Putting Your Lawn To Bed

If you’re still mowing your lawn yourself, there are a few things you should do to minimize winter damage before putting the mower away for the winter.

During the season, you, hopefully, have been mowing to the recommended height of 3 to 4 inches. This height gives the grass leaves plenty of surface area to absorb sunlight for photosynthesis. Mowing high also encourages deeper roots and thicker turf. In winter, however, the taller turf can mat up from the weight of the snow, encouraging attacks by winter fungal diseases.

A preventive is to lower your mower’s deck height to approximately 2 inches for the last mowing of the season. If you mow at the lower height and it turns out that grass keeps growing and needs additional mowings, continue to mow at the lower height for the remainder of the season.

If you use a lawn mowing service, be sure the person who mows your lawn knows that you want it short for the last mowing(s) of the season.

If you apply fertilizer and weed killer to your lawn, many agronomists recommend an early fall application of fertilizer and pre-emergent broadleaf week killer. Fertilizer is recommended to replenish the soil nutrients the grass plants have used to make food all through the growing season. The plants need these nutrients to make plenty of food to sustain them through the winter.

Toward the end of the growing season, weeds dropped seeds into the turf, and other seeds have blown in from neighboring yards or were dropped by birds. Applying pre-emergent weed killer in the fall will keep those seeds from germinating in the spring. As you’ve probably noticed, weeds start growing while the grass is still dormant. If you have a lawn service, applying these materials in early fall is usually part of your contract.

If putting your lawn to bed made you want to hit the sack, a good winter project may be to research ways in which you can replace your lawn with ground cover or low maintenance planting beds next spring. Replacing your lawn can be good for your health and the health of the environment.