Preparing Your Lawn for the Winter Articles | Lawn Care

When it comes to autumn, a lot can be done to prepare your home and your yard for the needed winter nap. Gardens are harvested and put to rest and even the pools are treated and closed as well. Patio furniture is also put away until the return of spring weather in some months time. One more thing however still remains: the winterizing of your lawn.

Homeowners often tend to forget to make the necessary preparations for the winter months and later on their prized blades turn out damaged or worse when spring finally comes. In order to keep your lawn healthy and to keep it protected from disease, you should also take some time in order to prepare it for winter. If you fail to do this, the snows will melt and you will discover grass which is dead and brown when everything else is turning green.

There are four basic steps to winterizing your lawn:

Step #1: Reseeding

Regardless of how well your lawn is cared for, they will always be one section or the other which could do with a little extra. You should ensure that you reseed any areas which turn out to be bare late in fall, this way you give your grass some time to grow before the onset of cold weather and you prevent weeds from overrunning your garden in spring.

Step #2: Fertilizing

Making use of a good winterizing fertilizer which has a strong concentration in nitrogen will be key to promoting the growth of the roots of the grass. Such fertilizer will help grass stay strong and healthy regardless of the level of harshness of the winter weather. A lot of home improvement centers and nurseries sell it. Make sure that you ask for winterizing fertilizer and not the usual kind of fertilizer.

Step #3: Rake Up Debris

Debris such as fallen leaves, sticks and grass clippings can be removed by raking. All this just doesn't make your garden look nicer but it is also great for it as well. The organic debris which is left covering the grass tends to create a great atmosphere for a huge number of diseases and disease-causing organisms as soon as snow starts to fall. This also leaves your grass prone to the damp and dark conditions which are rather regular during winter. People who reside in areas where the snow covers the grass for a great number of weeks at a time should be rather vigilant in order to prevent snow mold from occurring. Snow mold is a rather common disease which kills off the grass and turns it brown. The greatest form of prevention from all this as well as the dangerous kinds of grass molds and fungus is by raking up any debris from your yard before the first snows come. Removing thatch is also a wise idea as well.

Step #4: Mowing One Last Time

A number of homeowners often make the error of assuming that as soon as its October the first, they do not have to bother about mowing their lawns again. This really isn't true, depending on the particular weather you may have to continue your mowing for some few more weeks or even an extra month. As soon as the grass has ceased to grow you should go over it once more with your mower blade in order to size the lawn down to a single inch. This is important to make sure that your grass can handle the difficult winter weather.