Taking tone to protect and prepare your lawn now will pose it up for success once spring replication – here ’s everything you need to sleep with to prep your thousand .
Once autumn ’s savour hits the nighttime air , it ’s time to winterize your lawn . The benefit of winterizing a lawn may not be visible until the outpouring , but taking these steps as insensate weather bang will get you a healthy , greener , lusher lawn once the weather warm up again .
Choosing Winter Fertilizer
Every lawn benefits from afeeding of winter fertilizermade for grass . Still , this step is especially crucial if your lawn consists ofcool - time of year locoweed , which include Festuca elatior , bluegrass , and perennial rye whiskey grass . Because these turf variety reach their efflorescence in the cooler fall weather , they gain the most from a good meal of winter fertilizer .
Winterlawn fertilizeris heavy on K , which strengthen the roots and help the smoke survive cold weather condition . A good wintertime lawn treatment keeps your turf unassailable and green through the fall and quick to percolate up again once spring arrives .
If you have a warm - season lawn — Bermuda grass , zoysia , and St. Augustine are the most common — spring is the just season for deep feeding . These types of turf go dormantwhen hoar hits , so they do n’t require a heavy winter fertiliser but do benefit from a lightfeed of regular lawn fertilizerwith slow - departure atomic number 7 to keep thing greenish and healthy for as long as potential over the winter .
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When to Apply Winter Fertilizer
The effective time towinterize a lawndepends on your type of grass . If you experience in an area without winter frost , your warm - time of year lawn may stay relatively green through wintertime . Go in front and apply your slow - release nitrogen feedingin early autumn .
If you live in a modest winter area that does get some rime , your warm - time of year lawn probablygoes brownish and dormant . In that scenario , do not apply fertilizer later than September 1 .
For cool - season grass , it ’s good to winterize a lawn with two disjoined eating : one program of winter lawn fertilizer in late summer / other fall and the 2d program during late pin or whenever the leavesreach tip colorin your arena . But if you want to keep yourlawn caresimple , lend oneself the wintertime lawn feed once in late November or early December .
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General Winter Lawn Care
There are a few other way to winterise a lawn that will pay off come spring .
Mowing the Lawn in Winter
While you may still bemowing your lawnin wintertime if you live in a very balmy climate , you ’ll surely do it much less than in the give and summer . Generally , you’re able to cut back to half the frequency of your summer mowing schedule . And if you live in an area with rugged winters , you cancross mowing off your listof winter lawn treatments altogether — but not until the first hard frost .
Cutting your lawn in cold winter mood is a balance routine ; once fall sets in , you should lift your mower ’s blades to a half - column inch above your summer cut down height . For the last mowing of the season , however , dispirited the blades to a half - inch below the summer cut down stature . This boost root growth but removes grass blades likely to become damaged or diseased during the coldest months .
You might be tempted to leave fallen leaves on the lawn over winter , but whole leaves could smother your green goddess and ply shelter forfungi spore , insects , and other diseases . Either rake away fall leaves ( you’re able to even glance over them into your garden beds to take part in theLeave the Leavesmovement ) , or for the respectable root , mow over them with aleaf mulcherattachment that shreds leaves into belittled fragments . This leaf mulch adds a bit of protective covering and food to your sod without doing legal injury .
Credit:Adam Albright
Adam Albright
Winterizing a Lawn Mower
If you require your lawn lawn mower to start right up in the bounce , you need to take a few light steps to winterize it before put it aside for the time of year .
If you have a battery - power lawn mower , the procedure is fairly simple . polish off the barrage and fully appoint it before storing it for the winter in a cool , dry spot , then follow the same cleaning cognitive operation as with a flatulence - power motor .
Lawn Mower Storage Tips
Once you ’ve finished winterizing your lawn lawn mower , it ’s meter tostore it for the season . Doing so protects it from rust , wet , and oecumenical wear and rip . notice memory for a lawn mower is sometimes tricky , however .
The easiest answer forpush mowerstorage is your service department . If you have the quad , you could insert the lawn mower into a turning point of the garage and cut through it with a tarp to keep insects and dust to a lower limit . Or create surplus quad for lawn lawn mower storage with a pull - down , lift - up ledge .
If yourgarage is large enough , you might also be able to use it for riding lawn lawn mower storage . If not , a small side orbackyard shed — either purchased or DIY — serves well as a winter home for your riding lawn mower .
If the only mower entrepot berth is outside , protect it with a fitted blanket or tarp that covers the mower all . Use bungee cords , stakes , or heavy rock music to fasten the cover in spot securely .
While winter lawn care might not be as much fun as garden in the spring , demand the time to do it right dramatically increases your betting odds of take a exuberant , green , healthy lawn once warm weather returns .
