Northeast Ohio Lawn Care: The Ultimate Guide for a Lush Lawn

Dreaming of a lush, green lawn that turns heads in your Northeast Ohio neighborhood?

Achieving a picture-perfect lawn isn’t just about mowing it and giving it some water every now and then. There’s a science behind proper lawn care, especially in a region like Northeast Ohio where the climate can swing dramatically throughout the year. But with the right maintenance and attention, you can grow a lawn that’s the envy of the block. 

This ultimate guide on how to get a great lawn in Northeast Ohio walks you through everything you need to know – from understanding Northeast Ohio’s unique climate and soil types to the essential lawn care practices that will keep your grass healthy all year long. 

Table of Contents 

Understanding the Northeast Ohio Climate
Soil Types and Their Influence on Grass Health
Basic Lawn Care Practices
Common Lawn Pests and Effective Control Methods in Northeast Ohio
Weed Control in Northeast Ohio
Lawn Diseases in Northeast Ohio
Other Lawn Problems in Northeast Ohio
Seasonal Lawn Care Calendar for Northeast Ohio
Choosing the Right Lawn Care Company in Northeast Ohio
Why Choose Turf Pride Lawn Care?

Understanding the Northeast Ohio Climate

Northeast Ohio’s unique climate can make lawn care challenging for homeowners with its sunny, dry summers and cold, snowy winters, as well as the windy and wet springs and autumns in between. 

The weather in Northeast Ohio has four distinct seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Spring's rain and warming temperatures bring new leaves on trees, blooming wildflowers, and people anxious to get outside after a long winter. Average annual rainfall is around 39 inches.

Summer temperatures range from 49 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit and have the tendency to be humid. 

Fall temperatures can range from low 70s during the day to freezing during the night. Fall foliage often peaks during the first few weeks in October. Summer weather conditions, such as drought, may alter the time that the leaves peak.

Winter weather conditions can rapidly change, due to the lake effect snow from Lake Erie. Temperatures vary from mid-30s to below 0 degrees. The area averages 61 inches of snow annually. 

Transitioning from season to season comes with a lot of work for a typical Northeast Ohio homeowner. Following the suggestions in this guide can help you get a handle on how to get a nice lawn. 

Soil Types and Their Influence on Grass Health

How to get a green lawn starts with understanding and tending to the soil.

In fact, when you see problems above ground in your lawn, it can sometimes mean what’s causing the visible issue above ground is actually happening below ground. That’s right: Having a green, thick lawn can mean addressing soil care, as well as lawn care. 

Remember, your soil is the foundation for the good health of your grass. 

Your poor soil might be compacted, lacking organic matter, or its pH might be way off the mark. All of these things can cause lawn care problems. And since your soil can’t verbally tell you what’s wrong, you may be completely missing the problem. 

But there are things you can do, including giving your lawn the right organic nutrition and soil testing, when necessary. 

Soil Types and Challenges in Northeast Ohio

First, let’s talk about the type of soil you have in Northeast Ohio and their impacts on lawn health. 

Our soils tend to be clay-based and on the acidic side. Clay soils retain water well but can become compacted, leading to poor drainage and root growth.

Northeast Ohio soils also tend to have low pH, which is what makes it acidic. You want your lawn soil to be in a pH range that puts it in an ideal position to take in nutrients, which for Northeast Ohio is a pH range between 6.0 and 7.0. Very acidic soils have a hard time growing grass. Shaded areas of lawns may also often have low soil pH.

Soil Improvement Strategies

How to get a great lawn starts with the addition of organic fertilization at regular intervals to help replenish your soil’s organic matter. 

But if you find you continue to have lawn problems, soil testing can help you get to the bottom of any issues. Many lawn care companies will recommend soil testing on an as-needed basis or when a problem arises in your lawn. The test involves grabbing soil samples from different areas of your lawn to ensure a cross-section of soil. The samples are usually sent to a local extension service or lab for analysis. 

You can get a soil test at any time of the growing season in Northeast Ohio. You just want to avoid a few times when soil conditions make it harder, such as in winter when soil is hard or when soil is excessively wet. 

