Fall is your lawn’s last opportunity to prepare for a Minnesota winter.
That doesn’t mean you need to spend every weekend working on it. In fact, some of the worst things you can do to a lawn in the fall come from trying to do too much, doing the right thing at the wrong time, or following lawn advice that wasn’t written for Minnesota.
Cool-season grasses are still active during much of the fall. While the growth you see above ground begins to slow, the lawn is storing energy and preparing its root system for winter and next spring.
So before the snow arrives, here are five things you should avoid doing to your Minnesota lawn.
1. Don’t Scalp Your Lawn Before Winter
There’s an old idea that you should cut your lawn extremely short before winter so you don’t have to worry about long grass under the snow.
Don’t do it.
It’s true that you don’t want excessively long, matted grass going into winter. But that doesn’t mean you should suddenly drop the mower deck and shave the lawn down to the ground.
Cutting off too much of the grass blade at once stresses the plant at exactly the time you’re trying to send it into winter healthy.
A good rule throughout the mowing season is to avoid removing more than about one-third of the grass blade at a time.
Continue mowing while the lawn is actively growing. As growth slows in late fall, your mowing frequency will naturally decrease.
Your last mowing should look like a lawn mowing, not a military haircut.
2. Don’t Leave a Thick Blanket of Leaves on the Lawn
A few leaves aren’t going to hurt anything.
In fact, mulching a manageable amount of leaves with your mower can return organic material to the soil.
A thick, wet blanket of leaves is different.
When leaves accumulate deeply enough to cover the grass, they can block sunlight, hold moisture against the turf and eventually form a dense mat. Leave that under Minnesota snow for several months and the grass underneath may not be very happy when spring finally arrives.
You don’t necessarily have to rake and remove every leaf from your property.
When leaf coverage is light enough, mow over the leaves and chop them into small pieces. When there are simply too many leaves to mulch effectively, remove the excess.
The important thing is to avoid leaving the lawn buried under a heavy layer of leaves all winter.
3. Don’t Stop Mowing Just Because It’s October
Your lawn doesn’t know what month it is.
If October stays relatively mild, cool-season grass can continue growing. Putting the mower away simply because you’ve reached an arbitrary date can leave the lawn considerably longer than you intended going into winter.
Keep mowing as long as the grass is actively growing.
On the other hand, don’t mow just because Saturday is normally mowing day. As temperatures fall, grass growth slows and the time between mowings naturally becomes longer.
Watch the grass instead of the calendar.
Eventually growth will slow to the point where you’ve made your final cut of the season. In Central Minnesota, exactly when that happens can vary from year to year.
4. Don’t Wait Too Long to Do a Fall Lawn Project
Fall is an excellent time for several lawn-care projects in Minnesota.
But fall isn’t endless.
Aeration, overseeding, fertilization and weed control all have useful seasonal windows. Waiting until the lawn is nearly dormant and then trying to squeeze everything in before the first snow may mean you’ve missed the best time to do it.
This is particularly important with seeding.
Grass seed needs enough time under suitable conditions to germinate and establish. Seed that germinates shortly before winter can produce young plants that aren’t mature enough to survive what’s coming.
If you’ve missed the normal fall seeding window, there may be other options, including dormant seeding later in the season. But that’s different from simply throwing seed onto the lawn too late and hoping for the best.
The same basic principle applies to other fall treatments: timing matters.
5. Don’t Ignore a Lawn Problem and Assume Winter Will Fix It
Winter is very good at hiding lawn problems.
Fixing them is another matter.
If part of your lawn is thin, brown, weedy or repeatedly struggling, don’t automatically assume snow will cover it up and everything will be fine next spring.
Before winter, take note of problems such as:
- Thin or bare areas
- Compacted soil
- Poor drainage
- Heavy weed growth
- Areas damaged by summer drought
- Persistent disease problems
- Heavy thatch
- Areas that never seem to grow well
Some of these problems can still be addressed in the fall. Others may need to wait until the appropriate time next season.
Either way, identifying why an area is struggling is better than repeatedly throwing seed, fertilizer or weed killer at it without knowing what you’re trying to correct.
One More Thing: Don’t Assume More Fertilizer Is Always Better
Fall fertilization can be very beneficial for Minnesota lawns, and fall is one of the most important times for feeding cool-season turf.
That doesn’t mean more fertilizer is better.
The right product, amount and timing matter. Applying fertilizer simply because there’s half a bag sitting in the garage isn’t a lawn-care program.
Overapplication can damage turf, waste money and allow nutrients to move where they don’t belong.
A professional lawn-care program takes into account the time of year, condition of the lawn and what has already been applied rather than treating every application as an isolated event.
What Should You Do Before a Minnesota Winter?
The good news is that preparing your lawn for winter doesn’t need to be complicated.
As fall progresses:
- Continue mowing while the grass is growing.
- Avoid cutting the lawn excessively short.
- Keep heavy leaf accumulation from smothering the grass.
- Keep newly seeded areas properly watered while they’re establishing.
- Address weeds and lawn problems while you’re still within the appropriate treatment window.
- Use fall fertilizer appropriately rather than assuming more is better.
- Pay attention to thin, damaged or compacted areas that may need attention.
The goal isn’t to make the lawn look spectacular in November.
The goal is to send healthy grass into winter so it has the best possible start when Minnesota finally warms up again.
Fall Lawn Care in the Brainerd Lakes Area
Here in the Brainerd Lakes Area, the transition from pleasant fall weather to frozen ground can happen surprisingly quickly.
That’s why fall lawn care is less about following a date on the calendar and more about understanding what the lawn is doing and what the weather allows you to do.
TurfCare provides professional lawn care throughout the Brainerd Lakes Area, including seasonal lawn treatments, weed control, aeration, overseeding and help diagnosing lawns that aren’t performing the way they should.
If you’re not sure what your lawn needs before winter, contact TurfCare. We can evaluate the lawn and help you determine what should be done now, what should be left alone, and what can wait until spring.
