If the end of the year is sneaking up on you, consider this your friendly reminder to put a little love into your lawn before winter arrives! Here’s a handy winter lawn prep checklist to help you out.
- Aerate: Aerate is just a fancy word for “poke holes in your lawn.” Seriously, aeration isn’t complicated or hard to do. But it is necessary in order to keep your lawn from getting hard. Aeration also helps your lawn soak up and circulate all the water and sunlight it needs before it “goes to sleep” for the winter.
- Mow: As you prep your lawn for winter, keep your grass on the shorter side (1-1.5 inches) and only mow every 2 weeks or so. This length and frequency will keep your lawn healthy come the winter months.
- Keep the leaves at bay: One of the reasons why you should continue mowing throughout the fall and why you should rake/blow on the regular is that dead leaves can wreak havoc on your lawn. If you leave them to collect, they’ll get wet and soggy from dew and rain; plus, wet leaves block precious nutrients from your grass.
- Tidy up: Because your lawn gets wet so often during the winter, it’s important to remove anything from your lawn that will put unnecessary stress on it. This includes bikes, lawn chairs, blow-up pools (*ahem* that you forgot to put away during the summer), wheelbarrows, bagged leaves, etc. Also, be sure to store hoses properly (i.e. emptied and hung) as you shouldn’t be needing them until spring. Don’t forget to remove any standing water so as to thin the mosquito population next year!