Spring lawn care in North Texas is less about working hard and more about doing four jobs in the right order. Get the sequence right in February, March, and April and the lawn mostly takes care of itself by June. Here is the order of operations we run on Rockwall County lawns.

Scalp Bermuda Once, and Do It Carefully

Sometime between late February and mid-March, before green-up gets going, drop your mower a notch or two below your normal setting and mow the dormant bermuda low, bagging everything. This one-time scalp removes the dead tan canopy so sunlight hits the soil, which warms it faster and speeds green-up by a week or two. It also hauls off a season of dead material before it becomes thatch.

Two cautions. First, this is a once-a-year job, not a mowing height. After the scalp, go back to 1.5 to 2 inches for the season. Second, never scalp St. Augustine. It carries its growing points in those above-ground runners, and a scalp cuts the lawn's future off at the knees. St. Augustine just gets a normal first mow and a light raking.

Beat the Pre-Emergent Deadline

Crabgrass germinates when soil temperatures hold around 55 F, which in Rockwall County typically happens around the start of March, earlier in a warm year. Your pre-emergent needs to be down and watered in before that. If you are reading this late, put it down anyway. Crabgrass germinates in waves into early summer, and a late barrier still stops the later waves.

Keep in mind what pre-emergent will not do: it cannot touch the winter weeds already up and blooming in March, the henbit and chickweed and dandelions. Those need a selective post-emergent, or simple patience, since most winter annuals die on their own once real heat arrives in May.

Feed After Green-Up, Not Before

The itch to fertilize in early March is strong, and it is worth resisting. Dormant and half-awake bermuda cannot use nitrogen, but every winter weed in the yard can, and early nitrogen also pushes tender top growth that a late frost will burn. Our average last freeze lands around mid-March, and cold snaps into early April are not rare.

The rule of thumb: hold the first fertilization until the lawn is fully green and you have mowed actively growing grass at least twice. For most local lawns that means mid-April. From there, the lawn is genuinely awake and every pound of fertilizer goes where you intended.

Wake the Sprinkler System Up Properly

Before summer schedules start, give the system one honest walkthrough. Run each zone from the controller and go look at it. Winter is hard on systems: freeze-cracked heads, seals that let go, heads knocked crooked by a season of nothing running. Check that the rain and freeze sensor is intact, put a fresh battery in the controller if yours uses one, and confirm the programmed schedule still matches your city's watering rules. Ten minutes now saves you from discovering a dead zone during the first 98 degree week of June.

If you would rather hand off the calendar-watching, this whole sequence is what a season-long program is for. The timing of Milliken's 8-step weed control and fertilization program is built around these exact windows, pre-emergent before the soil warms and feeding after true green-up, so none of the deadlines slip by.