Keep Grass Healthy With These Winter Lawn Care Tips

Now that winter is settling in across the landscape, it’s time to think about how you can keep your grass healthy. While you can’t really mow, fertilize or plant sod during the wintertime, you can do several tasks that will ensure your lawn comes back when the weather warms up again. You can also take steps to protect your other plants, such as trees and shrubs, from incurring too much winter damage.

Bobcat of York, Frederick, Hagerstown, Lancaster, and Adams County, owned by Crownstone Equipment, is your local lawn mower dealer, with four locations in York and Hanover, PA, and Frederick and Hagerstown, MD. Here are some ways that you can take care of your lawn and plants so that your grass, bushes and trees grow lush and green come spring.

1. Use Nice Weather to Your Advantage

Take any nice day that you can get to work on your lawn. The weather won’t be bad every day, so when it’s sunny and reasonably warm outside, use that day to perform your maintenance tasks, like removing debris and fallen snow or raking up dead leaves.

2. Remove Debris

A clean and clear lawn is one that is more likely to receive the sunlight and air it needs to remain healthy. Walk around your property in the fall or on a sunny winter day and remove all the debris that may have accumulated. This could be twigs or branches, dead leaves, vines, pine needles and even discarded paper bags. Use a rake or a leaf blower to clear all this debris away that you can’t carry by hand and compost or mulch it. Remove any heavy items that may be sitting on your grass, too, so that they don’t kill patches of it with their weight.

3. Lower Foot Traffic

One common way lawns are damaged, especially when they’re more fragile during winter, is via an excess of foot traffic. Try to avoid walking the same path on your lawn too many times so that you don’t trample down the grass too much. Use sidewalks and driveways or other established paths as much as possible.

4. Aerate Your Lawn

Another great way to keep your lawn nourished is to aerate it, especially after a frost which can prevent fresh air from reaching the soil. Aerating your lawn in the fall will help to freshen the soil. Remove all the ice that you can after each deep freeze, too, since very cold temperatures may kill your grass if ice is allowed to remain.

5. Prepare For Ice & Snow

To protect your plants during winter, tie splints around small tree trunks and tie branches together on your trees to strengthen them. Remove branches that could become damaged by heavy snow so that diseases don’t settle into your trees. Brush snow off weaker branches. Be aware of animals that will try to nibble your grass or plants for food and put wire mesh around more delicate greenery to protect it.

We hope these tips help you to take care of your lawn this winter. Interested in purchasing some new lawn-care equipment? Visit our website to take a look at the fine selection of new and used lawn mowers for sale at our four dealership locations in Pennsylvania and Maryland. We even offer equipment financing options to help you get the lawn mower you need. Bobcat of York, Frederick, Lancaster, Hagerstown, and Adams County, owned by Crownstone Equipment, proudly serves the cities of Lancaster, PA, and Baltimore, MD.