There are also some amendments that can help your soil. For instance, if you find your pH is off, lime applications can help bring your soil up to the right pH. A lawn care company may suggest maintenance or corrective lime applications if your pH is excessively low,to help get your soil back to the right pH levels. 

Basic Lawn Care Practices

For a lush, green lawn in Northeast Ohio, consistent and correct maintenance matters. There are some fundamental lawn care practices that are essential when considering how to have the greenest lawn. 

Mowing Best Practices

Mowing might seem simple, but there’s a right and wrong way to do it. 

You want to start by keeping your grass at 3 to 4 inches in height to encourage deep root growth, limit stress, discourage weeds, and maintain density. 

Sharpening your mower blades and maintaining your mower help provide the best cut each time. Aim to mow weekly during the growing season, and always avoid cutting more than one-third of the grass blade at any one time to prevent lawn stress. Changing up your mowing patterns can help your grass stand tall.

Lawn Watering Techniques

Effectively watering your lawn is essential in how to have the greenest lawn in Northeast Ohio. 

You might think Mother Nature provides enough moisture for your lawn, but during some years your grass may not be receiving enough. Water is key to your lawn’s overall performance and vigor, as well as optimum thickness and health.

If you see yellow grass blades, this could be the result of insufficient water or even drought stress. 

That’s why a key lawn maintenance tip is to add about 2 inches of water weekly with an irrigation system or sprinklers, particularly when the weather doesn’t deliver what your lawn needs. 

In addition to inadequate water, lawns can also receive too much water. In this case, you’ll see yellowing or spots in your lawn and assume it’s drought when, in fact, it’s a lawn disease that crept in as a result of overwatering. 

Watering should be done deeper and longer than you think and at less frequent intervals to reach your weekly water goal. Timing of watering is also important; water before sunrise or early in the day before the sun and wind can evaporate the water. This is important because you want to give that water time to soak into the soil. 

Lawn Fertilization 

Home building, landscape renovation, mower and foot traffic, and rainfall can all compact your lawn soil and strip it of nutrients and organic matter. 

This can lead to a less-than-ideal lawn growing environment. That’s why supplementing with organic fertilizer is important. 

A consistent Ohio lawn fertilizer schedule can help your grass receive the nutrients it’s missing, and your grass is doing something different each season. In the spring, fertilization helps kick off lawn growth, and in the fall it ensures solid root growth. 

Common Lawn Pests and Effective Control Methods in Northeast Ohio

Lawn pests can wreak havoc on your Northeast Ohio grass if left unchecked. 

One of the most common lawn pests to look for are white grubs. These white, C-shaped pests have soft, squishy bodies with legs right beneath their heads. 

Through their life cycles, they can actually damage your landscape plants above and below ground. They start in spring after waking up from winter hibernation. They climb up from deep in the soil and rest beneath the grass surface, feeding on your lawn’s roots. But with your grass experiencing vigorous growth at this time of year, you usually will not see a ton of damage right away. 

By late spring, those grubs are bigger and eating more. Then they pupate and emerge as flying beetles of various species, including Japanese beetles. These pests feed on your flowers like your roses, leaving behind chewed leaves and unhealthy plants. 

Then those beetles mate, deposit eggs in your lawn and begin the cycle all over again. When the new grubs feed on lawn roots in fall, this is when you might notice a lot of damage because your lawn is stressed from getting through the hot summer. 

You might notice a loose, spongy, or underperforming lawn when you have grub damage. 

Catching grubs early when they are small or before they hatch is important. Early prevention of grubs happens in May and June in Northeast Ohio. Turf Pride offers a grub control lawn grass treatment that provides season-long control that lasts through summer and fall. We will also come back and inspect your lawn to ensure grubs haven’t returned.

On top of that, you want to take care of your lawn with proper organic fertilization to ensure it bounces back from any grub damage. 

All of these lawn grass treatments are pet- and kid-safe, so you can rest easy that your lawn is protected from grubs and that your kids and pets can continue to play outside without worry. 

Weed Control in Northeast Ohio

Weeds are the ultimate lawn party crashers. They show up uninvited, and if left unchecked, they can quickly take over your Northeast Ohio lawn. 

Several weeds can thrive here when given the right conditions. These persistent plants can steal nutrients from your grass, choke out your desirable plants, and leave your lawn looking patchy and neglected. 

