Keeping your lawn green this Winter

Can you maintain a green lawn in Winter? By understanding the factors that sap the colour out of lawns in the cooler months, you can certainly keep your lawn a lot greener than you might think!

Winter brings with it some challenges for lawns.  The most popular types of turf in South Australia (Couch, Kikuyu and Buffalo) are starting to slow down now in the lead up to Winter as the average temperature begins to reduce.  Since these varieties need warmth to grow. no amount of fertilising, extra water or special maintenance will make them grow or green up until the weather warms up again in Spring. 

In my experience, many people resign themselves to the reality that their lawn will probably lose colour and look shabby through the Winter months and while this may be true in part, there are quite a few things that you can do to limit this degradation.  Now and over the next few weeks, I’ll write about the common things to watch out for and give you some practical tips and advice on maintaining your best lawn from now through to spring. I’ll talk about the effects of poor drainage, moss and algae, frost, weeds and overuse during winter – all being factors that will affect your lawns colour and appearance.

Mowing and Maintenance

For now, I’ll focus mowing and maintenance. As I mentioned earlier, if your lawn hasn’t already, it’s about too dive into winter dormancy. This means there will be very little growth over the next 3-4 months. Kikuyu will have the shortest dormancy period (becoming active again in early September) while buffalo turf will have the longest, not emerging into season until mid to late October. Couch grasses lie somewhere in the middle.  During this time, you won’t need to do much maintenance at all – this is completely normal.

• If you feel like you need to mow, do so carefully.  I'd suggest raising your mower height by a notch (equivalent to 5mm) which is important to ensure you don’t scalp the lawn. This will leave more blades present on your lawn which will add to its overall greenness.
• If you have deciduous trees that haven't completely shed their leaves yet, run over the lawn every now and again for the next few weeks with your rotary style mower on its highest setting to suck up excessive amounts of leaves that have fallen. To many leaves can shade out the lawn which will result in colour loss.
• Avoid heavy maintenance like coring, top dressing or scarifying until late Winter or early Spring. While these exercises won’t damage your lawn if done during Winter, they will discolour it significantly.

There isn’t much else to consider when talking about mowing and maintenance during Winter. Most lawns will be happy to take a break for a few months and then emerge again in Spring when temperatures are on the upper.  The most important takeaway here is this; During Winter, limit any activities that will remove or shorten the blades on your lawn.   

If you need any help or advice, feel free to give me a call on 08 8298 0555 during business hours or send me an email to stefan@paulmunnsinstantlawn.com.au