The Lawn Care Calendar: What to Do Each Season

Lawn care is mostly timing. The same task done six weeks early or late can be wasted money or even damage. The right calendar depends on your grass type, which splits the country roughly in two: cool-season lawns (Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, fine fescue) across the north, and warm-season lawns (bermuda, zoysia, St. Augustine, centipede) across the south. Not sure which you have? See the grass types guide.

Cool-season lawns

Early spring

• First mow once the lawn is actively growing; keep it high, 3 to 3.5 inches.
• Pre-emergent for crabgrass when soil hits about 55 degrees F for several days (roughly when forsythia blooms fade).
• Light fertilizing only; heavy spring nitrogen builds shoots at the expense of roots.

Late spring

• Spot-spray broadleaf weeds while they are young.
• Sharpen mower blades; ragged cuts brown the lawn and invite disease.

Summer

• Raise the deck. Taller grass shades roots and needs less water.
• Water deeply and infrequently, about an inch a week including rain. The watering planner turns that into sprinkler minutes.
• Skip fertilizer in heat; feeding a heat-stressed cool-season lawn does more harm than good.

Fall (the big season)

• Core aerate and overseed early fall while soil is warm and nights cool. Use the seed calculator for rates.
• Fertilize in early fall, and again with a final feeding around the last mow.
• Keep mowing until growth stops; drop the height slightly for the last cuts.
• Mulch-mow leaves rather than bagging where you can.

Warm-season lawns

Spring

• Pre-emergent earlier than up north, when soil hits about 55 degrees F.
• Wait for full green-up before the first fertilizing. Feeding dormant turf feeds weeds.

Late spring through summer (the big season)

• This is the feeding window. Fertilize every 6 to 8 weeks while the lawn is growing hard; the fertilizer calculator converts bag numbers into actual pounds of product.
• Mow low and often for bermuda and zoysia; St. Augustine stays taller.
• Sod, plug, or sprig new areas in early summer so they root in heat they love. Quantities via the sod calculator.

Fall

• Last fertilizing 6 to 8 weeks before your first expected frost.
• Fall pre-emergent stops winter weeds like poa annua.
• Optional: overseed with ryegrass for green winter color, knowing it competes with spring green-up.

Winter

• Dormant warm-season lawns need little: stay off frosted turf, and water occasionally during dry warm spells.

The two rules that beat any calendar

First, never remove more than a third of the blade in one mow. Second, water deep and rare rather than shallow and daily. Those two habits fix more lawns than any product does.