Community Corner

Getting An Early Start on Flower Bed, Lawn Preparation for Spring

Schnarr's Do It Best Hardware owner has all kinds of tips to get going.

Though we are not officially out of winter, and we will be experiencing wild weather swings through March and even early April, the time has come to clean up the flower beds and prepare the yard for the growing season ahead.

Patch wanted some answers so we went right to the expert, Frank Blair, owner of Schnarr’s Do It Best Hardware at 9800 Clayton Rd.

The question remains, is there any such thing as the perfect yard? Blair looks at it this way. “The better you want your lawn to look, the more effort you must put into it.” Finding beautiful lawns in Ladue and Frontenac is hardly a difficult task. Majestic lawns populate both communities.

Blair has some good advice and some warnings to heed as gardeners tackle the first outdoor duties of the season.

General Cleaning

Yards need to be raked up. Flower beds need thorough cleaning. Blair says to get out there with a blower or rake and get the winter’s supply of debris out of the beds and the yard.

“You want to be sure sun light hits the perennials,” he said. Early spraying helps eradicate the possibility of fungus attacking the early plantings. “Now is the time to do that pruning of limbs and branches,” he said.

In time, for a nice lawn, some pre-emergence needs to be spread around.
“But certainly not yet,” said Blair. The temperature has to be steady days of 50s, so we need some days in the 70s to get there.”

Seed Mix

Blair recommends grabbing a bag of Georias Shade Mix. “This is a blend of fescue that works very well in this area,” said Blair where mature trees often shade major portions of yards.

“To get that seed to really germinate, the seed needs good soil contact. Be sure to rough up the soil a lot and let the water do its work.” He says there are a number of commercial soil treatments to assure that moisture is always present. Dry soil almost guarantees the seed will not become sprouts.

“Peat moss is good, but generally, we don’t use a lot of straw anymore. The straw will have diseases some times and you don’t want to introduce that.” Blair feels that covering new seed with burlap can work well in small patchy areas.

“The biggest problem can be too much rain in the spring. That’s the one thing that often takes away the seed before it can get going.”

Once spring arrives, Blair recommends laying down some broad leaf weed killer to eradicate those wild purple violets found in many lawns.

Ready for the first mowing of the season

Blair says to get that lawn more tuned up and ready to go. “Be sure to change the oil, get new filters and get rid of any old gasoline.

Schnarr’s Market has been a fixture along Clayton Road for well over 50 years. What started out as a wagon repair shop became a grocery store (the loading dock remains) and converted to hardware sales in the early 1960s.

People appreciate the friendly personal service they get from the friendly staff at this local Ladue institution.





Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Ladue-Frontenac