USEFUL TIPS FOR PRESERVING YOUR LAWN IN COLD WEATHER

• Remove leaves!

If leaves, branches and other plant debris settle on your lawn, don’t hesitate: take a rake (much better if it’s fan-shaped) and remove all of it. It may seem like an extreme precaution, but even a few leaves can create the ideal conditions for fungal diseases which, if they settle in the soil, are then difficult to remove.

• Aiding drainage

This winter, as rainfall is quite heavy, but also in the following months areas of stagnant water may form on the lawn due to excessive rain, which are certainly not good for its health. To overcome the problem, a number of holes can be made in the affected areas using a pitchfork, which can be driven continuously into the ground.

• Beware of the cold

When the lawn is covered in frost or when temperatures fall below freezing, we need to be even more cautious: if we tread on it in such situations, leaves break and are easily damaged, resulting in a lawn that turns yellow and suffers.

• Fertilising

Rather than a tip to limit any damage, fertilising is useful in the growing season. It encourages the quick vegetative recovery of the lawn and provides it, as the days become longer, with nutrients to support its reawakening. It’s also beneficial to spread a fertiliser with a high nitrogen content, which can be easily found for sale at garden centres.

• Keeping out the shade

Gazebos, awnings and other removable structures, which are very useful in summer, must be removed if they cast shade on the lawn in winter: shade doesn’t allow what little seasonal light there is to reach the lawn, nor does it allow the soil to dry out as well, which may lead to problems or diseases/parasites.

• After rain and snow

After storms and snowfalls we should tread as little as possible on the lawn, otherwise we risk pressing down and over-compacting the soil that has been softened by water, thus limiting air circulation and reducing ventilation for grass roots.