How to Protect Your Lawn During the Winter

Once the leaves are cleared and frigid weather sets in, you might not pay much attention to your lawn; however, much of what you need to do to have a beautiful lawn in the spring starts with what you do during the winter. Make no mistake: snow, ice and freezing temperatures will have a negative effect on your lawn’s health.

Here’s how to keep the winter season from damaging your lawn.

Have a maintenance plan

If your lawn is healthy in the first place, it’s less likely to be negatively impacted by winter weather. Proper maintenance throughout the year will mean the grass is stronger and more difficult to kill. Find the main cause of weakening before the snow and ice hit, which will weigh down weak grass and result in damage.

Avoid ice melt

If you’re looking to keep the winter season from damaging your lawn, make sure that any ice melt you put out doesn’t end up on the lawn. Turf damage will often appear in later winter and early spring on grass patches between the sidewalk and the street due to ice-melting products landing on this grass. Read the labels on any products you plan to use, and avoid areas near the lawn as much as possible.

Add fertilizer

To keep your lawn looking great in the spring, add fertilizer in the fall before the first freeze hits. This will replace all the nutrients that the soil has lost during the hot summer. When the weather becomes cold, the fertilizer will stay in the soil and provide nutrients to the lawn’s roots throughout the winter.

Keep the grass short

You want to have your grass as short as possible in late fall. This will effectively protect any fragile new growth that begins before the lawn is dormant during the winter. Having tall grass during the winter will also make your lawn attractive to rodents who burrow during the cold weather. These animals will create nests that can damage the turf once spring comes. If you want to know how to keep your lawn protected during winter weather, mow low before the snow arrives.

Keep the lawn traffic to a minimum

During the winter, you might assume it’s okay to tread across the short, brown lawn. It’s not growing anyway, right? But consistent traffic over the lawn will weaken it. Grass is resilient, but it may have a hard time recovering if there’s a well-worn path going across the lawn. The soil is also particularly vulnerable to compaction during the frigid winter months.

We hope this guide on how to keep your lawn protected during winter weather is helpful. To keep your lawn in the best shape possible, hire the experts at Rand Hill Lawns, Inc. We do it all—from general lawn care maintenance to complete landscaping, excavation, fertilizing, paving and more. We’ll make sure that your property looks beautiful all year long. Give us a call today to learn more and ask for a free quote.

Categorised in: Grass