Coming out of the winter months, your lawn might look in rough shape. It could be matted down, have brown spots, or even have a problem with snow mold. While to some degree, your lawn will start to bounce back on its own as it comes out of dormancy, there are some things that you can do to revive your grass after winter.
We’ve rounded up some tips on reviving your lawn after winter so that you can get a headstart on enjoying it this spring.
How to Revive Grass After Winter
Below are a mix of cultural recommendations as well as steps that we take as lawn care professionals to help get our clients’ lawns back into spring shape.
1. Perform an Early Spring Clean-Up
Following winter, there’s a good chance that there is quite a bit of debris in your yard. Leaves that didn’t get picked up at the end of the fall might have blown around to all corners of your property. There are likely fallen twigs and branches and other yard debris laying around, too.
Taking some time to clean up any yard debris will go a long way in beginning to revive your grass after winter. Picking up this type of debris will help ensure ample oxygen, water, and sunlight are making it to your lawn and its roots. Along with that, picking up debris will help to discourage rodents and other pests from finding hiding spots on your lawn.
2. Clear Lingering Snow Piles as Much as Possible
When it comes to reviving your lawn after winter, you also want to try to get any lingering snow up that you can. One thing that tends to happen is that snow gets piled up in large mounds that take a really long time to melt. The sooner you can try to break down these mounds and get snow to melt, the better.
Sometimes when we come out to treat lawns in early spring in Pennsylvania, some properties still have mounded snow in areas (if we had some late-season snowfall). We obviously cannot treat these areas so the sooner you can break them up and get them to melt, the better off you’ll be.
3. Lightly Rake the Lawn
Another cultural recommendation to revive your grass after winter is to lightly rake it out and fluff up matted-down areas. Again, this is just helping to air things out and allows more sunlight and oxygen to reach those areas.
It will also make a difference if you have snow mold in those matted-down spots. Our recommendation for a snow mold problem is typically to rake out those areas so that the over-saturated soil can start to dry out.
4. Get on a Great Lawn Care Program
Of course, getting started with a professional lawn care program is also going to make a world of difference when it comes to spring lawn care.
Lawn care treatments start in early spring with pre-emergent controls which will prevent some of your grassy weeds from having a chance to germinate. It’s really important that you sign up for a program early enough to have this vital service included as invasive weeds like crabgrass can be difficult to manage once they’ve been given a chance to grow.
Lawn fertilization is also critical to reviving your lawn after winter. At Joshua Tree, we’ll start with a slow-release fertilizer that will help to gradually wake your lawn from dormancy. The key is to not wake it up too early or shock it too much. We’ll apply just the right amount to help give it the boost it needs to green-up and start looking its best.
A Professional Partner to Take Care of Your Lawn After Winter (And Beyond!)
If you’re anything like us, you’re probably pretty eager to start using and enjoying your lawn after winter. The winter can feel like it drags on forever but as soon as those warm days start coming, you don’t want to waste any time! You want to get outside and enjoy your property to the fullest.
That is so much more easily done with a lawn care partner on your side. By hiring a pro to handle your spring lawn care, and beyond, you can make sure your lawn is in the best possible shape not only for the spring but for the entire year!
In fact, by choosing the right lawn care professional, you can gain confidence that your lawn is in good hands and will continue to get the care it needs, no matter what the season. That smart decision will help you to truly enjoy your yard to the fullest.
If you’d like to know more about how Joshua Tree can help meet your lawn needs at your home in Pennsylvania, or you have more questions, we’re here to help! Get in touch with us to get some free expert advice and learn more about our lawn care program options.
