How to recover your lawn after winter
Does your lawn look a little worse for wear after the cooler months?
As warm-season lawns such as Sir Walter Buffalo, Eureka Premium Kikuyu, and TifTuf go into dormancy during the cooler months, they can suffer from what is commonly known as winter dieback or winter stress. This can result in thin, bare patches or a dry, straw-like appearance to your lawn. If your lawn has been beaten around by the cold weather, read on to find out how to help it recover.
Why does winter dieback occur?
Warm-season turf can be burned by frost and damaged by wear when temperatures are very cold, and it won’t self-repair while it is dormant. Heavy shade due to the lower position of the sun can also contribute to dieback, especially in the lawn’s first season. As your lawn matures year on year, and as long as you keep it healthy, you will gradually encounter less and less winter dieback.
How do I recover my lawn from winter dieback?
This simple fertilisation plan which should be started at the start of Spring (September) will kick your lawn into high growth and help it self-repair those damaged areas.
- Apply Lawn Solutions Fertiliser every three weeks until the damaged areas start to self-repair and growth increases. If the affected area is larger than 30 cm2, you may want to consider replacing it with pieces of instant lawn.
- Apply a liquid fertiliser along with the first Lawn Solutions Fertiliser application to give the lawn a solid boost of nitrogen to encourage growth. We recommend Lawn Rescue.
- Water regularly and maintain consistent mowing to prevent scalping. For more information on how to best water your lawn, follow our watering blog.
With some simple maintenance after winter dormancy, our fantastic self-repairing lawns will be healthy, happy, lush, and green in no time.
With some simple awareness and good maintenance of your lawn after the cooler months, our fantastic self-repairing lawns will be healthy, happy, and lush green in no time.