Before the winter arrives there are a few tips I recommend for maintaining a healthy lawn for the spring. There is still some mowing, watering, cleaning, weeding, and fertilizing that needs your attention.

Mowing

Many people feel it is best to mow your lawn a little shorter than normal on the last mowing of the season. If you are going to follow this belief, then do not mow shorter than 1/3 of the grass blade. Your grass should maintain a height of three inches. What is best is to mow your lawn at the same height as you have mowed throughout the season.  When you cut your grass shorter than normal, especially shorter than three inches, then you are making it more difficult for your grass blade to repair itself and grow back healthy.

Should I water?

Often it is easy to forget that your lawn still needs water even when it is not scalding hot outside. Your lawn does not need as much watering as it does in the summer because the cooler temperatures means that there is less moisture being lost from the plants. Therefore you only need to water about half of an inch each week. Watering more than half an inch per week can also harm your grass and can create an environment susceptible to disease.

Thatch

Before winter arrives, help your lawn breathe a little easier by removing the thick, heavy layers of thatch that may have built up in your lawn.  When thatch builds up, your lawn becomes susceptible to disease. Rather than entering winter with a disease-ridden, unhealthy lawn, prepare your lawn to grow healthy in the spring. For more information on how to remove thatch, please refer back to our earlier blog, “Preventing and Removing Thatch”.

Clean-up the lawn

How many times have you looked outside and seen a messy lawn filled with toys, the garden hose, and tools? Well now is the time to clean the miscellaneous mess up so that you can clean-up the leaves and debris in your yard.

While you do know want to leave piles of leaves on your lawn, it is helpful to mulch some of the fallen leaves and leave them on your grass. Leaving the mulched leaves on your lawn provides your grass with nutrients and organic matter. You can use your lawn mower to mulch the leaves if it has this feature.

This is also one of the best times to weed and control the more significant weeds. You can do this by hand, but it is also wise to select an herbicide to apply to the designated areas to remove and prevent further weeds in the winter, spring, and summer.

Fertilize, really?

Yes! In the fall it is the best time to put down a winterizing fertilizer because the grass is no longer going to be mowed. However, the roots in the ground are still growing and absorbing the nutrients from the fertilizer. The grass absorbs the carbon dioxide, is still receiving energy from the sun to photosynthesize, and then turn this into plant food.  When it does become too cold, the nutrients from the fertilizer remain in storage until the following spring. This keeps your grass green longer in the winter and prevents it from turning brown too early in the winter.