Repairing Your Lawn After Winter
Winter can be tough on turf – it’s hard to keep your lawn lush and green during the cold and wet climate.
Online Turf has spent 20 years perfecting the art of lawn care, so we’ve learned that the transition out of winter dormancy is often the most vulnerable time for your grass.
Chances are, this winter will have had a negative effect on your garden. However, Spring is the perfect time to repair your lawn ready for it to thrive again in time for summer.
Common Winter Lawn Diseases
Winter often leaves behind more than just frost – lawn diseases can develop and you can sometimes only spot them once the winter snow has cleared. At this point, it’s too late for any prevention work, instead you’ll need to focus solely on treating them, and repairing your lawn in time for Spring.
Identifying which disease is affecting your grass is the first step in repairing the lawn and getting it healthy again.
Snow Mould
Snow Mould is a common winter lawn disease, also known as Fusarium Patch. It can develop on lawns after a period of cold and wet weather and gets its name from typically appearing under layers of snow. However, it doesn’t actually need to snow in order for it to develop.
Snow mould occurs as the cold, damp climate and lack of airflow makes it an ideal breeding ground for the fungal disease to take hold.
It can form if your turf has a heavy thatch layer, poor drainage or, in some cases, over-fertilising your lawn can also cause this problem, especially if it was a feed that was high in nitrogen that’s been applied at the start of winter, as this can sometimes weaken the dormant turf.
Snow Mould is usually easy to spot, as it has a very distinctive appearance. It will at first appear as small, yellow circular patches on the lawn, they can even merge together and affect a larger area of your lawn. The patches may also have white fluffy strands that look like cotton wool or spider webs.
If left untreated, Snow Mould can kill off large areas of your grass that unfortunately will not recover, leaving it patchy and bare.
To treat Snow Mould, reduce the amount of thatch on your grass to help improve airflow to the ground. You may also want to aerate the lawn to improve drainage, helping prevent further snow mould outbreaks.
To treat the fungus itself, a lawn disease control product will be needed and can usually be found at your local garden centre. You should look for a product that contains Trifloxystrobin, Tebuconazole or Ferrous Sulphate.
Red Thread
Red Thread is another common winter lawn disease and, like Snow Mould, is caused by fungi that is naturally present in the lawn being encouraged to thrive in damp, cold conditions.
If you’re having a rainy, wet winter, nutrients can potentially be washed out of the soil, leaving it weak and unable to support healthy grass growth. The lack of nitrogen specifically makes your lawn a prime target for fungal lawn diseases like Red Thread.
Red Thread first appears as pink fungus that forms on the leaves, making them look like red needles or ‘threads’ (hence the name). As well as visual damage, red thread can weaken the turf over time, increasing its susceptibility to other lawn diseases.
The disease primarily kills the grass blades; it shouldn’t harm the roots if treated correctly. If you remove thatch and aerate the ground, this should immediately help the growing conditions.
Fertilising with a feed high in nitrogen and aerating the lawn to improve drainage will naturally reduce the moisture level in the ground too. This means healthier grass will begin to grow, and the disease can be mowed out.
Clearing Your Lawn
Over winter, debris like fallen branches, leaves and stones can be left to pile up on your grass, especially as you won’t have been going outside much to regularly clear the lawn.
If left to pile up, they can block airflow from reaching the ground, causing areas of your lawn to become patchy, discoloured or, in worst cases, fungal lawn diseases to develop.
Before Spring, ideally in late February, you should clear the lawn of any debris to encourage airflow to the ground. This will allow the lawn to breathe and also get some much-needed sunlight.
If the ground is frozen or quite muddy, stay off it and wait for a mild and dry day. Walking on frozen or really boggy ground can compact the soil underneath and cause lasting damage.
Use a rake to gently remove any debris like leaves or worm casts and remove larger pieces like branches or twigs by hand. Make sure you’re gently raking, as you don’t want to damage your grass that’s likely still dormant.
You can also pull out any weeds that may have survived the winter. It’s best to do this by hand, as they will be in dormancy mode and easy to remove by the root.
Aerating Your Lawn after Winter
Over winter, your soil may have become compacted and struggling with drainage. Heavy rainfall can cause your ground to become boggy and your lawn to become patchy.
If you notice areas of water pooling on your lawn, this is a key sign that your lawn should be aerated. By aerating before Spring, your ground will then be able to absorb air, water and nutrients via the roots easily once the growing season begins.
Make sure the ground is soft and malleable enough to aerate, so don’t try to aerate if temperatures are low or if the ground is frozen. Not only will it be difficult to do, but it may damage the grass roots, which will struggle to recover whilst in winter dormancy.
