Keeping Lawn & Order This Winter

Keeping Lawn & Order This Winter

In the same way, you find it way too easy to press the snooze button on your alarm and enjoy a series of nine-minute doses. It is way too easy to leave your lawn be now winter is here.

But even though the struggle is real, in both cases you should refrain from being lazy. Snoozing only disrupts that much needed deep REM sleep you need. Therefore making you feel even more lethargic than you would if you just got up. And leaving your lawn to fend for itself against the cold will have you kicking yourself from the 20th March onward.

Just spend a second thinking back to the summer. All those hours you spend pushing your mower up and down, up and down, working hard to create a lush, green, deep-pile carpet of lawn. As a result, your garden probably became the backdrop to a few ruddy good times. That being; barbecues, birthday parties, al fresco breakfasts, coffee on the deck, a few glasses of rose at sunset, energetic games of tag with the kids, playing fetch with the dog and maybe even a camping test-run or two. Well, if you want to enjoy the same again next year, you need to prepare your lawn from what is about to come – winter.

So, in order to look out of your kitchen window next spring and witness a vista of strong, green grass emerge from the cold and snow, here is what you need to do:

You Came. You Mowed. You Kicked Grass.

Knowing when to mow is one of the most crucial lawn care strategies to get right no matter the season. Luckily, there are only two rules you really need to follow:

1. Don’t cut your lawn too short 
2. Don’t take too much off in any one cut 

It’s that simple. No rocket sciency stuff. Yet the amount of brown, scorched lawns we come across is quite something to behold.

In the colder seasons though (Autumn and Winter), what you need to do is adjust your blade height to 1.5-slash-2 inches. Then mow your lawn every couple of weeks until all the leaves have more or less fallen. This will prevent your grass from being smothered, while also keeping your grass at a healthy length in prep for the ‘real winter’.

All this fuss will help your grass protect itself a bit better and it will also stop any rank fungi from wrecking your lawn. Especially when/if (delete bad on your hunch) it snows. You’ll also find you get to be a little lazier when spring comes around because the need to mow will be delayed by a couple of weeks at least (#winning).

H20, Hell No. H20, Hell No.

In case you hadn’t noticed, it is absolutely bloomin’ freezing outside. But this isn’t all bad news because the colder it is the less you need to be watering your lawn. In fact, you probably don’t need to water it at all. No more sprinklers, no more hosepipe and no more punishing your kids by having them water the grass one thimble at a time. The reason for this is simple. That’s because overnight the ground freezes and this can be quite damaging to your grass. Not just the grass but plants, trees, shrubs and whatever else you are harbouring if you’ve been watering them. The less water, the less there is to freeze and the happier your garden is. Simple. All that and you are saving yourself water too (#winningagain).

We Feel The Need, The Need For Seed.

A great way to encourage your lawn to become lush and green is to add a little bit of natural fertiliser to it. Yes, you should have really done this at the end of summer, But if you forget then run outside now and get sprinkling before winter pokes its head over the parapet. Just make sure you are buying the organic stuff that contains no nasties.

Do A Stint In The Compost Office.

We’re not sure if it’s what Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin had in mind when they wrote the song… But now is the perfect time to be showing your compost pile a Whole Lotta Love. Build up your collection now and it will be ready just in time for spring. How’s that for efficiency?

As a little trick, you should also add all those leaves you’ve been chasing around your garden, driveway and yard because:

a) Leaves can stop your compost collection from getting too soggy

b) leaves can add that extra bit of insulation (#youcantstopwinning).

Snow Business Of Yours.

The chances of it snowing this Christmas are not likely given President Trump thinks climate change is a story written by J.K. Rowling. However. let’s say it does and you wake to find your lawn covered in the stuff, the best thing you can do is leave it. Yup, leave the snow where it is. Don’t plough it, don’t plough around it, don’t shovel it off – don’t do anything. Just leave it be. Why? Because that layer of snow is actually doing you and your lawn a favour. It’s keeping your grass warm and safe from the chilly winter air, which is great news. Ploughing it or shovelling it will only see brownish patches of unhealthy grass appear by the time spring comes around. And no amount of Instagram filters will be able to fix that. Trust us.

And there we have it. All done. See, it wasn’t too strenuous, was it? See you next week. Thanks for reading the ‘Keeping Lawn & Order This Winter’ blog. For more lawn care tips and tricks, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.