Spring Lawn Care Tips for San Jose

Spring in the capital of Silicon Valley brings a welcome change with blooming flowers and mild, sunny days. It’s the perfect time to give your lawn a fresh start after the cooler months. To help you maintain a vibrant yard, check out these spring lawn care tips for San Jose.

It all starts with getting your lawn mower and string trimmer ready for the season so you’re ready to restart your mowing routine.

Your 4-Point Spring Lawn Care Checklist

1. Restart Your Mowing Routine

person behind a lawn mower mowing a lawn — Photo Credit: USDA NRCS Montana / Flickr / PDM 1.0

As spring arrives, check your lawn for signs of growth. Once the grass starts growing again, it’s time to restart your mowing routine. However, mowing correctly is just as important as mowing regularly.

One key rule to follow is to never remove more than one-third of the grass blade in a single mowing session. Cutting too much at once can stress the grass, weaken its roots, and make it more susceptible to pests and diseases.

By gradually reducing the height over multiple mowings, you’ll help your lawn stay healthy throughout the season.

2. Dethatch Your Lawn

dethatching lawn with a rake moss removal in the spring garden — Photo Credit: pitrs / Adobe Stock / License

Thatch is a layer on your lawn that’s often a mix of soil, leaves, and other organic matter. While a little bit of thatch can actually benefit your grass, too much of can attract lawn diseases and lawn pests. Clear away excess thatch with a rake or power rake, which are especially useful for this.

Thatch tends to build up when a lawn is overwatered or overfertilized, but overall, you should dethatch your lawn in San Jose once a year, in mid-to-late spring or early fall.

3. Fertilize the Grass

bags of lawn fertilizer and herbicide sitting on a lawn with a fertilizer spreader in the backyard — Photo Credit: JJ Gouin / Adobe Stock / License

Fertilizing in spring gives your grass the nutrients it needs to thrive, but the timing depends on whether you have warm-season or cool-season grass. Both types are common in San Jose, so it’s important to tailor your approach:

Cool-season grasses: For grasses like tall fescue and perennial ryegrass, fertilize in March and again in May to support them while they’re actively growing.
Warm-season grasses: For grasses like Bermudagrass, wait until the grass has fully greened up, which typically happens in May, before applying fertilizer.

For tips on how to identify which grass is in your San Jose lawn, check out our article: Best Grass Types in San Jose

4. Control Weeds

man spraying grass with herbicides — Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Spring is prime time for pesky weeds to start appearing in your lawn, including the notorious crabgrass. To keep these unwelcome invaders at bay, apply a pre-emergent herbicide when soil temperatures reach 58 degrees or once your lawn has fully greened up, typically in April or May.

If weeds still manage to pop up, don’t worry. You can manually remove them, making sure to pull out the roots to prevent regrowth, or use a post-emergent herbicide to tackle established weeds.

Help Your Lawn Thrive This Spring

Spring is the perfect time to give your lawn in San Jose the care it needs to thrive. From mowing and fertilizing to tackling weeds, these tips will help you create a lush lawn ready for the warmer months ahead.

Need professional help? Visit our San Jose lawn care page to hire an experienced local LawnStarter lawn care pros. We also serve other California cities, including San Francisco and Sacramento.

Main Image Credit: David Sawyer / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

Jeff Herman

Jeff Herman, editor-in-chief of LawnStarter, mowed lawns as a teen, and his uncle owned the biggest sod business in St. Louis. Previously, Herman worked at The New York Times, CreditCards.com, and most recently at AllAboutVision.com. Now Herman is All About Lawn Care.

Posts by Jeff Herman