Wait until temps are reaching around 7-10 °C consistently, so that the soil is malleable. The warmer it is and the closer to March and April you are, the less likely it is to get consistent downpours, giving the ground a chance to get airflow.
If your lawn is waterlogged, aerate it by 'poking' holes into the ground with a simple garden pitchfork. This will help improve drainage and increase the oxygen flow to the grass roots.
You can aerate with a standard garden fork and poke holes evenly spaced apart, approx. 4-6 inches deep for small areas which aren’t too compacted. However, if you have a larger area or really boggy ground, you may want to invest in a manual spike or hollow tine aerator.
A hollow tine aerator uses hollow tubes to remove small plugs of soil. These can then be left on the lawn to break down and act as a natural fertiliser. A spike aerator, on the other hand, pokes holes in the ground without removing any soil, making it a faster alternative.
Fertilising Your Lawn Before Spring
Fertilising your lawn can help give it a boost after winter. This is one of the key jobs you’ll want to do before Spring as it allows your ground to get a well-needed nutrient boost to help your grass as it begins to grow again.
You’ll want a spring feed that’s high in nitrogen to help green up the grass and improve growth once spring rocks around. You’ll want to do this, again, when temperatures are warm enough. The ground needs to be malleable enough that the nutrients can be soaked up through the grass roots.
You also need to make sure you’re only fertilising when your lawn is out of winter dormancy, otherwise the grass roots simply won’t absorb the fertiliser.
Wait until you see your lawn begin to grow again (usually in March or April) and then you know that they’re out of dormancy and you can give them a boost to help them grow quicker and stronger.
If you’re able, you should test your soil to see what pH it is and what nutrients it may be deficient in for the most tailored fertilisation. You likely won’t need to fertilise again until Autumn to give it a boost before it goes into winter dormancy again.
Try not to over fertilise over summer, as over fertilising can affect the pH of the ground and, in worst cases, burn the lawn when the sun is directly overhead. If you're fertilising in Summer, make sure it's thoroughly watered in.
Overseeding Your Patchy Lawn
If you’ve noticed any patchy areas of lawn that are struggling after winter, you can overseed to encourage re-growth, which will give you a nice dense and lush lawn ready for Spring and Summer.
Overseeding is normally needed after winter, as the wet and cold conditions can cause areas of your lawn to thin out, especially in shaded areas with heavy rainfall.
Overseeding will be one of the last steps you do to repair your lawn after winter, as the ground will need to have been aerated and fertilised so that it’s ready to support new growth.
Temperature and climate are crucial when it comes to seed germination. The temperature needs to be reaching above 12 °C consistently, with plenty of sunlight available.
A mild climate is best, so overseed in late March or April for the best results. If you seed too early, boggy conditions may wash the seeds away, and there may not be enough sunlight to help them germinate.
Sow the seed evenly either over the whole lawn, or in specific patchy areas. Sow in both directions to ensure even coverage and add a little extra seed to cover any that may be lost from the birds picking it off. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of topsoil to keep them protected and water them if the weather is dry.
You should keep them consistently moist to help them germinate, and water less if you get more rainfall. Over the following weeks, you should see the grass start to sprout, helping infill any patchy areas.
Our Rye Gold Lawn Seed is perfect for Spring overseeding – it blends into pre-existing lawns with ease, giving you a dense, lush lawn that can handle increased foot traffic all whilst maintaining its aesthetic appeal.
How to Prevent Your Lawn Dying Next Winter
If you’ve repaired your lawn and are thinking on how to prevent the same issues from re-occurring next Winter, follow our helpful tips below:
- Limit Foot Traffic: Keep off the lawn during periods of frost to prevent damaging the grass blades and compacting your soil.
- Clear your Lawn Regularly in Autumn: Make sure any leaves, twigs or grass clippings are removed regularly so that they don’t smother the lawn in the wet and warm weather. This will help prevent moss, thatch and lawn diseases from occurring.
- Fertilise in Autumn: Make sure you use a fertiliser that is high in potassium, not nitrogen, before winter to keep the lawn strong throughout dormancy.
- Raise the Height of your Final Cut: As growth slows in late autumn, raise your mower blades to be quite high. This ensures you don’t scalp the lawn before it goes into dormancy, keeping it strong and stable throughout Winter.
Whether you're looking to overseed patchy areas or completely returf your lawn, we’ve got the professional-grade products to help you repair your winter lawn.
Purchase our premium grass seed to get started on any repairs, or browse our turf products for a complete lawn overhaul.
Need more advice? Check out our Lawn Care for Beginners Guide for more expert tips, even for novice gardeners.
