Today we have a great guest post for you from an expert in the soil and grass area. These DIY lawn treatments keep your grass roots healthy during winter and into the spring months.

We are over a month away from the start of spring, but you can start these tips now and save them for next season too!

Enjoy!

DIY Lawn Treatments To Keep Your Grass Roots Healthy During Winter

A healthy lawn isn’t a three-season, fair-weather job. Keeping your lawn looking beautiful when the weather is nice means making sure it’s healthy all year long, including when the temperature drops in winter.

We’ve talked about easy fall lawn care, but now it’s time to discuss what to do through the colder months.

Give Your Lawn a Boost of Fertilizer Before the Cold Sets In

At first thought, applying fertilizer to your lawn just before winter probably sounds counterproductive — after all, it’s about to stop growing for the season (or slow down considerably). However, giving it a boost before the temperature drops is a great way to protect the roots. 

Our homemade lawn food is an inexpensive, effective lawn fertilizer that uses safe products most people already have in their homes. Applying it to your lawn will help strengthen the roots and prepare it for winter. Think of it like giving your grass a hearty meal before its long winter nap!

How does fall fertilization help the grass? The nitrogen in the ammonia helps strengthen the grass blades, encourages stronger root growth, and aids in storing resources for the winter. The beer provides potassium, improving cold hardiness and strengthening cell walls, while acids and fermented sugars feed beneficial soil bacteria. 

If you grow warm-season grasses like Bermuda or St. Augustine, you’ll want to apply this fertilizer about 6 weeks before the chance of frost. This timing helps minimize “large patch” and winter kill in warm-season lawns. According to Mississippi State University – Extension, too much nitrogen fertilizer promotes lush turf that is highly susceptible to infection.  

Remember to always test small areas first before use. Please use caution around other plants; this is ONLY for grass!

Aerate in the Fall

Aerating is a great DIY project — one of the best DIY lawn treatments to keep grass and its roots healthy through the winter. A bonus is that you can choose the method that best suits your lawn size and budget. For small lawns, you can strap aeration shoes to your feet and walk around or manually aerate using a handheld or spike aerator to “jab” holes into the soil. If you have a larger space, you can rent a core aerator from your local home improvement store or hire a lawn care service to save time and energy.

Why should you aerate the soil in the fall? Over the summer, mowing and foot traffic from your family and pets can cause the soil under your grass to become compacted, making it harder for air, water, and nutrients to make their way down to the roots. When you aerate, you create small holes in the soil that allow all that good stuff to reach the root zone.

Topdress with Organic Material

Topdressing is a process in which a very thin layer of organic material, like compost, sand, or finely screened topsoil, is scattered across your lawn to fill in low spots and create an even surface. While it offers many benefits to the grass and soil, it also works wonders for protecting your lawn through the winter. 

Why is topdressing good for your lawn? This thin layer of material acts as insulation, protecting the roots from harsh temperatures and frost. It also improves the soil structure, allowing it to retain moisture better, and adds nutrients to the ground. All of this fosters healthy root growth, allowing your lawn to bounce back quickly when spring arrives.

Make Sure to Do a Fall Yard Cleanup

A thorough fall yard cleanup is also key to maintaining a healthy lawn through the winter. Take a few weekends in the fall and get the leaves raked and all other debris picked up. When this stuff is left in your yard, it can suffocate the grass, and with little oxygen reaching the soil, the ground is at a higher risk of becoming compacted. Both situations stress your grass, leading to poor growth.

Why is a fall yard cleanup important? If your grass is stressed as it goes into winter, it will struggle as it gets colder. Similar to your body—if you’re tired and stressed, your immune system isn’t strong enough to fight germs. 

Overseed Bare Patches

Before your grass goes dormant for the winter, it’s a good idea to try to fix any bare patches. Purchase a seed/mulch combo and spread it over dead or thin areas. Rake the mixture into a thin layer, then water it well, keeping it moist for 2-3 weeks until it germinates.

Why should you overseed? Overseeding prevents weeds from encroaching on your lawn, stealing nutrients and water from your grass. Filling in the bare spots also reduces the risk of diseases and insects that thrive in exposed soil.

Keep Your Grass Watered, Even if You Don’t Think it’s Needed

Let’s talk about watering for a minute. Even though temperatures from November through March are cooler, your grass still needs water to keep the roots hydrated.  

When you’re not seeing regular rainfall, give your grass a drink of water every two to four weeks if the temperature is above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. How much you give it depends on recent precipitation and how quickly the soil dries out (meaning how warm it is). Most of the time, It only needs a half-inch to an inch of water.

Keep Off the Grass As Much as Possible

When the weather is warm, we get used to walking across the lawn whenever we want, but it’s best to stick to sidewalks during freezing temperatures. As temperatures drop below freezing, the blades of grass in your lawn can freeze because of the water inside. Stepping on frozen grass causes injury; in the worst-case scenario, it can even kill it and damage the roots. Come springtime, you’ll end up with a brown path where you walked during the winter.

Avoid Clearing Snow Off Your Grass

In the event it snows, you should leave the snow on your grass instead of shoveling it off. The snow itself acts as a protective layer from the cold temperatures, but when you shovel, you can injure the grass blades when the snow shovel comes in contact with them. The snow will melt off without causing harm once the sun gets warm enough.

A Beautiful Lawn in the Spring

Keeping your grass healthy during winter sets the stage for a great spring glow-up. If you give it a little TLC now, it will bounce back from the cold temps quicker and even stronger. When the weather warms, you’ll be able to get outside and enjoy your yard.

About the author Amanda Shiffler – Most comfortable with soil under her fingernails, Amanda has an enthusiasm for all things plant-related. With a master’s degree in agriculture and more than a decade of experience gardening and tending to her lawn, she combines her plant knowledge and knack for writing to share what she knows and loves.

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