Ever wonder what you should do with your lawn and garden in the winter?
The season for “winter” lawn and garden work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is pretty short. November is when you’ll be wrapping up all your fall tasks before the first freeze date (which usually falls Nov. 21-30). And March is when your spring tasks start, after the last freeze date (around March 4-12). Here’s a check-list for those in-between months of cool-season yard work.
December
Lawn Care:
- If your soil tests as acidic, apply lime at the rate of 15 to 20 pounds per 100 square feet (or as recommended based on the soil test)
- Turn off automatic sprinklers. You’ll only need to water about every 3 weeks and only if there hasn’t been any rain or snow
Garden Tasks:
- Plant or transplant shade trees, fruit trees, and evergreen shrubs while they are dormant
- Plant pre-chilled tulip and hyacinth bulbs in late December. You can also start planting daffodil and grape hyacinth bulbs
- Plant cool-season annuals like pansies, violas, flowering kale, and cyclamen
- Prune evergreen trees and shrubs
- Water deeply before a hard freeze and cover tender plants
Equipment Maintenance:
- Clean all your garden equipment before storage
- Sharpen mower blades
- Make sure your equipment’s fuel tanks are 95% full of fuel that contains a fuel stabilizer. Never store equipment with unstabilized fuel in the tank
January
Lawn Care:
- Remove dead leaves and debris from the lawn to help prevent turf disease
- Remove winter weeds by hand or spot-treating with an herbicide
- If you overseeded your lawn, mow as-needed during the winter
Garden Tasks:
- Continue planting or transplanting shade trees, fruit trees, and evergreen shrubs. Start planting bare-root plants.
- Finish planting spring bulbs. Continue planting cool-season annual flowers.
- Continue pruning evergreen and dormant trees and shrubs
- Amend soil in vegetable gardens with well-rotted compost
- Start planting onion transplants. Plant snap peas and leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, and kale later in the month.
Equipment Maintenance:
- Check your stored equipment to make sure it’s staying dry
- Be extra careful when using chainsaws in the winter
February
Lawn Care:
- Continue removing dead leaves and debris from the lawn and treating winter weeds
- Apply a pre-emergent herbicide after the top 1 inch of soil has stayed above 55 degrees Fahrenheit for five days in a row (usually about 2 to 3 weeks before the time of year you normally notice weed growth)
Garden Tasks:
- Finish planting, transplanting, and pruning dormant plants.
- Prune roses in mid-February
- Continue planting cool-season vegetables like carrots, leafy greens, peas, turnips, broccoli, and cabbage
- Plant early spring flowers like dianthus, petunias, and alyssum late in the month
Equipment Maintenance:
- Start getting equipment ready for spring. Check that everything runs, replace spark plugs and filters as needed, and sharpen mower blades if you haven’t already
Richardson Saw and Lawnmower stays open all year-round, so if you find you need any new equipment for your lawn and garden tasks you can come visit us. Also, since winter is our off-season, the service department is less busy. If you want to bring your equipment in for a tune-up or have a problem fixed before spring, this is a great time to do it. Have a great winter!
