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Looking after a garden is a year round job for some. If you get a brief break because there is snow on the ground, then there maybe some things you might want to research before Spring.

Spring is not the only nor always the best time to do prep work. If you really need to re-seed patches where the lawn looks bare, just before the snow comes is a good time of the year to start. The seeds will get worked into the soil as the snow falls & lay dormant during the winter months.

Once spring & the first melt arrive then the seeds will be in good mud & the early stages of germination will begin. Once they start getting the sun then good, fresh grass should follown in a couple of weeks.

Crabgrass & its relatives do not thrive in the Fall or Winter & this means that you have a head start on that kind of weed control. As the new lawn grass starts to spread, it has a good chance of stopping the crabgrass, & with any luck it will not develop at all.

Start applying the Spring fertilizer at the earliest possible time. This will help give the young shoots a good start and, if you use fertilizer that also controls weeds, you may solve two problems in one go.

As that snow continues to melt off there will be areas where the grass has become thatched ? this is a condition in which the blades get lain over one another, then compressed from the snow pack on top. Some of these may die over the winter & this can leave you with a kind of straw-like covering, hence the name ‘thatch’.

Doing something about this is easy. Just cut the grass a little later in Fall than you really need to so that the length is controlled. This restricts the height & helps keep thatching to a minimum.

In Spring give the grass a good raking. Of course, if you raked in the Fall, there will not actually be any leaves to get rid of but the extra raking helps pull up thatched areas & allows air to get to the soil.

If the ground has become hard, or the soil is easily compacted, you can follow that up with an aeration. This can be done either by using a special attachment on a riding lawnmower & running it over the grass, or using special large-drum rollers with spikes poking out.

An inexpensive way is to use special shoes which are like golf shoes with spikes on the bottom. You just put them on then walk around the area you want to aerate. The tiny holes made by the shoes allow air to penetrate the soil more easily. At the same time, it makes channels for solid fertilizer pellets to fall into.

After de-thatching & aerating, your lawn will be ready for you to carry out any weed control & to start seeding, fertilizer application & regular mowing.

Lawn care may not actually be easy but it is worthwhile.

Lee Dobbins writes for Backyard Garden & Patio where you can learn more about gardening & lawn care.