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Clean-up Tips and Help | Fall Fertilization | Insects / Disease | Lawn Clippings
Lawn Seeding Best Results |Your Lawn’s Winter Nap |Mulching Tips
Perfect Mowing |Planting Tips | Seeding

Your Lawn’s Winter Nap

Late fall is your last chance to take care of some details that will prepare your lawn for a healthy winter and give it a strong leg up next spring. If you’ve been putting off putting your lawn to bed for the winter months, we strongly suggest doing it now.

Tips For Tucking In Your Lawn
Lower the height of your mower. Your lawn should enter winter without any young, tender growth that could make it more appealing to winter diseases, like snow mold. New soft growth on the lawn is also more prone to dry out after the first winter winds come through, which leaves you with a tan or brown lawn all winter. So, as late fall approaches, begin to gradually bring the cutting height down on your mower, until you are almost, but not quite scalping the lawn.

It’s important to do this in several steps to avoid suddenly removing all the green leaf tissue and damaging the turf.

Don’t Miss A Late Fall Fertilization
This is a time of year when your lawn can really chow down and make quick and good use of fertilizer. The lawns top growth has slowed, so these nutrients go straight to the roots for a strong start next spring. Your turf actually converts the fertilizer into food reserves and loads up its root system so it’s ready, willing and able to get a quick (and healthy) start in spring.

Remove Leaves And Other Debris From Lawn
Before snow or other winter weather hits and buries the evidence, take the time to go over the lawn one more time. Leaving debris on the lawn can smother the grass and create problems with winter or early spring diseases.

If the lawn has not been aerated, there may still be time. Aeration is very effective as long as the soil is not frozen. In other words, as long as we can still pull a good core, your lawn will directly benefit. Late fall aeration gives the plugs we pull plenty of time to melt down and to get thatch decomposing. Be sure your mower and other lawn equipment has been winterized to save grief in the spring.

Late fall and winter are great times to discuss your lawn care program for spring. Making a few decisions early might even save you money! After all, if winter is here, spring can't be far behind!

Preparing Your Lawn and Landscape for the Winter

The most important tip is the need to mow your lawn short for the winter, especially in the northern areas of the country. If the grass is left too long, it will lay over on itself from the pressure of the snow cover. Air circulation around the plant is reduced, and Snow Mold, a destructive early spring disease, can become a problem in your lawn. It can cause large areas of grass to die, or at least weaken in vigor.

Spring green-up may also be slow. Often the grass blades will turn brown during the winter. This is a normal response to the cold weather of winter. The grass plant will need to grow an entirely new plant, from the crown up, the next spring. If there is a lot of brown grass left from the previous year, it will take a long time for the old plants to fall away and allow the new plants to show through and make the lawn green again.

There are several other late fall, early winter jobs that need attention. If you have any perennial plants that have gone dormant, cut back the brown tops. If the tops are still green, wait until they turn yellow or brown before cutting. There is still energy being transferred to the root system from the top growth. Depending upon the amount of snow cover your area receives, you may have to wait until spring to complete this task.

Outdoor furniture should be covered or brought indoors. Clay pots and other outdoor statuary should be brought indoors to keep from breaking. Alternating freezing and thawing of these items could cause them to crack. If they are too large to move, cover them with a plastic tarp.

Your lawn mower needs attention at the end of the mowing season. Drain the gas tank or add a few drops of a stabilizing agent to the tank to keep the gas from getting ‘old’. It is also a good time to change the oil, clean the underside of the deck, sharpen the blade, and replace the spark plug and air cleaner. Be sure to disconnect the spark plug wire before attempting any repair on your mower, regardless of the time of year the maintenance or repair work is performed.

If you are in an area that receives significant snow fall, many of your plants could be damaged from excess accumulation of snow on the branches. This is especially true of evergreens, such as Arbor Vitae. Carefully and gently, brush the snow in an upward direction off the limbs and boughs. If they become coated with ice, leave them alone. Trying to break off the ice could damage the tree or shrub. The ice normally melts at a rapid pace, even if the temperatures are below freezing.