6 Simple Steps to Get the Best Lawn in Town – These April Lawn Care Tasks Bring Lush Year-Long Results, Even if You’re Not a Gardener

Like all the plants in your garden, grass needs a little extra care in spring when the return of warmer weather kickstarts growth. None of these spring lawn care tasks are tricky or take long, but they'll support your grass to be strong, healthy and stay lush all summer. They’ll even save you time in the long run – spend an April afternoon getting your lawn set for success and there will be less bare soil for weed seeds to settle, and deeper roots will cope far better with summer heat.

Most grasses are dormant (hibernate) through winter, and only start waking up with slow growth when the soil temperature reaches 40°F, then really get growing when it’s consistently above 50°F. Warm-season grasses such as Bermuda and Zoysia aren’t active until it reaches 65°F. For many USDA zones, that happens in April, which means you have a prime window right now to give your grass all it needs for strong, healthy growth just as it wakes up.

It’s estimated that a healthy lawn has between six and 14 grass plants per square inch, so if you calculate how much time these tasks take per plant, you’re getting a great return on investment! And honestly, the year-long results make April lawn care the most satisfying gardening task of all.

I’ve included plenty of links to products, not because you need to spend lots to get a lovely lawn but so you know exactly which tools I’m talking about to get the best results. You likely already have many of them or, if any of your neighbors have a lush lawn, they definitely do, so go ask if you can borrow them!

Ready for the best lawn in town? Here's exactly what to do.

1. Sharpen Your Lawnmower Blades

Your first job is to mow your lawn, but always, always, start spring lawn care by sharpening your lawnmower blades. Sharp blades slice through grass blades, while blunt ones shred them. Torn edges take far longer to heal and lose more moisture than clean cuts, and also open the plant to disease, all of which takes valuable energy away from the growing process. It takes 10 minutes to sharpen blades with a simple sharpening stone such as this one from Amazon, and just five minutes with a blade sharpener bit that fits into a hand drill, like this from Amazon. You’ll easily get that time back as mowing with sharp blades is a far quicker job.

Sharp lawnmower blades also leave your lawn looking greener as torn grass tips often turn brown.

Do disconnect your lawnmower from a power source when you sharpen blades, and that includes removing the battery from a cordless mower as well as unplugging an electric mower.

Once blades are super-sharp, mow your lawn. Keep blades fairly high, no lower than 1½ inches above the ground, at this time of the year, as longer grass will develop deeper roots. You can gradually reduce the height to around 1 inch above the ground by summer for a more velvety finish – and by then, your grass is going to be so healthy, it’ll look luxuriously thick.

2. Lever Out Perennial Weeds

You don’t need to worry about low-growing lawn weeds like clover, daisies and wild violet. Regular mowing controls their growth and they're largely beneficial: clover takes nitrogen from the air and fixes it in the soil, which naturally fertilizes grass, and wild flowers are full of nectar to feed pollinators.

But those thug-like perennial weeds that throw long tap roots deep into the ground, such as dandelions, thistles, dock and chicory? It’s well worth getting rid of those straight away. Those deep tap roots mean they’ll easily withstand mowing and they all grow rapidly and produce abundant seeds that germinate quickly. A single dandelion flower can produce 150 seeds, each with a personal parachute that typically travels 6 feet, and one dandelion plant can grow up to 50 blooms. Let’s not bother doing the math, shall we – but do bother pulling up those perennial weeds before your lawn is full of them.

It’s vital to pull the tap root up because if you just snap it off, the plant will grow more strongly than ever. A notched tool designed for the job such as this handheld weeder from Amazon makes levering the root out of the ground easy. Or to save your back, use a long-handled claw-tip weed puller like this no-kneel tool from Amazon.

3. Rake Out Moss

Removing moss and dead grass out of your lawn is called dethatching and, once you see how much you pull out, you’ll realise why it’s such a vital lawn-care task in spring. Getting rid of it creates space for your existing grass plants to thicken up and for new grass seed to germinate, and removes competition for moisture and nutrients. It also creates a much healthier environment for strong root growth.

