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Preparing your Lawn for Winter
By admin | October 1, 2006
As the summer months approach, its already time to begin thinking about preparing your lawn for winter. Its not quite time to put away your hose reel, but certainly is time to re-evaluate the amount of water you give as the sun begins to weaken and the heavenly rains begin.
The following five step process will help guide you through seeing out the summer, adapting for autumn and surviving the winter.
- Apply fertilizer with a spreader, available at most quality home stores. A walk-behind or motorized spreader is more accurate than a hand-held type. As you drive the machine back and forth over the grass, ensure to grip the handle like a trigger and it releases pellets when you “shoot” at the lawn. this is a critical process and deserves extra attention.
- Provide some extra air for grass roots by aerating your lawn — taking out spikes of soil across your lawn to make holes for planting seed. Aerating is low-cost maintenance and even if it’s the only thing you do for your yard, you should see improvement. There are motorized aerators you can rent, or manual versions that work like pogo sticks, pushing out two plugs of soil at a time.
- Buy grass seed that says Winter (”cool season” or “cool weather”) on the packaging. Scatter the lawn seed over the whole lawn with the same spreader you just used for fertilizing, or otherwise you can use a hand-held spreader which works just as well. You should try to get the seed evenly distributed otherwise you may end up with clumps of grass later in the season.
- Use a quality rake over the whole lawn to break up soil clumps and cover the seeds
whilst removing all the dead thickets and leaves. - Water the lawn with the garden hose reel, using a mild spray like rain. After that, keep the soil moist but don’t overwater it or let it dry out. You may have to mow your lawn a few more times before the cold weather sets in, and you can also fertilize another time in a few weeks to help the grass grow. During the cooler months, you should see a lot of growth as a result of your labors.
Further tips and specific help will be provided as we draw closer to winter. IF you have any questions, please email them in and we’ll do our best to publish comprehensive answers.
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