3.Do you already have a lawn? Aerate it in spring while it’s still moist and before spring rains are done. Aerating your lawn in springtime gives microbes and other small life forms a breath of fresh air after winter. Aeration also makes new paths for drainage and keeps your lawn from becoming saturated.

4.A lot is written about lawn fertilizer and big question is why? Grass is most efficient user of nitrogen on earth! Feed your soil with nutrient rich compost and let your lawn get its nutrients natural way. The more chemicals you use, more you disturb natural biological processes that convert organic matter into nutrients and microbes and other small organisms that take natural care of your lawn.

5.Mow your grass high. A 2 ½ to 3-inch high cut makes your lawn look fuller, feel softer, and helps keep it healthy. Taller grass shades pesky weed seeds and keeps them from getting established. In addition, a taller lawn is better able to absorb sunshine and better able to retain moisture, two main contributors to a healthy lawn.

6.Enjoy your lawn. After all, isn’t that your main reason for having a yard?

Hans is the owner and one of the editors of Lawn Mower Guide a Collection of Articles about Lawn Mowers and Lawn Care

Dry roots are chief cause of planting failures, and steps should be taken to prevent this—i.e., balling and burlapping, and heeling in. After receiving shrubs from a nursery, water as soon as possible; shade them from sunshine at first, mulch ground around them, and prune back severely.

The older plant you get, more severely it will have to be cut back, so that in long run, you come out just as well buying less expensive, smaller shrubs. Forsythia and azalea may be moved while in flower, but most plants should not.

Watering in fall, before ground freezes, is important for box, azalea, rhododendron, mountain laurel and broadleaf evergreens, whose leaves lose moisture in winter.

Pruning of shrubs helps to keep them young and vigorous. Rather than cutting all branches off to an even length, prune out older branches, even though they may be sound. With lilacs, for example, use a keyhole saw, and cut as close to ground as possible, cutting out oldest stems.

Some shrubs need pruning every year, especially those which have dead branches as a result of winterkill. (These include some deutzias, hydrangeas, buddleia, spireas and privets.) Other shrubs such as rhododendron, azaleas, magnolia and buddleia should have flower heads pruned off after blooming.