Why Lawn Winter Care Is The First Step In Producing A Great Lawn
Lawn winter care is an often overlooked factor, which can pay surprising dividends when you are prepared to put in the necessary hard work. There are a great many gardeners who like to work on the garden in the summer, but there are fewer who are really prepared to put the necessary work in during the cold winter months, knowing that the rewards won't happen for many months to come. It is during this time that you have the greatest opportunity to make sure your lawn is one of the best in the neighborhood, both for color and smoothness of finish.
It is easy to think that work on your lawn begins in spring, because that is when most plant life begins to stir. That is far from the truth if you want the best results from lawn management. You need to start right at the opposite end of the year, when the growth of the spring and summer has tailed off, and we are heading towards the winter. The first step, at the end of a summer and as soon as there is evidence of death and debris, is to make sure the soil gets enough air. This is best achieved in the old fashioned way with a garden fork.
If you have a large lawn area, it is possible to use a machine to do the job, and you will have to weigh up the saving in time against the extra cost. The same applies to the next stage of the treatment as well, although there is an extra important consideration here. When you come to rake the soil to remove all waste debris and dead grass and weeds, you can use either a hand rake or a machine. If you use the hand rake, you are not going to damage the soil unless you are a strength freak. With a machine, it is possible to do damage, so be careful.
Lawn winter care then goes into a gentler stage as you sow the seeds which will bear fruit next year. These seeds still need to be given nutrient, and many of the top manufacturers of garden fertilizer have produced a special formula for the winter months. Using this formula can lead to vastly improved results from spring onwards, as the grass will be in a far healthier condition than other grass which had been neglected.
After your lawn winter care program has been completed, you can reinforce your efforts by switching to the right fertilizer at the right time during the spring. Start with a gentle solution, and then progress to something which will have a strong weedkiller effect a the spring moves towards summer. Take the trouble to do maintenance work during the summer, protecting against drought and insects. This will leave the soil in the best condition ready for another dose of lawn winter care.
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