Weather Offers Last Chance to Prepare Lawn for Winter

ST. CLOUD -- With no snow in the forecast early next week, it may be the last opportunity to prepare your lawn for winter.

Zach Studanski is with Lake Friendly Lawn Care and Landscaping. He says it is important to apply one last round of fertilizer before the first major snow.

It goes dormant. It soaks up as much nutrients as it can in the fall, and as much moisture as it can, and it goes dormant to winter.

Studanski says you should make sure you have gotten all of the leaves up, and cut your grass a little shorter than normal.

If you cut it short in the fall, not down to the ground but just shorter than you would normally cut it, it forces that grass to put the nutrients into the roots and focus on root growth, versus focusing on growing towards the sunlight. Which is what you want. You want it to have a good root base to help it winter.

He says if you plan on parking on your lawn over the winter, you should let a few inches of snowpack form first.

The snow insulates the grass, giving it a better chance of survival.