Use a springtine rake like this from Amazon – the sort you use for raking up fallen leaves – and the tines will easily pull out lots of moss and dead, brown grass. If your lawn is big, then an electric scarifier like this one from Amazon makes the job much quicker.

It’s best not to put the removed thatch on your compost heap unless you have a Hotbin that reaches the high temperatures needed to kill moss spores. This organic matter is great for lining hanging baskets though, as it hangs onto moisture very well.

4. Aerate the Soil

Making hundreds of tiny holes to aerate your lawn brings a number of benefits. Because we regularly trample all over our lawns, the soil often becomes compacted so it’s harder for nutrients and air to filter through to feed grass roots. It can also lead to waterlogged soil and patches of standing water on the lawn surface, suffocating roots. All this leads to weaker grass growth, which in turn means the lawn is more easily overrun with weeds.

There’s nothing difficult about aerating your lawn. You can simply push your garden fork into the ground, all over the lawn, to create the holes. If you’ve got heavy or waterlogged ground, then an aerator tool that self-cleans using springs to remove soil from the spikes like this from Amazon makes like easier. There are also push-along spiked rollers that save a lot of time if you’ve got a large lawn, like this from Amazon, and spiked soles that fit onto your boots (such as these from Amazon).

5. Overseed Your Lawn

Nearly done! You’ve removed all the competition and created optimum growing conditions for roots, so your next job is to fill all those newly vacant spots with grass plants by overseeding.

Any lawn repair product such as this from Amazon contains grass species that germinate quickly and grow fast. While these products are great for dealing with bare patches, if your grass is now looking a little sparse, you’re far better off choosing a specialist species that’s tailored to your climate conditions and level of lawn use. That way, the grass will grow better long-term with less intervention from you. You can also tailor the seed to different parts of your lawn, such as using a higher proportion of shade-tolerant seed in those tricky areas that don’t get much sun. As the weather has warmed up enough for grass growth, the seed will germinate quickly and have plenty of time to grow roots before summer heat arrives.

Follow the instructions on the packet. You’ve already loosened the soil surface when you dethatched and created lots of spots for direct soil contact by aerating, so the trick now is to keep those seeds moist while they germinate and grow roots to source their own water. April showers will help you along the way but, if it doesn’t rain, water frequently, several times a day to begin with.

6. Fuel Strong, Steady Grass Growth

Your last task is to fertilize to provide nutrients that fuel good growth. Choose a slow-release lawn fertilizer that will support strong root as well as shoot growth for months to come, such as this one from Amazon. Do double-check that your grass seed didn’t have fertilizer mixed in first though, as you don’t want to feed your lawn twice.

Don’t be tempted to exceed the packet instructions as over-fertilizing at this time of year causes rapid, weak growth that’ll mean you’re mowing way more often than you’d like. Fertilizing at the correct dosage will encourage slow and steady, robust growth that’ll result in a thicker lawn.

You’re all done, and your grass has everything it needs to grow into a lush carpet of green gorgeousness, and stay looking good for the rest of the year. Depending on the weather, which will dictate how quickly your grass grows, aim to mow your lawn every week or fortnight. Each and every time you mow, slicing off the grass tips encourages the plant to grow denser, deeper roots and more shoots, so regular mowing will thicken up your lawn a treat. Mowing once a week and only nipping off a little top-growth will bring far better results than mowing less often, and cutting off more.

You’re now in a win-win happy-lawn situation as the denser your lawn grows, the more blades it has to turn sunlight into energy, to fuel more growth. Just keep those lawnmower blades nice and high till summer, and remember to sharpen them again soon – experts recommend resharpening after eight hours of mowing time.

Feeling smug already? Just wait till summer and you’ve got the best lawn in town!