How to Winterize Your Lawn

You might feel overwhelmed when you think about how to winterize your lawn. It can seem quite a daunting task, especially if you have a larger yard. However, it doesn't have to be. Winterizing your lawn is much the same process as fertilizing. 

Winterizing a lawn means changing the nutrients the lawn receives prior to winter. Winterizers are high in potassium, much more so than other lawn fertilizers. By adding additional amounts of potassium to your lawn, you will be strengthening the grass from top to bottom. This is because potassium works at the cellular level and allows the grass to better handle the stress of cold winters. Potassium also assists in the absorption of other nutrients. In almost all fertilizers, potassium and nitrogen are the two most important ingredients. While winterizer's contain more potassium, they should contain less nitrogen. Select your winterizer based on this basic guideline. 

Winterizers are usually for cool-season grasses only, such as fescue and bluegrass. Cool-season grasses have their peak-growing season in the fall and require potassium and nitrogen. It is recommended that you do not use winterizers on warm-season grasses like Bermuda, St. Augustine, zoysia, and centipede. These types of grasses go dormant in the winter and they are generally grown in warmer areas where winterizing is less of a concern. 

There is some controversy over whether or not winterizing is the best thing for your lawn. Some experts suggest that it is the single most important thing you can do to ensure a better looking lawn the following year while others say that it isn't necessary at all. If the winters do hardly any damage to your lawn, it may not be the best choice to winterize. However, if the winters leave your lawn looking worn and ragged the next season, it may be worth trying.