Your Spring Cleanup Checklist for Kent County Lawns

After a Michigan winter, your yard needs a reset. Snow, ice, freeze-thaw cycles, and months of leaf and stick accumulation leave most properties looking rough by mid-March. The good news: a single proper spring cleanup will undo all of it and set the lawn up for the strongest growing season possible. Here's what should be on the list.

1. Full debris clear

Start with a whole-property pass. Blower work to move loose leaves, sticks, and pine needles to collection points. Hand-rake any matted areas where wet leaves have packed down — these spots will smother new grass if left alone.

2. Bed edging

Over the winter, the line between your beds and your lawn blurs out. Grass creeps into beds. Mulch washes into the lawn. A fresh hand-cut bed edge restores the line and immediately makes the whole property look maintained.

3. Stick and branch removal

Wind, ice, and snow break a lot of small branches off trees over the winter. These need to be picked up before mowing season starts — running over them shreds them into the lawn and dulls mower blades fast.

4. Old mulch assessment

Check the mulch in your beds. If it's broken down to under an inch, it's time for a refresh. If there's still 2+ inches and it just looks faded, a quick rake to expose the fresh layer underneath buys you another season.

5. First lawn assessment

This is where a professional eye matters. After the cleanup, walk the lawn looking for: bare patches that need overseeding, low spots holding water, areas where snow mold has killed turf, and signs of vole or grub damage. Catching this in March means fixing it before May, when the lawn is supposed to be at its best.

6. Final blowout

Every hard surface — driveway, walkways, patio, deck — gets blown clean. The whole property should look like nobody's touched it in months and now suddenly it's ready for summer.

When to book

Best window in Kent County: mid-March through late April. Earlier than that and the ground may still be too frozen to work. Later than that and the grass starts growing aggressively, which makes debris harder to remove cleanly.

Need a spring cleanup in Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Ada, or Cascade? Text a photo of your yard to (616) 794-8898 for a same-day quote.