Tis the season!

As snow falls and white becomes the color of the season, your green, grassy turf calls for different winter lawn care and maintenance. While lights and sparkles make the season look festive, do not easily overlook how your lawn grass needs enough balanced and regulated lawn care. Understanding this is imperative in keeping your lawn in great shape as the cool season approaches. As you ensure that your winter lawn receives the care it needs, you are also at the same time making way for a healthy turf in the coming seasons post-winter. So how do you make that happen? How do you stay on top of winter lawn care and preserving that picturesque lawn all year round?

Observing the weather patterns and temperature that change with the season does volumes for your winter lawn. This does not exactly prompt a 24/7 weather watch for you. Nope. This only means you have to know the environment in which your grass thrives. And you have to know it very well. Knowing so will help you understand the changes that happen to your lawn that is brought about by the seasonal changes. This lets you anticipate the changes and gets you ready to apply the right lawn care for the season. So, what should you be on the lookout for in the cool season?

What does your lawn need come the cold, cold winter?

Keep mowing. You may think your grass does not need mowing as winter approaches. Well, that is just not true! You must keep mowing your lawn until you see that the grass has stopped growing. That is the only signal that it’s time to stop. Your final mowing must be a bit lower than normal to prevent snow mold and vole damage as the ground becomes covered with snow for a couple of months.

Snow mold is a type of fungus and turf disease that damages or even kill grass after the snow melts in late winter.

If you are a Kentucky bluegrass or fescue lawn owner, your lawn may not be prone to snow molds, but that does not encourage complacence in your winter lawn care. Long grass is a favorite of snow molds, so remember to mow your grass shorter for its last cut in winter. Mind those leaves, too. It is wise to keep fallen leaves away or mulch them to eliminate additional breeding ground of snow molds.

Keep watering your lawn before the freeze. Grass water needs are a year-round issue. Just as you should keep mowing until the grass stops growing, you should keep watering your lawn as needed. Grass needs to welcome winter fully hydrated. But take utmost care not to make the soil overly wet. You must understand that water helps protect the lawn even in cool season. But knowing the right time to water and amount of water to apply is key to keeping it alive. Watering your lawn in winter empowers it to fight the damage that the cold weather brings.

Dehydrated grass in winter is bad news.

Because water releases heat more slowly than plants do, watering your lawn helps retain heat in your grass longer than if it were dehydrated. Observe the temperature. Water your lawn a day or two before the freeze arrives to give the water ample time to soak into the roots. In the cold months, even when your grass is dormant, their roots still need that water to stay hydrated.

Fertilize. Just as you need to take vitamins to supplement your nutritional diet, grass also needs its own food to stay at its best shape even in winter. Where fertilizing is concerned, timing is everything. Winter lawn fertilizing can be a challenge to many, even to some lawn care veterans. Whether to fertilize or not and when to feed or not to feed are always the question. The ideal time to feed cool season grass is in late fall or early winter.

As the season turns cold and before the snow covers the grass, give your grass a thorough fertilizing.

This seals the nutrients that the soil may have lost during the hot summer months. So as the weather turns cold, you can be assured that your grass is well-fed. Once the cold temperature sets in, the fertilizer will remain in the soil and do its job feeding your lawn grass roots all winter long. You will see these efforts pay off when winter is over and spring comes to show you healthy, lush, green grass that has taken advantage of the feeding you gave it underneath the winter snow.

Keep lawn care equipment in good shape. While winter is here to stay for a couple of months, it is a good time to clean and winterize your lawn mower and other lawn care tools and equipment. So as you make room for the winter holidays and festivities, be sure to tuck your tools away properly oiled and cleaned, ready for the next season.

FAQ: How can you prevent damage from the use of salt on your lawn?

Salt is placed on snow and ice to break through it and melt it. However, to your winter lawn grass, it can cause more harm than you can imagine. The components of salt that melt the ice and snow are the very same ones that are deadly to your lawn grass. The presence of salt prevents moisture from getting to the grassroots as it removes moisture from the soil. This causes your grass to be dehydrated and to eventually die.

Salt on blades of grass is just as harmful as it also sucks out moisture and leaves the grass withered.

So how do you minimize the harm salt can do to your lawn? As winter necessitates the use of salt, the key to preventing and minimizing the damage it can potentially do requires effort and time from you. Use barriers to keep salt away where your lawn grass grows. If you have to, shovel often to help minimize freezing snow and require you less salt on those areas where you need them. If you can, use alternatives like de-icing agents that are friendly to landscapes and grass. Regulate the amount of salt you use by following the directions on the bag. When you shovel snow, don’t keep them in just one area. Spread them out to neutralize the salt content instead of concentrating it on one area.

What All American Turf Beauty Says About Winter Lawn Care

Snow and ice in winter mean no weeds and less mowing and watering. This does not mean you can simply sit back and neglect lawn care. Winter calls for other lawn care methods so you can keep your lawn grass healthy when the cool season departs. Ask the experts for more winter lawn care advice. Call us today and talk to our lawn care experts at 1-800-365-8873.