Common Weeds and How to Manage Them

No one likes weeds that blemish an otherwise great looking lawn. Let’s look at some common lawn weeds in Northeast Ohio and how to manage them so you can keep your lawn looking its best.

• Dandelions: These weeds emerge from seeds and the roots become perennial taproot systems that lie dormant over the winter months. That makes them one of the first weeds to emerge in spring. And the root systems are what makes these common perennial broadleaf weeds take over your lawn if they aren’t managed early. Using a selective broadleaf weed control product during the right time – usually active growth of the dandelion weed – can help you gain control of this very visible and attention-grabbing weed in your lawn.
• Crabgrass: Crabgrass starts germinating in the soil during the spring, and if left uncontrolled, you’ll start to see it in June and July. Crabgrass loves thin, weak lawns that don’t receive enough water or nutrients. And it is aggressive. Thick crabgrass patches can even bully out weak lawn areas and then leave bare areas in its wake that you have to tend to later with overseeding. The excessive seeds crabgrass plants produce and the weakening of the lawn only exacerbate the problem come next spring and summer. The best way to control this weed is with pre-emergent weed control to stop it before it starts. For breakthrough weeds, a professional lawn care company will use post-emergent weed control as part of your lawn care schedule in Northeast Ohio.
• Oxalis: ​​This weed, also called yellow wood sorrel, can resemble clover. It has heart-shaped leaflets and five-petaled yellow flowers and likes shady, moist locations. Selective herbicide applications can help tackle this troublesome weed.
• Nutsedge: This pale, greenish-yellow weed grows taller than your regular grass, showing up in mid-summer in Northeast Ohio. You’ll find nutsedge in wet areas, such as in ditches or possibly where you have a broken sprinkler head or lawn drainage issues. A lawn care professional will use a commercial-grade, selective herbicide to control this weed. 

Lawn Diseases in Northeast OH 

Lawn diseases tend to show up in your lawn in spots and patches. 

Some common lawn diseases in Northeast Ohio attack when certain conditions merge to create the perfect disease growing conditions – namely humidity, moisture, and poor lawn health. But there are things you can do as part of lawn care in Ohio, based on the specific disease, that can protect your lawn and help it return to its blemish-free self.

Keep an eye out for these common lawn diseases in Northeast Ohio:

• Brown Patch: Along with humidity and summer temperatures comes this spring lawn disease. Just like its name implies, brown patch appears in circular patches that are brownish-yellow in color. This disease likes heat and humidity, particularly when nighttime temperatures remain consistently above 68 degrees Fahrenheit and daytime temperatures are at 85 degrees Fahrenheit or above. To battle brown patch, remember to properly fertilize your lawn. Once rainfall resumes after a dry summer, this disease usually begins to disappear. Overseeding your lawn in the fall can help thicken up any bare areas, helping to further protect it from problems down the road.

• Dollar Spot: This disease appears as small straw-colored circles on Kentucky bluegrass. Spots start out the size of 2-inch to 6-inch silver dollars, hence the name dollar spot.. They can be very unsightly in spring. Dollar spot can last through fall, causing the most damage in June and July. It loves under-fertilized lawns, as well as grass impacted by drought and soil compaction. Take care of your lawn and prevent dollar spot with adequate fertilization and annual aeration and overseeding.
• Red Thread: This early disease during the Northeast Ohio growing season likes spring’s cool, moist conditions. The disease is a growth of the fungus Laetisaria fuciformis. And the reason red thread fungus treatment can be hard is because the red threads can grow beneath beige or light brown grass, masking the disease. If your lawn is lacking in fertilization – particularly nitrogen – this can make your grass weak or stressed and bring about red thread.

Other Lawn Problems in Northeast OH 

There are also some other things that can impact your efforts on how to get a nice lawn. Let’s review a few of those challenges, so you can be ready in case you encounter them. 

