One of the most frequent questions we get asked is, “how do I prepare my lawn for winter?”. Once your fall aerating/slice seeding is done there are a few important lawn winterizing steps that you should take to ensure your grass is prepared for the cold winter months ahead:

  1. Clean Your Lawn:  No matter how well your over-seeding worked and how perfect your fertilization schedule was…if you leave sticks, leaves, grass clippings, etc on your lawn, you open your lawn up to a host of problems come Spring. Snow mold could be a huge problem come spring, so take the extra steps and clean it up now. Snow mold generally occurs when snow melts and soil and outdoor temps start to warm up. Snow mold happens when the grass freezes and thaws throughout the winter. Sticks and leaves that are left on the grass can smother your lawn and cause mold come Spring. Also longer grass can flop over onto itself and become matted, creating the perfect environment for snow mold to occur. You can also apply Propiconazole 14.3 just prior to the first hard frost. And as temperatures begin to increase enough to start melting the snow (around February/March) you can apply another round.
  2. Mow Low:  Your last few mows of the fall should get lower and lower each time. The goal is to get your lawn down to around 2″ to 2.5″ just as the growing period is over (first hard frost). As mentioned above, longer grass opens your lawn up to snow mold come Spring. One of the key points for mowing is to always make sure your blades stay sharp. One of the tools we use is the SHARPAL Sharpener.
  3. Winter Lawn Fertilizer (Winterizer): Winter fertilizer should go down before the ground freezes, and after your last mow of the year. In most locations, you should aim to apply winterizer fertilizer in October or November. An important component of your lawn winterizer should be a healthy dose of Nitrogen (N). The Nitrogen that’s applied before winter will help green up your lawn in the Spring when soil temps start to warm up.

    Potassium (K), is another essential nutrient for the grass. Potassium helps your lawn fight through diseases during cold winters, and helps the lawn absorb more nutrients in the soil.  Your grass use potassium to effectively make proteins and starches to store for the winter.

    Jonathan Green’s Winter Survival is on of our favorite lawn winterizer. Their mix of 10-0-20 lawn fertilizer delivers just 1/3 pound of N per 1,000 ft² but plenty of K. If your lawn is in need of a stronger nitrogen feeding, apply something like Scott’s WinterGuard Fertilizer which packs a bit more of a Nitrogen punch.

Following these simple, yet very important steps for Lawn Winterization should put you ahead of the game come spring.