Spring has sprung! Is your lawn ready?

A healthy, green lawn provides curb appeal and increases your home’s value. Here are a few steps you can take to make your lawn look its best yet.

After a long winter, your lawn most likely has some bare patches and brown spots. Go through and spray and pull any weeds, and pick up any stray sticks or branches. If there are any more leaves left over from the fall, be sure to rake them up.

Dethatch your lawn. Thatch is a layer of dead grass that sits under the live grass and just above the ground. It keeps water from being able to get in the soil, so you want to remove it. Use a dethatching rake (you should be able to find one at your local hardware store) to get rid of that layer.

Your next step should be to aerate, or remove plugs of soil from, your lawn. The spaces you leave by doing this give the grass roots room to spread, making them stronger. Check with your local retailer to find out about renting an aerator.

Once you’ve cleaned up the lawn, it’s time to get it ready for the upcoming season. Go ahead and mow your lawn first, if needed. Next, seed the entire lawn (not just bare spots) with a grass that’s local to your area or is the same as the type of grass you already have. By overseeding, you can have a thicker lawn, as more of those seeds should take root in the ground.

Add fertilizer. Fertilizers contain a mix of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Each type is a little different, so when you visit your local store to buy fertilizer, ask an employee to explain the different types and find out which would be best for your lawn.

Along with fertilizing four times a year (early spring, late spring, summer and fall is a good schedule to follow), make sure you mow regularly (your schedule may change, depending on how much rain your area gets and how much fertilizer you use).

Make sure you cut off no more than one-third of the grass blades at a time, and mow in a different direction each time to avoid tracks from the lawnmower and to give the lawn a more natural appearance. Don’t worry about collecting the grass clippings—letting them fall to the ground (as long as they aren’t too long) saves time for you and provides a natural mulch for your lawn.