• Growing Grass in the Shade: To grow grass in shady spots, remember to thin your tree canopy so you get at least 4 hours of sunlight in the area, aerate and overseed each fall, or plant a grass alternative like groundcover.
• Aerate to Help a Compacted Lawn and Overseed to Fill in Bare Areas: Core aeration is when you use a special machine called an aerator to pull small soil cores or plugs from your lawn. Those cores are then deposited back across the lawn, breaking down over the next week to redeposit organic matter back into your soil. Since lawns need some basic things to survive – oxygen, water, and nutrients – aeration helps break up compaction and allow these three things free passage. Overseeding at this time is usually a great idea as well for great seed germination. When you aerate, you naturally create these pockets to get the seed as close to the soil as possible, boosting your germination results. 

Seasonal Lawn Care Calendar for Northeast Ohio

Knowing what your Northeast Ohio lawn care schedule should entail through each season can help you best achieve a lawn you can be proud of. Follow this lawn care guide to ensure you don’t miss a step as the seasons gradually shift throughout the year. 

Spring Lawn Care Checklist

• Clean Up Your Yard: Lightly rake up dead leaves and pick up debris from winter’s wrath.
• Prep Your Lawn Mower: Sharpen your mower blades, fill the tires with air, change the oil, and make sure everything works like it should.
• Fertilize: Apply a balanced, organic fertilizer to encourage spring growth.
• Target Spring Weeds: Apply a pre-emergent herbicide to help tackle those nasty weeds like crabgrass that are best controlled prior to germination. Pre-emergent herbicides are commonly applied earlier in the spring and then again later in the spring to provide an extended period of control.

Summer Lawn Care Checklist

• Water Wisely: Your lawn needs roughly 2 inches of water each week. If it doesn’t receive that from Mother Nature, you want to add water with supplemental irrigation via a system or sprinklers. Water deeply and less frequently to encourage deep roots.
• Mow High: Keep your grass taller in summer to protect the roots from heat. The ideal Northeast Ohio lawn height is 3 to 4 inches. This grass height optimizes your lawn health, so that it can grow thick and green and resist weeds. Maintaining this height usually means mowing weekly.

• Fight Insects: If you have any lawn pest problems, you’ll want to stay ahead of those. In May and June, for instance, you’ll want your lawn care professional to take care of grub prevention to avoid lawn damage. Then, as summer progresses, you want to watch for any insect activity or damage from pests like chinch bugs or bill bugs. 

Fall Lawn Care Preparations

• Aerate: Relieve soil compaction and improve water absorption.
• Fertilize: Apply a slow-release fertilizer to promote root growth, improve drought tolerance, thicken your lawn, and battle weeds.
• Leaf Removal: Remove leaves regularly to prevent smothering your grass and discourage snow mold.

Winter Lawn Care Tips

• Reduce Watering: Adjust your irrigation system as a result of cooler temperatures and shorter days. You don’t want to overwater now and encourage lawn disease – not to mention waste water.
• Mow Shorter on Your Last Mow: While you’ve done a good job keeping your lawn at a 3- to 4-inch height all spring and summer long, now it’s time to finally reduce your mowing height a bit to help prevent snow mold and any other damage winter can bring. Aim for no shorter than 2.5 inches.
• Last Fertilization: Fertilizing your lawn one last time with a slow-release, organic, granular fertilizer prepares a lawn for winter and gives grass roots nutrients to grow deeper.
• Prevent Snow Mold: Taking care of your grass all year long with regular fertilization, proper mowing, and leaf removal can all help in preventing snow mold from developing in late winter. 

Choosing the Right Lawn Care Company in Northeast Ohio

Hiring a professional company for lawn care in Northeast Ohio ensures your lawn receives expert attention. From soil care to pest and disease control, experienced technicians bring the tools and knowledge necessary to keep your lawn in prime condition. 

Plus, a well-maintained lawn can to a lot for your overall home value, including: 

• Elevating its curb appeal.
• Improving your lawn’s health.
• Boosting your home’s marketability.
• Reducing noise.
• Increasing air quality.
• Enhancing your family’s health and your pet’s health by giving them places to get outside. 

Let’s talk about some of things you should consider to choose a service provider for Northeast Ohio lawn care. 

DIY vs. Professional Lawn Care in Ohio

You want your lawn to look good, but there are quite a few services necessary when it comes to how to get a great lawn.  A green, thriving lawn certainly doesn’t happen by chance. You might even think you could just go to your home improvement store and grab some DIY lawn care products and get the job done yourself. But lawn care takes a lot more knowledge, precise timing, and technique than you think. 

