In the fall, your grass may look like it’s snoozing. But when you get to the root of things, you’ll discover that there’s a lot going on beneath the surface.
The roots are preparing a food reserve to last through the winter. If you feed your lawn now while Mother Nature is turning out all those new roots, then they’ll have even more growth.
Follow these steps to winterize your lawn from Blain’s Farm & Fleet. Your lawn will stockpile nutrients to be stronger and healthier for next year.
Pick a time in the fall when you’ll get at least two or three days of 50 to 60 degree weather in a row. Late October is probably a good time to winterize.
Rake or blow all the leaves from the lawn. This way, you’ll have a clean slate to work with.
You should also remove any weeds. You can also use a lawn mower to mow your lawn at this time, too. Just make sure you don’t cut it too short.
Clearing your yard will make it easier to spread the winterizer on your lawn.
Before spreading your fertilizer, you should aerate your lawn. You can use a fork to do this manually. If you have a big yard, you could also use an aerator machine.
This will allow nutrients, water, and air to more easily reach the roots of your lawn.
You should only aerate cool-season grasses, such as Kentucky Bluegrass, in the fall or winter. Wait until spring to aerate warm-season grasses.
Apply the winterizer (winter fertilizer) to the lawn with a broadcast spreader. If you have leftover weeds, apply winterizer with weed killer onto moist foliage. This way, the particles will stick to the weeds, get absorbed down into the roots, and kill them—root system and all.
Read the instructions on the fertilizer bag, and adjust the spreader rate and dial to the correct setting.
Swing the edge guard into position, and fertilize the perimeter of the yard first. The edge guard prevents fertilizer from getting onto the pavement and into flowerbeds.
Once you finish the edges, make parallel passes across the lawn, moving down about five feet after each pass.
If you have some patches in your lawn, you can also spread new seeds, or overseed your lawn. This will help fill out your lawn come springtime.
By taking these steps now, your lawn should enter the winter looking great. And then it should come back even stronger and more lush in the spring.
For more tips on keeping your lawn green and healthy, visit our Lawn Care Blog.
