Your home is your castle and your lawn is your pride and joy – that is, until winter comes around and covers everything with its soft snowy white mantle. You might be in despair because you have no idea how to care for the lawn of your house especially when winter comes around. Here are some tips that might help you.
First of all, is your geographical area prone to being covered by snow during winter? If yes, then one option for you is to find a source of high quality grass seed so that you can sow them on your lawn come springtime. There is not much you can do to prevent the old grass from dying come winter. The good news is that once spring comes along you can easily sow, fertilize and water your lawn until the new grass comes up. After that, your main worry is to keep the lawn well watered and well trimmed.
Your second option is to buy square pieces of grass called sod to lay in a grid on your lawn space come springtime. This is an easier option but one risk is that the sod might die if you are not used to planting it on your lawn area. If you are experienced in this, it does get easier to calculate if the sod will live or die under your care.
During the winter itself, some authorities believe that you should apply a compost layer on the lawn area. This way even if the snow buries your lawn there is that layer of compost to provide food for the soil and a breeding ground for the beneficial microbes and earthworms that thrive in the warmer deeper part of the soil. If you were able to cut your grass prior to the onset of winter, you can always let the cuttings lie on the lawn area undisturbed to serve as your compost layer. A good gardener always knows to “feed the soil” first before you can go about feeding the grass itself.
The good news is that if the soil beneath your grassy lawn was undisturbed during the winter the grass underneath the snowy layer may be incubating until springtime. Then you might just have to wait until the sun comes out in spring for the snow to melt and the grass start sprouting on its own. The danger though is that weeds like crab grass might grow with the regular grass so you need to weed the unwanted crab grass out.