Winters can be very harsh at times. If a harsh winter has spoiled your lawn, nothing could have been worse for you. The condition of the lawn after a winter is a nightmare for the lawn owners. The people who own a lawn, take pride in looking at the lavish green space full of thick grass. But a harsh winter can spoil the whole thing making it a mess. The summer maintenance is washed away, which is the thing you regret the most. All your hard work is ruined. The lawn which you loved very much may start looking like a place you cannot bear to stand on. Mother Nature has its way of harassing us at times. But you should fight back and think of the possible solutions for this problem. The consequences of a harsh winter are not that harsh either. It is not that the lawn will never recover. The lawn can come back to the same level of awesomeness in the spring season. Till that time, take care of a few things and you will take pride in that lawn again.
Firstly, do not panic and do not have high expectations. You cannot turn your lawn into a ‘golf green’ lawn right away. So just make sure that you concentrate on making the lawn healthy and vigorous.
Secondly, after calming yourself down, you should start up the cleaning of the lawn. Your lawn will need a thorough cleaning after a harsh winter. Use a leaf rake for the cleaning process. If there are some yellow-colored patches in the soil, it is a fungus which will eventually disappear due to rain and sun. But if the fungus has dried up, you are going to have to remove it. After removing that patch, you should apply a layer of soil on the same, level it with a rake and seed it again. Removing the fungus is necessary because the weeds can grow over the patch.
Thirdly, you should re-seed the lawn so that it is thick and soft. Grass seeds should be chosen carefully as they may contain some weed seeds. After carefully selecting the seed, carefully plant them in the soil in large numbers.
Fourthly, you should not be crazily mad about spring. Yes, we understand that spring is good for your lawn. But do not get way too excited when you experience the first signs of spring. The ground may still be wet and you should not do raking on a wet ground, because if you do, the soil will become compact. You should at least wait for the ground to dry up a little and more importantly, the ground should not be frozen when rake it. Wait for the right time and sharpen the blades of your lawnmower.
Fifthly, try preventing mistakes instead of curing them. The desirable lawn is the one which is healthy and strong, not the one which is ‘golf green’ as it is grown by using pesticides which are even banned in some countries. When you mow the lawn, make sure you mow it at a height of 2-3 inches above the ground. The grass, if tall, can protect the ground from sun, insects and weeds. Fertilize the soil with a thin compost layer or use the factory made commercial fertilizers. An economical way to fertilize your lawn is to leave the grass clippings on the lawn itself after mowing the lawn. Doing this will reduce the fertilizer requirements by 30%.
Apart from the steps mentioned above, you should also keep a check on the quality of soil you have. If the soil is compact, you should try aerating methods. Check the soil’s pH to know about the quality of the soil. Reseed the places or spots which are bare. While you are re-seeding the lawn, you should add some clover seeds also. That will help your lawn to be reinforced, protected from insects and weeds. It works because weeds do not attack a variety of plants, so if you add another kind of seed, the weeds will not attack any. To stop the clover from expanding, you should use proper fertilization methods.
If your lawn is looking like a place where a bomb was blasted, it will be impossible to make the lawn healthy once again on your own. Even after drying and scratching it will not help. A landscaping contractor can help you hire professionals to take care of your lawn and make it better than before. But before hiring a company to clean and care for your lawn, you should do a little research like the experience of the company in this business, their services, their charges, the time they are going to take to do up the job. This research will help you compare between different companies providing these services and choose the best out of them.
