If you give your lawn a little special attention this spring, it will be easier to keep lush and green into summer and fall. Here's a recipe for a spring lawn tune-up. Exact timing of what you do will vary depending on where you live and whether you have a warm season or cool season lawn. But in most areas, you can begin this month. For exact timing in your area, check the Bayer Advanced&trade Garden Calendar.

Fertilize. If you didn't feed your cool season lawn last fall, do so this spring. In southern areas, it may be time to begin feeding your warm season lawns. Check your local cooperative extension office or the Bayer Advanced Garden Calendar for more information.

Control insects. In many parts of the country, white grubs wreak havoc with lawns. They feed on grass roots and can destroy your entire lawn if left untreated. If you have had white grubs in the past (for more information click here), apply Bayer Advanced™ Season-Long Grub Control Granules. Its new, patented dual-action formulation promotes turf recovery with essential nutrients and controls grubs all summer long. And don't forget, today's grubs are tomorrow's plant-eating beetles. See below for more information.

Control weeds. Weeds compete with grasses for water and nutrients and make your lawn look lousy. A well-cared-for, vigorous lawn will resist weed invasions, but if you have problems, use Bayer Advanced™ All-In-One Weed Killer for Lawns Ready-To-Use. It kills lawn weeds like dandelion and clover, plus grassy weeds, like crabgrass and nutgrass, in one easy step. For St. Augustine lawns and other Southern lawns, use Bayer Advanced™ Southern Weed Killer for Lawns Ready-To-Spray to control your broadleaf weeds.

Aerate. Aerating, which removes small cores of soil, is one of the best things you can do for your lawn. It improves water and nutrient penetration, increases the amount of air that reaches the roots, and helps reduce thatch (see below). You can hire a lawn service to aerate your lawn or rent a power aerator from a local rental yard and do it yourself.

Dethatch. Thatch is a dense layer of organic matter that forms between the leaves and roots of your lawn. If it gets over a 1/2-inch thick, it prevents air, water and nutrients from reaching the roots and the lawn begins to suffer. You know you have thatch if your lawn has a spongy feel when you walk on it, or if when you turn on the sprinklers, the water is slow to be absorbed and runs into the gutter. You can also check for thatch by cutting a slice out of your lawn with a shovel and examining between the leaves and roots.

Check sprinklers. Spring is also the best time to check your irrigation system. A little work now will prevent dead spots in your lawn later this summer. If you have a permanent belowground system, turn it on and watch it run. Fix clogged or broken sprinklers and adjust those that are hitting sidewalks or fences. Make sure lawn sprinklers are covering the entire lawn. Set automatic timers for your spring watering schedule.

Water properly. Don't start watering until you're sure your lawn needs it (you'll notice a change in color from bright green to dull gray-green). Waiting as long as possible will encourage deeper roots and better drought tolerance later. When you do water, wet the soil to a depth of about 6-8 inches (check by probing the soil with a stiff wire; it will move easily through moist soil and stop when it reaches dry), then don't water again until the soil has partially dried. This time of year that should be at least a week in most areas.

This Month's Grubs Turn into This Summer's Beetles.

White grubs are the larval stage of a specific family of beetles, which includes Japanese beetles, June beetles and rose chafers. In other words, the grubs that may be in your lawn now will turn into beetles that feed on your trees, shrubs and flowers later this summer. (To take an informative look at the life cycle of white grubs and the beetles they change into, click here.) Bayer Advanced offers a complete line of products to protect your plants from these ravenous beetles. To protect your roses and flower use Bayer Advanced™ All-In-One Rose & Flower Care Concentrate. It protects from insects like Japanese beetles, and against diseases, while it feeds. To protect your trees for up to 12 months, use Bayer Advanced™ Tree & Shrub Insect Control Concentrate. No spraying is necessary. Simply mix with water and pour at the base of the tree. It's also available in a new landscape formula concentrate that treats twice as many trees. To protect and feed your trees, use the new Bayer Advanced™ Tree & Shrub Protect & Feed Granules. Again, no spraying is necessary – just sprinkle and water in. Both Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub formulations can also be used to protect trees from devastating pests like Emerald Ash Borer and adelgids.