Is winterizing necessary for a green spring lawn?

Yes

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by Raymond Alexander Kukkee

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Is winterizing necessary for a green spring lawn?

Winterizing is an essential component of annual lawn care.

Do winterize your lawn properly and have it come up in the spring, nice and lush, green, and healthy .
You do winterize your family with snow suits , your house with weather stripping, and vehicle with antifreeze and snow tires every year, do you not?

Winterizing your lawn is necessary unless you are happy with ugly dead grass, bald spots, brown patches, grey mold, soggy trash, and piles of doggie-doo and rotting leaves when the snow melts in the spring. Extra care in the autumn generates superior results in the spring.

First of all, in the fall-hopefully your lawn is already healthy and attractive. The sod should be thick and uniform. Healthy grass is thick, lush and moderately green.

Perhaps you have seen your neighbour aerating her lawn during the summer with a plug aerator. You can do it too. It is simple.
Aeration of a manicured lawn every year or two is a good idea; grass needs air at the roots to be healthy, as do all growing plants. The healthier a lawn is in the autumn when it goes dormant, the more likely it will survive the winter in good shape and grow lush and green in the spring.

Perhaps you lightly fertilized your grass in late summer or very early in the fall.
Optimal late season fertilizing and feeding will help build the root structures and growth of the grass, but not enough to force excessively rapid growth.

Very heavy applications of fertilizer should be avoided late in the year because excessive rapid growth is forced just prior to the grass going dormant. Under some weather conditions this will actually weaken the grass root system rather than help it.
Grass that is ready to go dormant does not uptake nutrients as fast as it does in the summer or spring growth, so too much fertilizer can burn the roots.

Mid to late season fertilizing should be done early enough to allow the fertilizer to be fully absorbed by the soil. If done at all, the application should be light, very uniform and watered in to avoid burning the roots.

Hopefully your grass is in good condition to start with, even before you begin winterizing it.

Remove all objects from the grass area; picnic tables, children's swimming pools and toys. Turn picnic tables up on end and be sure to put them on the stone patio, or block them up off of the ground with blocks bricks.
Rake over any spots that look brown and dead. If there are no grass roots visible, sprinkle some grass seed on those areas and lightly rake again.

Pick up any trash and remove any pet-piles' from your lawn If your pet urinates on the grass in the same place most of the time, do soak that grass area down with the garden hose to dilute the concentrated urine which can also kill off the grass and leave brown patches.

For the last cut of the growing season , plan to mow the grass ensuring that the growth remaining is about 3 to 4 cm. long. Cut the lawn evenly, and try to cut the grass a little longer than a regular cut.
If autumn leaves are already falling, -unless the grass is already far too tall and out of control, delay the final cut until most of the leaves have fallen.

For winterizing, grass should be trimmed evenly. Every lawn seems to have some spots that tend to grow much faster than the rest of the lawn. This phenomenon can be caused by micro-differences in grade of soil, compaction, pathways, chemical contaminants, different amounts of water and uneven fertilizer application. Patchy, uneven growth can make a lawn unattractive.

Cutting the grass the right length in the process of winterizing the lawn is important because grass that is left too tall will eventually die, be bent over, packed down by ice and snow. When that happens, the air supply to the grass roots is reduced, often killing the grass roots in patches if the resulting mat of dead grass is thick enough. Alternately, if the grass is cut and scalped too short, there is no cover or protection remaining for the grass roots from extreme cold prior to the first snow fall.

Thick accumulations of long grass and leaves may encourage extensive rodent damage; moles tunnel along just under the grass in sod during the winter, happily eating the grass roots, and marring the surface .

Very thick accumulations of leaves must be removed . If you leave a blanket of four or six inches of leaves on your lawn, you can be sure it will damage the grass, especially if you live in a growing zone that typically has a long, cold fall, plenty of snow, and a very late spring. In extreme cases, most or all of the grass roots can decay and die off. Some grasses are not as hardy as others and do need more protection.

Too much leaf cover will cut off sunlight, choke off the air supply to the grass, generate mold under the leaves if the season is long enough, and also insulate the grass so that it does not go dormant appropriately , weakening the grass root systems significantly if it does not kill it entirely.

Dormancy is important. The degree of dormancy your lawn goes to depends upon the grass species and your location's gardening zone. When grass begins to go dormant and turn brown, when the weather gets colder, the green part is in fact dying back to feed and build up the roots for next year's growth.

Unless you have extremely thick layers of leaves, there is a simple way to do two jobs at once; get rid of the leaves, save a lot of work raking them up, mow the grass evenly and help the lawn survive the winter too.

When it is nice and sunny and very dry outside, after all of the leaves have fallen and are crunchy dry -and just before your companion insists you begin the arduous task of raking up those beautiful fall leaves, -get out your lawnmower.

