Even though your grass doesn’t need much attention during the winter, it’s still important to follow some basic seasonal lawn care guidelines – especially if you live in a cold climate. Depending on temperature and weather conditions, your maintenance routine may vary considerably. Unfortunately, if you follow advice for the wrong climate or grass type, you may do unintentional harm to your lawn. Read on for advice based on your specific climate zone:

Northern Climate Winter Lawn Care

Whether you live in an area that receives an occasional snow shower or one where heavy snow storms are common, you’ll want to keep your lawn in top condition through the winter. Unfortunately, without some kind of protection during cold weather, your lawn might have a difficult time recovering in the spring. Although many resources recommend raking up leaves in the winter, you may want to wait until the spring so that your lawn has the benefit of their coverage. However, ground cover like leaves can provide a tempting home for rodents – so skip this method if you’re already fighting off pests.

When you think about lawn care, you probably think of mowing, trimming and using soil additives to enhance the condition of your grass. You probably don’t think about soil pH, but it’s just as important when it comes to lawn management. There are a number of things that can affect the pH of the soil your lawn depends on – if you aren’t careful, incorrect pH values can kill off your expensive plants and grasses. Therefore, it’s important to check the pH of your lawn every year in order to design an appropriate watering and fertilization regiment.

For the most part, grasses do best in neutral soil with a pH range of 6.5 to 7. Think of your lawn as an aquarium. If you’ve ever kept fish, you know that the acid or base salts dissolved in the water affect the pH value of the tank and play a significant role in whether or not your fish will survive. Or if you aren’t a fish enthusiast, maybe you’ve heard about azaleas and other plants that require enrichment with coffee and tea grounds in order to provide additional acid to the soil. As in both of these examples, the plants that make up your lawn require a specific pH in order to grow and thrive.

In a perfect world, we’d never have to mow our lawns to keep them in top condition. However, clipping your grass as short as possible isn’t a good solution to the problem of mowing. Choosing the wrong clipping height can lead to unsightly brown spots, or cause you to replant your lawn entirely. On the other hand, leaving your grass too tall can lead to other problems. When considering optimal clipping height, you’ll also need to account for sloped areas and any small hills or ground features that are not readily apparent.

Hazards associated with clipping your lawn too short

As water supplies around the world continue to feel the pinch of decreased winter snowfall and increased community needs, drought conditions will only become more frequent. In many parts of the country, as soon as a town or county declares a drought situation, you won’t be able to water your lawn. Unfortunately, your lawn will do very poorly without at least one inch of rain or water per week. That said, there are a number of things you can do to prepare your lawn for drought conditions.

Microbial Soil Agents

Aside from providing your lawn with special nutrients, microbes can make it easier for your lawn to withstand drought. Typically, microbial soil agents will provide rare elements and help grass plants utilize nitrogen from the air. In addition, beneficial fungal spores will help increase the humus content of the soil. This will act as an insulator and moisture preserver – much like hay in your vegetable garden. Check with any lawn and garden store in your area for more information about using these products correctly.

How to Fix Common Lawn Problems

Here are some of the most common problems you may encounter when trying to keep your lawn looking it's best:

Nitrogen Deficiency - Symptoms include slow growth and leaves that are light-green and turning yellowish. Older, lower to the ground grass leaves will often show the deficiency first - and the entire lawn is usually affected rather than spotting.

People in temperate climates everywhere are pulling their lawn mowers out of the storage shed or garage and preparing for that first trim of the season. After getting the dust off of the mower, it’s also important to dust off the mind before firing up the engine. Remember, the whole reason for lawn mowing is to promote a healthy, flourishing yard that adds to the attractiveness and value of your property. Let’s go over a few pointers to refresh things you’ll want to know for maintaining an attractive lawn:

Lawn mowing may not always be the most enjoyable activity. It is understandable that many people would prefer to do it as infrequently as possible. To accommodate this, it might seem intuitive to cut the grass extremely short, so as to elongate the duration between mows. This is a bad idea. Grass that is clipped too short will die. A dead lawn will be evident by an unsightly brown colored grass.

It’s that time of year again; with spring just around the corner, grass will soon be demanding your attention. In all likelihood, your lawn mower probably hasn’t seen the light of day in a few months. After pulling it out of the garage or storage shed and dusting off the cobwebs, there are a few more things to do before tackling that sprouting lawn.

1. Change the oil. This is a necessary step to ensure that your lawn mower stays reliable well beyond the summer. It’s not difficult to change your lawn mower’s oil, but if you’re not comfortable doing it, you can take it to a professional for a small fee. If you choose to do it yourself, elevate your mower on cinder blocks to enable access to the drain plug. It may be necessary to use a tool to remove dried grass clippings around the plug. With a bucket or jug in place to catch the oil, open the plug and wait until the oil stops draining. Screw the plug back on, and re-fill the reservoir with oil. SAE 30 engine oil is compatible with most lawn mowers. If you have a two-cycle engine, be sure to use the appropriate oil. When in doubt, refer to your owners manual for information on oil use.

Some plants will benefit from a little extra snow during the winter. Snow around the rose bushes will provide some insulation from the sap-chilling deep freeze of this past week. Bitterly cold temperatures for prolonged periods of time will result in more roses biting the dust this winter.

On the lawn, a thick layer of snow will not harm it, provided that there aren't leaves left on the surface. The snow and leaves combine to prevent air from the foliage. This is likely to lead to accumulation of water under the leaves which in turn will lead to putrefaction. If the grass is cut short in the fall, the lawn is less likely to get diseased by the longer leaf blades being smothered. The last mowing should always be a little shorter. (the problem I've had is that autumn doesn't seem to know when to quit, and I end up with 2 or 3 last cuts. Don't cut the lawn too short of course, as this makes it more susceptible to frost damage if there is little snow.

One of the secrets to a great lawn in the spring is how well it was taken care of during the winter. With winter fast approaching in temperate areas of North America, it’s important to take stock of some ways to help keep your lawn healthy even while it’s covered in snow.

Before the season’s first big snowfall, free your lawn of clutter. Rake the leaves and remove rocks or any other debris that does not belong on your lawn. Your grass will be unable to grow if it is covered with these things. Many people think summer is the most important season to stop weed growth. On the contrary, in relation to your lawn, weeds grow much faster in the winter than in the summer. If weeds are free to run rampant during the winter, you might not have any grass on your lawn come springtime. While your grass is growing slowly throughout the winter, pay extra attention to any new weeds developing on your lawn. If you want your lawn to look thick, even in the winter, plant rye grass seeds or any other grass that grows better in the winter. One advantage of rye grass is that it will coexist with your current grass, making your lawn appear fuller. In the spring, rye grass will die off. Winter grasses are best planted in October. Even though it’s cold outside, you should still water your lawn during dry weeks. Rye grass grows best with one or two inches of water per week. If mother nature isn’t cooperating, supplement the grass’s growth by watering during the winter. By following these tips, your lawn should be tops in the neighborhood come springtime.

Controlling rampant weeds can be hard to do, especially if your weeds are the strong and resilient type (think Dandy loins). Once a particular weed as set up shop in your lawn removing it can be a long and trying ordeal, and many people simply give up. This is when you see houses with front lawns that are more weed than lawn- your first reaction might be to frown upon the homeowner for keeping their property in a state of disrepair, but the reality is that they simply might not know what to do.

You're faced with a few decisions when you get an infestation: go buck wild with weed killer and spray the whole lawn; try “natural” techniques for removal; pick them out by hand; or spot spray and pray with the weed killer. Unfortunately there is never a single, universal solution.