In a few months, Australia will be engulfed in the bitter cold. This means that most property owners can finally take a short break from lawn care tasks.
But before the harsh winter hits, it’s crucial to carry out pre-winter lawn care to ensure that your garden will easily bounce back to life come spring. Not only that, this important task needs to be carried out to prevent small critters looking for a restful retreat in the cold season from finding their way into your home.
So, what should you do for pre-winter lawn care? Trusted lawn care service providers in the country recommend the following tasks:
- Aerate
Aerating your lawn will loosen soil and make sure that new grass can easily break through the ground come spring. That isn’t all; the small holes in the ground will also allow fertilisers (which you should spread a new layer of), oxygen and water to easily reach the grass roots.
- Fertilise
Pre-winter fertilisation is a must to ensure that turf is adequately nourished to survive the long cold winter. It should be noted as well that this can help prevent the growth of destructive weeds in the spring.
- Kill weeds
Weeds are impressively resilient and they can emerge in the spring quicker than grass. So if you don’t want to see them after the winter, it’s best to kill them off before the season.
One of the best ways to go about it is by determining the best herbicide to use for the type of turf you have. Say, you have Kikuyu or Couch, which are common in warm regions of Australia; any herbicide with Dicamba is ideal to use.
However, if your yard has Buffalo grass, the most suitable herbicide would be one that contains MCPA and Bromoxynil instead of Dicamba.
- Plant new seeds
Grass and plant roots grow really deep during the winter. If you are mindful of taking advantage of that, when springtime comes, you can expect new sprouts and bulbs to appear.
- Water new seeds every day before the arrival of winter
Lawn care professionals say that watering new seeds daily before it gets too cold will ensure that they germinate within two weeks and withstand winter better.
- Mulch
Take the time to grind fallen leaves with a lawn mower (make sure they’re not infected with a disease first).
Ground-up fallen leaves or mulch will easily decompose and nourish soil and turf, according to expert gardeners in NSW. At the same time, mulch will protect grass from the drying effect of the winter wind.
- Pest control
Not a lot of pests go around in the winter, but they can take refuge from the cold in different parts of your yard or garden. Some may not even be content to stay outdoors and manage to find their way into your home.
To avoid any pest-related issues in the winter, make an arrangement for prompt and regular rubbish removal. Get rid of everything, from fallen branches to piles of dead leaves and other kinds of clutter in your lawn.
It’s important to mention too that pest control specialists advise trimming trees and shrubs before the winter because uninvited winter pests such as mice, rats and ants can use trees and shrubs as their direct path to your home.
- Clean gardening tools and equipment
All handheld tools and machines you use for your lawn should be cleaned thoroughly before being put away for the winter. Use regular soap and water for washing. Follow it up with disinfection using isopropyl alcohol. If any tools and machine parts are rusty, oil them and wipe the rust away.
Cleaning all your gardening tools and equipment will:
- Make them more effective and efficient for full-on lawn care in the springtime
- Extend their functional lifespan
- Prevent the possibility of contamination in the future (if you dealt with garden diseases in the previous seasons)
Indeed, winter will free you from a lot of lawn care responsibilities. But before you can rest, there’s a lot of necessary work to be done. If you perform all the pre-winter tasks, you can look forward to a less stressful lawn care and maintenance routine in the spring
