How to Winterize Lawns and Gardens: Step-by-Step Instructions

Winterizing your yard should start long before the first freeze of the year. Start preparations in the fall to ensure your lawn and garden can withstand the winter months. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with the needs of the particular plants and flowers in your lawn, vegetable garden, perennial garden, and annual flower beds, as well as any trees and shrubs on the property. Fall gardening tasks might include raking leaves, pruning plants, or fertilizing the soil.

Winter landscaping and lawn care are essential whether you live in a moderate climate or a cold climate. Taking time to treat the lawn in late fall by aerating, fertilizing, and mowing can encourage a greener, lusher lawn the following growing season. Here are tips to help you winterize your lawn.

1. 1. Clean up fallen leaves. While some homeowners want a perfectly tidy lawn and might rake away all the fallen leaves, leaving a shallow ground cover of leaves can help promote beneficial insects and protect wildlife.
2. 2. Mow the lawn. When you cut the grass for the last time before you expect the ground to freeze, it's recommended you cut it shorter than usual to prevent mold from growing. Adjust your mower settings to cut the grass blades down to about 1.5 inches.
3. 3. Aerate the lawn. Use specialty garden tools, such as an aerator, to reverse soil compaction. The process of removing narrow cylinders of soil then leaving them to decompose on the lawn allows the soil to absorb more nutrients and promotes root growth, which can lead to a lush lawn the next year. After aeration, you can also choose to overseed—a process that involves laying down additional grass seed to help promote fuller grass and cover bare spots.
4. 4. Test the soil. Perform a soil test to determine the soil’s pH and nutrient level. This will determine what kind of fertilizer might work best for your lawn in its current conditions.
5. 5. Fertilize the lawn. Choosing the right winter fertilizer depends on your soil and climate. If you have cool-season grass, such as bluegrass or perennial ryegrass, starting fertilization in early fall will prove the most beneficial. Use a spreader to apply slow-release fertilizer, which will work continuously throughout the cold weather months. If you live in warm weather and have warm-season grasses, such as Bermuda grass, it’s better to fertilize in the early spring.

Garden beds, whether they contain flowers or vegetables, require some garden cleanup and maintenance before winter. The more prep work you can do in the fall before the first frost, the less work you’ll need to do to prepare your spring garden. Proper maintenance is extra important in northern climates that experience harsh winters. Here are tips for winterizing your garden.

1. 1. Clean up garden beds. Clear old crops and remove dead annuals as part of fall garden maintenance. This is a good time to add the cleared organic matter to a compost pile if you have one.
2. 2. Tend to annuals and perennials. Cut back all your annuals and cut back some of your perennials—you can leave alone perennials with large seed heads, like black-eyed Susans or coneflowers, to feed the birds. However, do cut back leafy green perennials and lily plants.
3. 3. Prepare the soil for spring. As part of your garden care routine, you should aerate the soil. Then test the garden soil and add the appropriate fertilizer. This could range from bone meal to compost, organic matter, or garden-grade manure.
4. 4. Plant spring-blooming bulbs. To increase the early spring blooms on tender bulbs, such as tulips or daffodils, stick to a fall planting schedule about six weeks before your USDA Hardiness Zone typically experiences ground-hardening frosts.
5. 5. Cover the garden in mulch. Add a layer of mulch or mixed clippings to perennial or annual flower beds and vegetable gardens. The protective layer can help insulate perennials from the most extreme weather in the winter months. Mulching also helps to ensure the fertilizer you’ve added to your garden remains in place over winter.

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