Backyard Reflections

Your lawn needs to be prepared for the colder months because lower temperatures can damage and affect grass health and growth. A lawn with patches of dead grass isn’t great to look at, so until the warmer seasons come back and breathe life into your lawn again, you must prepare your yard for the cooler seasons.

In this article, outdoor living expert Backyard Reflections shares some helpful information on how you can prepare your lawn for the colder months.

The Varying Effects of Cold Weather on Your Lawn

To understand how important it is to prepare your lawn before the colder seasons settle in, you should first learn what cold weather does to the grass and plants on your lawn. Here are some of the most common effects of lower temperatures on landscaping:

Brown, dead-looking grass. The grass on your lawn may appear brown and wilted, but the cold weather is simply making it dormant to save water and nutrients. Although it looks unappealing, you shouldn’t remove the grass as it is still alive and can survive until the end of winter if you prepare your lawn properly.

Grass death and desiccation. Preparing your lawn can greatly increase its ability to survive fall and winter, but some grass death and desiccation should still be expected. The extreme cold can keep the grass from getting the proper amount of moisture even when it’s covered with frost and snow. This eventually leads to winter kill. Desiccation happens when patches of grass aren’t covered by snow, causing them to lose more moisture than they can replenish and dry out from the frigid winds. The grass eventually dies.

Snow mold. It is a type of fungus that grows on lawns and thrives in cold climates. It is hard to spot during the winter season since it blends with the color of the snow. Often, it’s only noticed when the snow melts away in spring, leaving straw-colored patches of grass. Snow mold is not just unappealing, but it can also pose health risks to people with allergies. Make sure to contact landscape professionals if you’re not sure how to deal with snow mold.  

Preparing Your Lawn

Now that you know of the most common effects of cold weather on your lawn, it’s time to learn how to prepare your grass for these seasons. Getting your lawn ready for the changes in weather will allow it to survive the cold, thrive and re-emerge healthy in spring. 

Here are some effective ways to prepare your lawn:

Aerate the Soil

Aeration is the landscape and gardening process of puncturing your lawn’s soil with small holes to let water and air reach the grassroots, letting your lawn and the soil underneath breathe more. This helps the roots to grow deeper and develop livelier and stronger grass. Aeration is also important to lessen soil compaction, which refers to the condition where a certain area of the planting grounds is too tightly placed together. Too much soil compaction can prevent air, nutrients and water from properly circulating within the ground. But if there isn’t enough soil compaction, it will lead to generally poor plant growth. Aeration alleviates these symptoms while improving your lawn’s ability to grow healthier grass.

Different types of grass have different ideal times for aeration, although landscape design experts recommend aerating warm-season grasses in late spring and cool-season grasses in early fall for the best results. There are also many different ways to aerate your lawn, like renting an aerator or using a manual aerator. Some mowers also have an aerator attachment.

Rake the Leaves Up and Turn Them Into Mulch

Raking leaves around your lawn is a strenuous but necessary task. It’s also beneficial because there are many ways you can use the collected leaves. Before you start raking, be sure to have a good quality rake with you. While cheap rakes sound like a practical choice, they tend to break down fast and don’t provide the same level of performance and comfort as a high-quality ergonomic rake would. Choose the proper rake head for the job as well. Wide rake heads are best for the lawn, and smaller rake heads are ideal for planting beds and shrubs.

While variously colored leaves look great for your landscape, there’s a better way to use them — turn them into mulch. Mulch is important in helping your lawn survive fall and winter as it is used to retain moisture in the soil, prevent the growth of weeds, prevent frost heaving in winter and many more functions that help keep your grass healthy.

Scalp the Lawn by Lowering the Blade of the Mower

The colder weather will have different effects on your lawn. When you start mowing in the fall, gradually lower the blade as you cut grass and keep it short (but not too short). Moreover, when mowing your lawn, time your cutting with grass growth and not the calendar days to get the ideal height before snowfall. 

Experts say that longer grass can cause the growth of snow mold by trapping more moisture and promoting the spread of other plant diseases during winter. However, grass that is too short can also cause problems since cutting it too low can put them into shock, which can cause it to die even before spring comes. And if the grass is not long enough, it can get easily stressed out by the frigid temperatures. Furthermore, it does not receive the proper amount of sunlight, making it prone to issues. So before winter arrives, make sure that the grass height is between 1-2 inches and avoid cutting too short or too much.

Landscape design contractor Backyard Reflections is an outdoor living and landscaping company that can help you improve the exterior of your home. Our team is passionate and dedicated to giving each of our clients the best landscaping experience and results. Increase the sale value of your home by getting quality landscaping services. To schedule a consultation, call us at (320) 274-6336 (Annandale) or (218) 454-1065 (Nisswa). You can also fill out our contact form to get started.