A regular lawnmower works fine for this job, although some lawnmowers do have enclosed decks and are even labeled as mulching lawnmowers'. Lawnmowers do an excellent job of chopping up both long grass and leaves. Take the bagger attachment OFF of the lawnmower. The idea is to leave the organic matter on the lawn.

Adjust the wheels so that the deck is HIGH -so that you do not scalp the lawn as short as you normally would cut it.

Now cut the grass. You have to cut it to make it nice and even anyway, so cut it carefully.

You will be cutting the grass a little longer than normal, but you will also be simultaneously chopping up and shattering the dry leaves. You may miss a few, so take a second run at them if necessary. A few leaves missed here and there will not matter, and the bulk of the leaves will disappear.
The lawnmower will blow some around, but mostly shreds them into little pieces that conveniently settle down right into the grass, right on the soil, close to the roots .

The chopped leaves will provide your lawn with natural organic fertilizer that will not damage the grass. Leaves are loaded with micro nutrients and minerals .

Dead leaves also feed earthworms, which will make worm castings. Worm castings are like high-quality soil, they condition and fertilize and thereby enrich the soil in the lawn. Incidentally, earthworm populations that are healthy also aerate the soil with their tunnels, making the whole soil ecosystem healthier.

If you are a traditionalist and do insist on raking up leaves instead of doing it the easy way with the lawnmower, it's probably time to rake up the leaves.
Get out the rake, the leaf- blower, or call the kids.

Get the kids to help you rake them up, and plan on having fun doing it.
Throw leaves around, laugh, play, and let the kids jump in the piles and undo your work.
They may have more fun than you do, but so what ? Revel in childish play.
Children never forget playing in piles of leaves. Hopefully they will get tired before you do, and actually let you pile the leaves up neatly before dinner. Maybe.

Perhaps you are technologically advanced and have an engine-driven leaf blower instead.
Wear goggles and the recommended safety equipment, but specifically, do wear hearing protection. Leaf blowers are noisy and can seriously damage your hearing. Take appropriate precautions for children that might be nearby.
Pile the leaves up.

Now plan on mulching them.

" Mulching " might sound like some exotic gardening process, but do not be alarmed; mulching is simply placing a layer of organic material on top of the grass or soil in your garden.

Leaves happen to be excellent organic mulch' and fallen leaves can be used to cover strawberry beds, flower beds, and to wrap up roses and other bushes that are sensitive to freezing. They are also a fine source of nutrients for your grass or garden, so do plan on using them, or give them to your smart neighbour that already knows how valuable they are.

Preferably, one way or the other, use them; they are free fertilizer and a great soil conditioner.

If you're thinking of ignoring those huge piles of leaves on the lawn until spring, DO re-think your strategy.
Rotting piles of leaves will remain soaking wet and compact after a rainfall.

Piles of leaves quickly begin to decay and kill off any grass underneath them. They will also be more difficult to remove when wet, compacted, and rotten, so do yourself a huge favour by not leaving them in big piles on the lawn over winter.

Don't burn the leaf piles either, unless you like nice black scorch marks right in the middle of your lush, green lawn.

If you do decide for some reason that you have to burn them, move them to a safe area, make sure the fire department knows where you live and that you have appropriate burning permits as required. Do not burn when it is windy, or if your neighbours have clothing hung outside on the line.
Your wise neighbour-lady will undoubtedly spot the smoke, poke her nose over the fence, admire the fire, then hint that it's safer and environmentally smarter to mulch them.

If you do rake the leaves up into huge piles, you might also bag them up and dispose of them at curbside, or run them carefully through a shredder and spread the pulverized detritus on the lawn or garden in a nice thin, even layer. Make sure you put some on top of any area you just re-seeded. They will keep moisture in while the seed sprouts and starts growing.

Instead of bagging up piles of leaves and sending them to the landfill site, why not benefit by digging them into your garden?
If you do have a lot of leaves, dig a trench across your garden, fill it up with leaves, compact and water them down, and put the dirt back on top of them. Alternatively you can rototill them into the soil directly.
Do different strips every year. Your vegetable garden will love it. It is hard work, but you will have a better garden and avoid sending organic trash to the landfill site.

Back to winterizing the lawn. If it is very dry in the fall, remember to water the lawn lightly.

Once it snows, the lawn will be just fine without any further attention.

Another thing to remember, is that when it does snow, and you want to use ice melting pellets or salt, - use chemicals sparingly. Salt will kill off the grass along any walkways if too much is applied.
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A few months later the sun is shining; the snow is gone, and it's spring again.
Now you can watch the nice green grass grow. The new seeding is growing already!
Wow, -there are no brown spots, bald spots, or piles of wet, soggy leaves to pick up!
Your neighbour glances over the fence and smiles, admiring your beautiful green spring lawn.

Get out the barbecue and set up the picnic table, but be sure to overhaul your lawnmower first.
You'll need it, because your lawn is nice and healthy, lush and green.
You successfully winterized it !

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