7 Things to Be Done for Your Lawn for Winter in Australia
Your lawn, like other garden plants, grows and behaves differently in different seasons. Understanding its habits and knowing simple tips concerning lawn maintenance will help it flourish elegantly, looking its best. Now, the winter is in full swing, so you need to make your lawn winter-ready. As Australian lawns have warm-season grasses that flourish in hotter months, most lawns will become dormant or semi-dormant during winter, thus demanding less maintenance.
It is sufficient to follow these seven winter lawn maintenance tips.
1. Fertilize Your Lawn
The grass growth slows down during the winter, so your lawn will not take up enormous nutrients. Check your lawn’s soil type to ensure what nutrients it lacks, and then buy the fertilizer accordingly. You must fertilize your lawn before the onset of dormancy to ensure nutritional uptake.
2. Do Not Over Water
Do not water your lawn unless the grass looks dry. If you have to water your lawn, make sure you do it in the morning. If you water it in the noon before a cold evening or night, it may freeze, causing damage to the grass. Also, make sure not to over-water your lawn, because a wet lawn can rot and be prone to fungi.
3. Give Your Lawn Ample Sunlight
It is advisable to remove leaves, clippings, and other debris from your lawn to make sure it receives ample sunlight and air that it needs to flourish during cooler months. Cleaning up with a Billy Goat equipment ensures your lawn is spotless and hygienic. This equipment can be used for residential, commercial, and municipal lawn cleaning needs.
If you have planted other trees between your grasses, make sure to prune them to ensure your lawn gets enough sunlight.
4. Aerate Your Lawn
Heavy foot traffic and vehicle traffic coupled with persistent snow coverage can lead to soil compaction issues. The constant pressure on the soil surface leads to compressed soil particles that may cause various problems for your lawn. Also, compressed soil does not allow room for water to filter through and penetrate the roots. Eventually, compaction damages the overall health of your lawn, making it thin, weak, and unable to combat weeds, insects, and diseases.
Soil aeration is one way to deal with compaction. Soil aeration is creating holes in the soil to help the lawn grasses breathe and receive sunlight, air, water, and nutrients they need to grow. You can do the aeration either using a hand rake or a spike aerator.
5. Mow Your Lawn
Due to the slow grass growth in winter, it is recommended to raise the mowing height to prevent grass damage that can result in browning and scalping. Repeated mowing that leads to scalping (cutting the grasses too short that exposes stems) weakens the grass, making it vulnerable to weeds and diseases.
If you are mowing your lawn during winter, make sure not to cut the grass lower than 2.5cm. Also, rather than mowing your lawn every week, mow it once every three or four weeks depending on the grass type, or mow it when the length of the grass exceeds 6cm.
6. Remove Weeds
Weeds, such as bindii, clover, broadleaf weeds, and thistles may appear during winter. Make sure to remove these weeds with a spray. Otherwise, they will cause problems to your lawn by eliminating nutrients from the soil.
7. Service Your Lawn Mowers
Due to limited mowing, your lawn mower will get a break during winter. Make the most of this time to perform a bit of maintenance on your mower, like sharpening the blades, cleaning it, etc.
Contact Plenty Mowers today if you are looking to buy, service, or repair the power equipment in Melbourne.
