www.lowes.com.