Winterizing Your Lawn

Didn't have a lush lawn this year. Well, there's always next year and here's how to get a head start. The final feeding of your lawn is the most important feeding of all. Yes, it's more important than the Spring feeding.

While the blades of the grass plants wilt from the frost, the root system remains alive but dormant through the winter. It is the health and vigor of the root system that determines how well the lawn will winter over.

Late in the season it is the natural tendency of the plants, because of shortening days and cooler weather, to shift its growth emphasis from the blades to the root system.

Summer lawn foods are improperly blended for fall feeding. They have more nitrogen (blade growth stimulant) than phosphorus or potash (i.e. 27-3-3. 27-8-8, 10-6-4, etc.) Feeding a lawn more nitrogen than phosphorus late in the season is counterproductive to the health of the lawn. The use of a lawn food with more phosphorus (root growth stimulant) and a healthy amount of potash (body building component) will aid the grass plants in developing a stronger root system before winter. A fall lawn food will have a blend of 14-18-14, 10-18-10, etc.

Winterizers can be used in Spring and Summer under the following conditions:

• Lawns that have suffered from grubs (root damage) can often be saved by repeated applications of   winterizing lawn food.
• Newly seeded lawns will benefit from a high phosphorus food to get the root system developed quickly. This will shorten the critical period of heavy watering necessary to establish grass plants.
• Winterizing (high phosphorus) lawn foods should be applied in any situation where thickening the lawn is the primary goal.