“Winter lawn maintenance?” I hear you cry. “Surely Winter is a time to leave my grass alone!”

This is the normal reaction when the question of winter lawn maintenance or winter grass care is raised, commonly accompanied by a shiver and an overwhelming desire to stay indoors, next to the fire. After all, snow, wind and ice doesn’t exactly make for a pleasant or fun gardening experience.

Well, I am afraid to say that a lawn does need maintained in the Winter, and the more diligently this work is carried out, the more benefit you’ll draw from that work when the following Spring and Summer come around.

This is a 2-part article dealing with winter lawn maintenance. This is the first article, featuring:

• an introduction to winter grass care and why it’s required
• how to change your lawn mowing habits over winter to best care for you lawn
• Why you shouldn’t use fertiliser over the winter if you want healthy grass
• What lawn supplements to use in the winter season, especially to control the growth of moss

Part 2 of this article (linked at the bottom of this page) looks at:

• Aerating and Lawn Aeration over the winter
• Tidy-up jobs such as lawn edging over the cold months

Why You Need to Care For Your Lawn Over the Winter

The climate we experience in the British Isles means that grass rarely stops growing for any length of time. There are exceptions of course, as in the past two Winters (2009 and 2010), and there are vast differences depending on where you are situated geographically, but, on the whole, your lawn will require at least a few trims over the Winter months.

How to Adjust your Lawn Mowing Height For Autum and Winter

In a fine turf situation like a bowling or golf course green the mowing height will be increased by approximately fifty per cent over the autumn period to give the sward a little protection from the Winter weather, but on a domestic lawn I believe that unless it is being mowed at eight mm or below, the cutting height can remain the same throughout the year.

My general rule of thumb for getting the lawn mower out during the Winter is that if the grass is more than fifty per cent above normal height then it requires cutting.  When you mow your lawn, make sure you leave no accumulations of grass cuttings lying around on the surface as, especially in winter, this results in suffocation, as illustrated on the right.

The fifty per cent rule comes about because mowing more than that percentage from the leaf blades in one go has been proven to weaken the plant. This weakening gets progressively larger the more you mow off your lawn at any one time. It follows that a weakened grass plant will be more prone to damage from disease, wear, or severe weather.

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Preparing for a Winter Lawn Mowing

It is always important to make sure the grass surface is clear of any debris before mowing your lawn, but this is even more important in the Winter as the cold, windy and wet weather will result in leaves, twigs and other objects that will damage the lawn mower if not cleared.

Worms are also most active near the surface at this time of year so it is very important to break up the casts before mowing by brushing. This is because worm casts cause serious scarring on your lawn if flattened due to the suffocation produced by a flattened cast. Even worse, they also create an ideal seed bed for weeds to germinate.

Using Iron to Control Lawn Moss Over the Winter

No lawn fertiliser should be used over the Winter as we do not want to promote any soft growth which would be prone to disease or cold damage. Because moss is at its most active during this time, though, I would always advise at least one, preferably two, applications of iron (or a relevant mix like this) to control the spread of moss.

Choose some reasonably mild weather around the end of November, then again late January to early February, and apply sulfate of iron in water at two hundred grams per one hundred sq metres. Iron has the added advantage of discouraging worm activity as worms dislike the acidity.

Let me Know Your Winter Regime

I’d love to hear what you do over the winter to keep your lawn care cravings at bay. Do you have some favourite winter jobs that you think keep your lawn green and healthy? Let me know by writing a comment in the comment box at the bottom of this page and I’ll get back to you. I look forward to hearing from you!

And, don’t forget to check out part 2 of this winter lawn care series: Aerating your Lawn and Lawn Edging over the Winter Season.