Winter Yard Guide

Wednesday December 15, 2021 comments Tags: seasonal lawn care, Florida Landscaping

A garden enhances your home. You can peacefully read a book, watch your children and pets play, and host parties.

To keep enjoying your beautiful lawn, it’s important to perform year long maintenance. Now that it’s winter, your local Lakeland landscaping professionals will be giving you a guide for yard maintenance as well as great techniques to winterize your sprinkler system.

Mowing

Lawn-mowing is an essential part of yard maintenance. Regardless of the season, a proper lawn mowing technique can keep your grass healthy. The recommended length varies depending on the type of grass. The general length for the preparation of winter is:

• 1.5 inches for warm climates
• 0.75 inches for cool climates

While preparing for your lawn during the winter, keep in mind that if the grass in your lawn is 3 inches tall, you should gradually decrease the height over a few mowings. Make sure that you mow no more than ⅓ of the grass length, to avoid stressing your lawn.

If you have thick-planted shrubs in your garden, you can also hedge-trim to prepare the plants for winter. To know more about hedge-trimming best practices, read an informative blog about it here.

Fertilizing

Fertilizing is another crucial aspect of preparing your lawn for winter. If you choose to fertilize at the right time, you can ensure that your lawn will stay healthy throughout winter.

Fertilizing is essential for yard maintenance because plants respond to different factors such as change in daylight and temperature during the fall, as winter comes in. Fertilizing during the winter can play a crucial role and act as a fuel for growth, when summer comes around. Many kinds of plant roots remain active during cold months, which can be enough to feed the active roots on the ground.

Seeding

If you have cold-season grass on your lawn, it’s the perfect time to plant seeds when preparing your lawn for winter. When the seeds germinate before the ground freezes, this will help the new grass to grow when spring comes.

For the best outcome, use seeds that are best suited for your climate.

Aerating

Soil aeration is necessary when you prepare your lawn for the winter. Small holes that are caused by aeration can encourage soil and water absorption of vital nutrients down to the grassroots.

Aeration also solves soil compaction problems, which prevents the roots of the grass from receiving the essential resources for optimal growth.

Winterizing Your Sprinkler System

While preparing for your lawn during winter, winterizing your sprinkler system is probably the most important step according to Lakeland landscaping experts.

When the water freezes, it spreads and the pipes in or around the house can break or even burst. This includes your sprinkler system, that is why it’s strongly encouraged that you turn it off during the winter.

• Insulate - The water supply to your sprinkler must be shut down, and a plastic or foam insulator may help shut off the valve.
• Shut Down - The timer or controller needs to be shut down in case you have an automatic sprinkler system. Most automatic sprinklers have a “rain-mode” which can prevent the valves from turning on.
• Drain - After completing the latter steps, draining the pipes is the next step when winterizing your sprinkler system, preventing it from damage. By draining the pipes, you are ensured that it won’t burst due to thermal expansion.

To know more about how sprinklers and the irrigation system works, you can click our blog here for more information.

Preparing your yard for winter is a daunting task. If you want a winter-ready yard without having to compromise precious family time, a premium and high-quality lawn care service from Pyle’s is what you need.

Whether it’s commercial or residential, one of the best things about our Lakeland landscaping company is that we are committed to fulfill your landscaping needs with extreme professionalism.