Turftime Equipment Blog


Winter Lawn Care Tips: What You Need to Know

Aerating your lawn before the winter months

If the appearance of your lawn really matters to you, your program of winter lawn care should include a little more than curling up by the fireside, and watching the snow pile up in your yard. In this discussion, we’ll review some of the tips and tricks you can take advantage of, so as to ensure that your lawn emerges from winter looking strong and healthy, and ready for spring and summer. Some of the techniques you can use to winterize grass are described below, so that your winter lawn treatment is as effective as possible.

Winter Lawn Maintenance

While winter yard care certainly does not call for as much attention as your lawn would get during summer, you don’t want to completely ignore it either, especially if you want it looking great next spring. Prior to the first day of frost in your area, you should aerate your lawn so that it has a chance to breathe before going dormant for the rest of the season. If you don’t have an aerator, a great starter model would be Turftime Equipment’s Advantage AA-6000 model, which does a fantastic job of aerating your lawn. After aerating, you should then fertilize the lawn, so it has all the needed nutrients before preparing for the long cold season.

Those nutrients will be stored in the roots of your grass all winter long, and when spring arrives, they will be utilized to give the above-ground grass a head start on the season. This will also help prevent the incursion of weeds and pests, because your winter yard care will have made the grass strong enough to resist them. If you aren’t able to carry out the aeration and fertilization tasks yourself, you can certainly hire a professional to carry out the required winter landscaping services for you.

Winter Lawn Treatment

Another task you should do before winter arrives is to manage any stacks of leaves or other debris which may have fallen on your yard.

  • You can either use your lawn mower to mulch the leaves into small-sized pieces, or you can rake them up and remove them entirely.
  • Leaving them in place on your lawn can be a bad idea though, because late-season rains can make them very wet and thick, and that could smother your lawn completely.
  • Wet leaves also promote disease, and you don’t want to encourage anything like that on your lawn.
  • Whatever else you have to do to clean off your yard, should also be done at this time. You may need to take lawn furniture into your shed, or you may have to remove logs that have been sitting on the grass in your yard.
  • Whatever it is that must be done to clear off the grass, so it can be free and clear before winter, should be handled during this lawn-cleaning process.

Part of your winter lawn treatment program should also include avoiding too much walking on the lawn, because too much traffic can weaken grass and endanger its health. Even strong grass will suffer by having excessive traffic on it during the winter time, when it is dormant and less vital. It’s a good idea to keep your sidewalks, pathways, and driveways shoveled and clear of ice, so you can walk on those areas as normal. If you overlook that maintenance, you might be tempted to start walking on your lawn, and that will more than likely lead to problems.

Preparing your lawn for winter

Preparing Your Lawn for the Winter Months

Once you’ve accomplished the winter lawn care tasks referenced above, you can return to your spot by the fireside and enjoy reading that good book, secure in the knowledge that your lawn will survive the winter and will look terrific when the snow melts. All you have to remember for your winter lawn maintenance program is that you need to spring into action at the first hint of frost for the season.

At this time, you should aerate and fertilize your lawn, and the most efficient way you can do this is with one of the excellent machines from Turftime Equipment. Then you need to be sure that all debris, including leaves, has been removed from the lawn, and that nothing is sitting on top of it to smother the grass during the cold season. Finally, try to avoid walking on the grass excessively during winter, because it is much more susceptible to damage at the time when it has gone dormant. If you conscientiously address these tips for winter lawn maintenance, you should have a beautiful-looking lawn when you reach next spring.

If you are looking for the right equipment to keep your lawn healthy through the cold winter months, check out the wide selection at TurfTime Equipment. Give us a call at 800-201-1031 or fill out a contact form today!

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