New Hampshire Lawn Care

🌱 Spring

• Wait for 55°F soil rather than a date — the Seacoast and Coos County are three weeks apart
• Rake open snow-mould patches in March or April instead of spraying; the damage was done in November
• Look for vole runways once the snow goes and rake and overseed them rather than treating for anything
• Soil test if it has been three years — UNH asks for one before establishment and every three years after

☀️ Summer

• Mow high and let the lawn go dormant in a dry July: the dense till substratum means the roots have nowhere deeper to go
• Keep all fertilizer 25 feet back from surface water — that setback is state law here, not a courtesy
• Expect brown patch in the southern tier when nights stop cooling; it is rarer north of the notches
• Watch river-valley sand lawns for chinch bug in the hot dry strips along drives and roadsides

🍂 Fall

• Seed August 15 to September 30 — earlier within that window the further north you are
• The last fertilizer of the year goes down before September 15 in the north, October 1 in the south
• Apply lime now if the test asked for it; the freeze-thaw cycle works it in over winter
• Rake leaves off before lasting snow arrives, because a matted leaf layer is where snow mould starts

❄️ Winter

• Expect snow mould where snow settled on unfrozen ground, and plan next autumn's cleanup around it rather than buying a fungicide in March
• Keep snowbanks and plough piles off the turf where you can — the last piles to melt are where the mould sits longest
• Do not fertilize; the state's law is written around release rates and the ground is not taking any of it
• Send soil samples in the quiet months; the UNH lab runs about three weeks and longer in spring