Lawn care in winter: this is how your lawn gets through the winter healthy!

Lawn care in winter

Lovely! Such a beautiful lawn! Your green garden carpet will only grow strong and dense if you look after it properly. And lawn care takes place all year round. In the following, we will show you which tasks you have to face in winter. We also provide you with numerous tips and tricks on how you can get the most out of your lawn.

In order to understand a contribution like this to lawn care in winter, one question is of particular importance:

When does winter start and end in the garden?

The answer to this question is by no means easy to answer. Because in our latitudes the seasons gradually creep into the garden. While in the northern hemisphere of our earth

• Meteorologists with 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December each a meteorological
• and astronomers with March 21 (the equinox in spring), June 21 (summer solstice), September 21 (autumn equinox) and December 21 (winter solstice) each a meteorological or calendar, one tied to a certain astronomical constellation

Knowing the beginning of the season, farmers, foresters and gardeners have no exact dates for the beginning of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Rather, they are guided by the course of nature: and the germination, drifting, growth, blooming and withering, the ripening of fruits and the generation happen according to the so-called phonological seasons.

They are based on the fact that certain stages of development of typical plants, so-called pointer plants, appear: for example, blossoming. This moment can vary – from year to year, from region to region, from plant location to plant location. This is completely natural and happens in the eternal cycle of nature. It should be clear to everyone that climate change is already causing changes here and will cause even more.

From the point of view of farmers, foresters and gardeners, there is, therefore, more than the familiar four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. They differentiate the course of the year into ten seasons:

• winter
• Early spring – first spring – full spring
• Early summer – midsummer – late summer
• Early fall – full fall – late fall

Signs of the beginning of winter are, for example, the emergence of winter cereals and the needling of the larch trees. When the hazelnut blossoms, winter ends.

For our contribution to lawn care in winter, we, therefore, consider what you have to do in the phonological late autumn, winter and early spring because this roughly corresponds to the general understanding of winter. Strictly speaking, we are informing you here about lawn care before winter, lawn care in winter and lawn care after winter.

Winter lawn care – your to-do list

Our to-do list for lawn care in winter starts in late autumn, includes winter and ends in early spring. You have to do that!

Mend lawn damage or create new lawn sections

Late autumn is a good time to whip up a lawn that has been heavily used by both wind and weather and you during the gardening season. Damaged lawn sections can now be repaired or, if necessary, re-laid because the garden soil has still retained the warmth of the summer and autumn sun so that the grasses germinate.

Providing the lawn with nutrients

Before the first frost, your lawn will also benefit from an autumn dose of fertilizer. It should provide less growth-promoting nitrogen than in summer, but it should contain a lot of potassium, which increases the salt content in the cell sap of the grass. This strengthens your lawn for frosty times (frost protection) and disease.

Our tip: Just ask your specialist dealer about autumn fertilizer for your lawn!

Sweep leaves from the lawn

The beginning of early winter brings a lot of work for you as a lawn keeper and lawn care provider: Depending on the location of your lawn, leaves accumulate on it that have fallen from surrounding trees or blown in by stormy autumn winds. Small twigs and tree fruits can also be found in the foliage carpet. If it were left lying around for winter, a microclimate would form underneath that would provide a good breeding ground for microbes and fungi – and could damage your lawn. For you, this means: Sweep the leaves thoroughly from the lawn so that it gets enough oxygen and does not rot.

Our tip: You don’t know what to do with the leaves? This is good, for example, between shrubs and under garden hedges to cover the ground. The leaves also protect plant roots from frost on beds. Or you can compost it.

Demoss lawn

If you have noticed while sweeping the lawn that a lot of moss has settled on the ground between the blades of grass or that so-called lawn thatch has formed, that should also be removed before winter.

Our tip: Properly scarify your lawn by driving the scarified with a knife depth of no more than 0.3 cm, first lengthways and then across the lawn.

Bring lawn to winter height

If the temperatures drop below ten degrees Celsius (° C), your lawn stops its metabolism and goes into its well-deserved rest phase. A look at the outdoor thermometer will tell you exactly that it is now time for the last cut of the lawn to bring the lawn to the right height for wintering. This is around four to five centimeters (cm) and will help your lawn survive the winter healthily.

Our tip: A lawn that is too high in winter would mean that the grass could tip and/or kink under a load of snow in winter and as a result lie flat on the ground and rot. On the other hand, if you mow the lawn too short, the ground will freeze more, which could damage the roots.

Winter rest: Avoid walking on the lawn in winter

When winter has arrived in your garden, your lawn is hibernating. As long as frost or even snow covers your lawn extensively, you should not step on your lawn. Because you could break off individual blades of grass so that they die off. You could still distinguish the “patches of the lawn” that occur when regrowth well into the gardening season from the lawn that got through the winter.

The lawn is not a gathering place for snow

If you are sweeping snow in the garden, do not store any snow that may have been removed from the patio roof, terrace or paths on the lawn! The extra snow would compact the already lying snow cover, which would excessively increase the snow load for the lawn below. A large amount of snow would take longer to thaw and the grasses underneath would not get enough oxygen and light. Diseases such as so-called snow mold and gaps in the lawn threatened because the grass would turn yellow and eventually die.

Fertilizer for lawns worn out in winter

As soon as the first grasses on your lawn begin to grow, you can fertilize the lawn. Because after the long winter he is drained and hungry for nutrients. If either reseeding or re-sowing is required, it is best to use commercially available starter fertilizers with a lot of phosphorus.

Would you like to know more about lawns and lawn care? Then take a look at our articles on the topic:

We also invite you to visit our online shop, where you will not only find various garden accessories to design your lawn, but also a large selection of playhouses and garden play equipment.

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