In colder climates, winter lawn care ranges from very little to none. Before snow covers your lawn here are a few essential lawn cleaning tips that help your lawn get through the winter healthier. By properly preparing the lawn, you have less spring yard work and an early start to next year’s healthy lush lawn.
Why Clean Before Winter?
It is tempting to leave leaf cover on the lawn over winter–hoping it will rot and disappear. It won’t. Leaf cover provides a perfect environment for disease and fungi to breed. It prevents sunlight from reaching the grass and promotes snow mold.
Fall cleanup enhances curb appeal and presents a welcoming environment for visitors. Poor fall cleanup is especially apparent in locations that experience chinooks or quick snow thaws that expose messy lawns.
Get the Leaves Off
Remove all the leaves, twigs, branches, and garbage from your lawn. A layer of leaves traps moisture below it. Snow mold, diseases, and other fungi thrive in moist protected conditions. Insects and even rodents like mice move in under the leaf cover.
Grass goes dormant in winter but until then it still needs sunlight to remain healthy. Leaves and other trash prevent light from penetrating the grass and weakening it just before winter.
Leaves and debris trap moisture below them but they also prevent airflow and moisture from penetrating to the roots–restricting access to water, oxygen, and nutrients.
Mow the Lawn Shorter
Cut your grass about 2” – 2 1/2” high just before it freezes. Shorter grass prevents matting under the weight of the snow. Slightly longer grass provides better protection against the cold. Cutting it shorter than 2” increases the chance of root damage over winter.
Dethatch
Thick thatch left over winter can damage lawns. It is a home for snow mold and prevents water from reaching the soil which allows moss and fungus to spread quickly in fall and winter. Lawns should be dethatched every two to three years or when the thatch is thicker than half an inch. Dethatching a lawn produces large amounts of debris that has to be removed before winter. Do the job about four weeks before freeze up to get the lawn clean and allow the grass to recover.