Here are some of the challenges of DIY lawn care:

• DIY Takes a Lot of Education: Educating yourself on the proper lawn care steps and treatments takes some time and energy. You have to buy the right products, including the right mix of fertilizer, as well as apply them properly and at the right intervals. If you also want to control weeds, you have to add another application, following correct timing based on the specific weed you’re fighting and label instructions. This all needs to be done while using the right equipment that is properly calibrated. Lawn care professionals who do this everyday learn these skills and gain certifications over years of experience and studying.
• DIY Lawn Care Requires a Proper Dress Code: Since a lot of lawn care work happens in spring and summer, you may want to wear a t-shirt and shorts, but lawn care should be done with long pants, long sleeves, and proper safety equipment, such as gloves.
• DIY Lawn Care Tends to Cost More Than Professional Lawn Care: After purchasing the proper equipment and products, storing them correctly, and then sticking to a schedule based on  your lawn care challenges and weather conditions, you will likely spend more money doing the job yourself vs. hiring a pro. 

Compared to DIY lawn care, professional lawn care in Northeast Ohio keeps your lawn on the right schedule, so treatments don’t get missed. Lawn care professionals also use commercial-grade products, which you can’t find in home improvement stores. They are also trained to use these products properly.

What to Look For in a Lawn Care Company

If you’re unhappy with the way your lawn looks, you may be seeking a professional lawn care company to help you with your lawn care in Ohio. Here are some things you should consider as you vet different companies. 

• Realistic Expectations: It takes roughly one year with a lawn care business to truly assess the company’s impact on your lawn. Your grass is a living organism, so seeing changes will take some time. Don’t believe anyone who says your lawn will be transformed in two weeks.
• Reliability: You want a company that will show up when they say they will. This is especially important because lawn care is most effective when it’s done on a consistent schedule.
• Good Results: Are your weeds disappearing? Is your lawn greening up or thickening up? Once you assess a year’s worth of results, assess whether the technicians know what they are doing and are tackling your specific problems and issues.
• Great Communication: You want to know what’s going on with your lawn. You want to be able to ask questions and receive answers. You don’t want someone who isn’t talking to you or sharing updates and setting clear goals.
• Solid Reviews: Remember to check a company’s Google reviews to see how its customers feel about the service. 

Why Choose Turf Pride Lawn Care

As a Northeast Ohio lawn care option, Turf Pride would be honored to be considered as your lawn care service provider. We offer lawn services in Lake County, Geauga County, and Cuyahoga County.

Here are a few reasons we think you should add us to your list as you research your options:

• Extensive Service Offerings: We offer a full slate of lawn care services in Northeast Ohio, as well as pest control services. This means we can help you tackle more than one problem with only one phone call.
• Experience and training:  We employ registered professional lawn care applicators at our small, family-owned business. Also, several times a year we conduct training on proper application techniques and best practices to ensure lawn issue identification and correct product usage remains at the highest level. This helps keep our quality control high, elevating our customer service.
• Customer support: As a small- to medium-sized company, we prefer to keep our business at a size that enables us to maintain more personal customer relationships. That way we know you on a first-name basis and our service can be more responsive and immediate.
• Customer service ratings: How customers review a company speaks volumes about their services and customer care. We could not be more proud of our rating on Google and the kind reviews from our customers (5.0 rating out of 425 reviews!).

Request a Free Lawn Care Consultation

With all the advertising out there, it can be hard to figure out which company to trust with your Northeast Ohio lawn care. That’s why it’s so important for you to do your research. There’s nothing worse than believing in a lawn care company and then having them not come through for you.

While making your decision, we are here to help guide you. Obviously, we want to be at the top of your list of lawn care companies, but even if you don’t choose Turf Pride, we want you to be happy with the company you end up hiring. We hope this lawn care guide helps you make the best choice for you.

When you make a smart, well-researched decision, you get to relax in your yard without worrying about weeds or other lawn issues all year long.

Want to improve your lawn’s health and create a thicker, greener lawn? Turf Pride can help. Get started today with a free quote for lawn care in Lake County, Geauga County, and Cuyahoga County. Together, we’ll customize a plan that gives you the most attractive lawn on the block.