How to prepare and protect grass before cold weather arrives
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Lawns are lush right now and some beautiful plants are still standing tall, but cold weather is coming.
There are steps Hoosiers can take to protect their lawns before winter arrives, says Dr. Cale Bigelow, professor of horticulture and landscape architecture at Purdue University.
One thing to do now that will benefit your lawn into next year is to keep feeding it, Bigelow says.
“We had a really stressful period in the middle of the summer. It was probably about six weeks that things were really dry, putting a lot of stress on a lot of lawns. One of the things that I certainly would be thinking about is making sure you’re feeding that lawn going into October and November. A little bit of feeding is going to help to build some carbohydrates, it’s gonna retain some green color and it’s really gonna set you up for next year. The other thing is, it’s not too late to try and seed some areas that maybe had thinned out.”
Bigelow says some grasses, like tall fescue, will still germinate and fill in any bare spots, but now is the time to act.
“We’re running out of time. We’re running out of day length and we’re running out of soil temperatures.”
Bigelow shared some tips for people who want to put grass seed down before conditions get too cold.
“If you’ve got some thin areas, try and scratch it up with a rake or some other tool, apply the seed, and hand water those spots. Do whatever you have to do to try and get that seed to pop because we need to get the seed to germinate so that it can establish.”
Maintaining your lawn ahead of cold weather is key, according to Bigelow.
“Go to maybe a garden center, pick up a lawn fertilizer where there are specific products designed for lawns, and make sure you’re putting that out at an appropriate rate if you have an irrigation system watered in. Otherwise, wait for mother nature to try and provide some moisture there. Don’t get too aggressive in terms of mowing heights and things like that. Don’t scalp your lawn down too severely going late into the season. But that feeding piece is probably the biggest thing that I would suggest.”
Visit the Purdue website to learn more about lawncare from the turfgrass science team.