Wintering your lawn can be a great way to keep it healthy almost regardless of where you live or what type of grass you’ve planted. It’s true that in the south, where snow rarely ever falls, the weather is warm enough to grow cool-weather grass that can stay green and pretty much behave like regular grass from November to March, but in the north most people don’t have that luxury.
Still, keeping your lawn healthy during winter can entail some simple maintenance tasks that will effectively help you a lot more than just leaving it as it is:
- Aerating your lawn is a great idea during this time. In winter, the frozen soil makes it harder for the grass to “breathe” so using a spade to punch holes into the ground and even getting a motorized aerator to help the process along can be very helpful.
- You can still fertilize your lawn even during the winter with a pet friendly lawn fertilizer. Of course, keep in mind that the lawn itself will be more or less dormant, so don’t overdo it. Fertilize too much and the grass could burn up. Still, you can use a spreader to apply a smaller amount of fertilizer evenly throughout the surface of your lawn.
- Another maintenance tip is to drag a rake over your lawn and break up any soil clumps as well as covering the seeds more effectively. Then just water the lawn with a garden hose and keep the soil mildly moist.