The leaves are showing some color, the weather shows signs of fall, and your lawn can sense it too. The cooler temperatures start to signal to the grass it is time to start to prepare for the winter to come. Now that the grass knows, what are some things that can be done to help with preparing your lawn for winter?
- Fall fertilizer needs to be rich in potassium. Potassium helps to promote root growth, which is important for preparing for winter dormancy. Timing of this fertilizer application is important, if it is too late, it can push too much growth from the grass plant.
- Cleaning leaves off lawn will help keep the grass alive. The leaves themselves will not kill the grass. But if the leaves are left on the lawn for too long, then the grass plant not receiving sunlight for food production will eventually kill the grass. This does take some time to happen, but it shouldn’t be forgotten about either.
- When fall comes, it is time to start to back off on watering your lawn. Water from the rain is typically enough moisture for the grass. If the lawn receives too much water from sprinklers, that can continue to push growth out of the grass. If the grass continues to add leaf growth, then it is not using its energy to prepare the roots for winter.
These three tasks are the main things to do to help your lawn prepare itself for winter. These tasks help to prepare the lawn for winter, but the grass itself will go dormant when it is ready to do so. Preparing your lawn for winter does not take much, but it is a very important part of lawn care.