Winter Lawn Care Basics
Winter is here and many are you are ready to sit back for the next 3 months and sip single cup coffee while enjoying a nice crackling fire; indoors. But don’t get your coffee pods all in a wad yet! You can’t forget about your lawn during the winter.
The first thing to think about is getting in and out of the car. Make you don’t step on the grass when you are unloading in the driveway. I see this happen quite a bit during winter because the lawn is covered with snow and folks forget there is turf under there. The problem with stepping on the lawn that is covered with snow is that you crack the crowns of the grass plant (where the blades grow out of) and affectively kill those spots.
Secondly, don’t pile up the snow on the lawn or shrubs. You know how heavy snow is when you are shoveling it, so why would you pile 4 or 5 feet of it up on your lawn or plants? A little snow covering is actually good for plants because it protects them from drying out in winter winds, but too much will crush them, much like the trampling mentioned above.
Finally, don’t use ice melting salt like it is snow blower in a bag. In other words, you still need to shovel your driveway and sidewalks. So many times I have found that people get a bit lazy and dump huge amounts of ice melting products all over their concrete. These chemicals dissolve and end up in the soil, burning the grass.
Always follow the directions and you’ll be fine.
So while you are sitting inside this weekend enjoying that single cup coffee strained through a fresh coffee pod, be sure to heed these warnings next time you get out and clear the way.