Maintaining Your Lawn and Garden in the Winter

Maintaining Your Lawn and Garden in the Winter

Now that the cooler months are upon us, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief when our lawns no longer need the vigilant daily care the summer demands. It’s an uncomfortable, sweaty struggle which we can all enjoy a vacation from. 

But just because the weather has changed, don’t lull yourself into the idea that there’s no outdoor work to be done. A little bit of maintenance now will pay off when it gets warm again.  

Maintaining a healthy lawn and garden over the winter will not only make your property look beautiful when the weather warms up, it’s also an excellent way to care for the environment. Gardening can 

• create healthy soil, 

• foster a habit of conserving water, 

• maintain healthy plants that create fresh air and keep the soil healthy, and 

• produce your own nutritious fruits and vegetables. 

Katherine Whitney from the Williamson County Extension Office provided the following information about keeping your lawn maintained over the winter. Follow these tips to ensure that you use the right amount of resources and, in turn, Take Care of Texas! 

Grass Guardianship

• “Winter is a good time to check your sprinkler heads to make sure they’re functioning properly,” Whitney says. A cracked or broken sprinkler

  

  head can waste thousands of gallons of water over a season. Some simple maintenance now can save you trouble and wasted water in the spring. 

• After this, you should prep your irrigation system; it’s not too late to start. The cool temps make all the grass dormant, so it won’t need watering. Watch this video for advice on how to prevent the damage and costly repairs that a freeze can cause. 

• Around the end of January and the beginning of February, it’s recommended that you put out a pre-emergent herbicide or weed killer on your grass. As the name suggests, this product will kill some weeds before they get established.  

• Otherwise, you may find yourself needing a “post-emergent” herbicide. This is much less desirable because you’ll likely use a lot more herbicide. “Weeds get tough as they get bigger. Killing them will take more product,” Whitney said. Excess product can get washed away by overwatering or a rainstorm, which can contaminate nearby waterways. She recommends that people stay away from any combined products that call themselves “weed and feed.” These products inadvertently feed other weeds that you mean to kill. Regardless, she also recommends that you don’t feed your lawn until April. 

Tending Trees

• 

  Prune your oak trees before February starts. It’s recommended you don’t trim your oaks between February 1 and June 30 due to oak wilt disease.   

• Most importantly, if you do trim your trees, spray the cut immediately with a pruning compound or any kind of latex paint to prevent oak wilt and other issues. This must be done no later than 15 minutes after you make the cut. 

• Whitney advises everyone to “make a good pruning cut and avoid cutting the branch collar.” The branch collar is the area where the first three or four inches of the branch meet the tree trunk. This area is important because it produces antimicrobial substances that keep the rest of the tree from getting damaged if a bacterial infection should infect a branch.  

Groom Your Gardens

• 

  Remove any dead annuals from your gardens. Prune back any dead material from your nandina or any other evergreen shrubs you have. However, Whitney cautions gardeners not to “square off” their shrubbery. Doing so may damage vital branches. 

• While the weather is cold, it’s time to plant your cool weather veggies like lettuce, spinach, turnips, and transplanting onion. Check your county extension’s website to see if it has information about what time of year to plant various fruits and vegetables. 

• Before you plant any of those vegetables, give them a head start by working your compost into the garden. This will give them the vitamins and nutrients they need to grow. Learn how to compost in your backyard by watching this video. 

• Of course, remember to cover any plants ahead of a freeze. 

For more information on gardening, check out our article on Planting for Pollinators. If you’re a teacher, read our article on the benefits of starting a school garden.