When winter is just around the corner, you need to make sure that all parts of your house are ready for it. Your lawn is exposed to the element and you need to make sure it can withstand the extremely cold months ahead. When the summer ends, you should be prepared to ensure that the lawn will survive until the next spring thaw. Here are things you should do
- Fertilize your lawn: During spring, people often fertilize the lawn to feed the malnourished grasses and lawns. However, fertilizing your lawn during autumn is also as important. This will replenish the nutrients and roots of the lawn will be strengthened. Thicker and stronger roots will make sure that the grass will survive the cold weather. Fine and thin roots can be completely frozen, potentially killing the grass.
- Eat weeds: Some of the weeds are edible and highly nutritious, such as dandelion leaves. Many people tend to just spray the weeds with herbicides. If possible, you should just eat your weeds. Herbicides will just contaminate your soil and it will be risky for you to eat anything that grows on your lawn. If you want to spray your lawn, you should do it during the wall. It’s the time when nutrients go into the roots of plants, including weeds. The herbicide will be absorbed by the weeds and it will be more effective. By removing weeds, grass will have less competition and it will grow stronger.
- Don’t mow the lawn: Although your grass has grown a little taller during the fall, it’s not a good idea to cut it short. In fact, you should let the grass to become a bit taller to make the roots stronger. As your lawn become thicker, the root can be insulated against frost and snow. Lawns that are cut too short will be easily damaged by the very low temperature. Give your lawn a fighting chance, by protecting the root.
- Water your lawn properly: During the fall, days are getting cooler and shorter. It means that you should use less water to avoid saturating the soil with too much moisture. In fact, if winter is just a couple of months away, you should water the lawn once every ten days. Very wet soil can freeze more easily, potentially damaging the roots during the winter.
- Check for large patches of fungus: Fungi are a threat all year long, but they grow the fastest in humid situation with less sunlight. So, when there’s more rain and it’s cooler, you should be wary of potential fungi growth. Fungi infestation may start as yellow patches, which will turn reddish brown later. If the fungi problem becomes so bad, leaves closes to the soil will be affected the first. Leaves will come off the stem and you will notice rotted plant smell. There are safe, organic methods to eradicate fungi in the lawn and it’s much easier to do if fungi infestation is still at early stage.