It’s great to have a lush, green lawn in the spring, but when fall and winter arrive, your joy may turn to fear of what will become of your precious lawn. Fail to take care of your lawn in the cold months, and it may not take care of you when April rolls around. Here are some tips for protecting your lawn through the colder months.
Tips for Protecting Your Lawn in the Fall and Winter
Table of Content
- Mow Your Lawn
- Kill the Weeds
- Fertilize in Late Fall
- Aerate Your Lawn
- Water Your Lawn
- Drain Your Sprinkler System for Winter
Mow Your Lawn
You may feel you don’t need to bother mowing your lawn once it gets cold, but don’t stop right away. You need to make sure your grass is no longer than two and a half inches tall at all times. If it gets to three inches or longer, you will get matting and possibly winter diseases like snow mold. Don’t cut it down shorter than two inches, though.
Kill the Weeds
If you don’t take care of them now, they will dominate your lawn by spring. Pull the ones by hand that you can, and spray the others with a safe herbicide.
Fertilize in Late Fall
Fertilizing your lawn in late fall is like sending it into hibernation for the winter. As the blanket of snow covers your lawn, it can absorb and live off the nutrients you have provided to last it through spring.
Aerate Your Lawn
Aerating is poking holes in your lawn with a tool designed for this purpose. This process makes more room for your lawn to breathe. The holes allow water and oxygen to get through and down to the roots. It can also make room for seeds to sprout and new grass to grow.
Water Your Lawn
Don’t turn your sprinkler system off just yet. Many people think when it gets cold, you need to switch off your sprinkler system right away so the pipes don’t freeze. But it’s important not to shut that sprinkler system down too early. In the fall, when it’s colder but not freezing, you want to keep watering. Your grass is growing through the fall, so you want to help it as much as possible by continuing to water. Before the first freeze of the year, you’ll want to have your sprinkler system winterized to avoid any issues with the pipes expanding or cracking during the winter.
Drain Your Sprinkler System for Winter
To have your sprinkler system winterized before the ground is frozen, to use our winterizing services. We can perform a sprinkler blowout, removing all the water in your system to make sure your pipes are completely clear and in no danger of freezing. If you don’t have a sprinkler system yet and are watering your Omaha lawn by hand, call us at (402) 334-2625 to discuss a new sprinkler install to keep your lawn looking its best year ‘round.