As Texas battles harsh winter storms, lawns are just one of the many things affected by the cold weather. The grasses most commonly grown in Texas lawns are species of warm-season grass. As their name implies, these grasses thrive in warm weather that’s exactly the opposite of the hard freezes and cold snows of unusually bad winters.
While there isn’t much you can do about protecting your lawn from a hard winter, there are ways that you can help your lawn recover once the weather starts to improve. That’s what we’re talking about in today’s post.
Consider Your Grass
If you have a lawn with a mix of cool-season grass like bluegrass and fescues, then it should be able to survive winter pretty well. For most southern lawns, though, you’ll have warm-season grass in your yard.
Of the warm-season grasses, zoysia tends to have the best cold tolerance. Bermudagrass’s cold tolerance is poor but it’s still better than the other warm-season grasses like centipede grass, Bahia grass, and St. Augustine grass. Any of these warm-season grass will find a cold winter very stressful, but some are more likely to survive than others.
Grass can be remarkably resilient, though, so don’t write the lawn off just because it looks brown after the snow melts. Some grasses, including Bermudagrass, can take quite a while to green-up after a stressful cold spell makes them go dormant.
Is It Dead?
Trying to tell the difference between dead grass and dormant grass isn’t an easy thing to do. Even so, figuring out whether the brown grass in your lawn is going to come back or not is an important step to deciding how you’re going to help your lawn recover. Here are a few ways to check if the grass is dead:
- Is the entire lawn brown or are there patches of green and patches of brown? If the entire lawn is brown, then it’s probably just dormant. If there are patches of brown and green, though, chances are the brown patches are dead. The exception to this would be if you have patches of different types of grass in your yard, which might green-up at different times.
- Go to a spot where your grass has turned brown, grab a handful of it, and pull. If you can pull up a clump of grass easily, then it’s dead. Healthy, living grass has roots that would anchor it firmly to the soil, making it harder to pull up a handful.
Helping the Soil Recover
Whether or not you have patches of dead grass in the yard, one of the best things you can do for a warm-season lawn in the spring is to aerate it. As we’ve talked about in other articles on this blog, lawn aeration reduces soil compaction to help grass roots grow strong and healthy. By aerating after the weather warms up (mid-March is a good time), you’ll help the soil in your yard recover from heavy snowfall, freezes, and ice.
Spring is also a good time to think about amending the soil. Usually, we think of adding soil amendments to bare ground before planting grass. You can, however, use compost on established lawns as well. Just spread a 1/4- to 1/2-inch layer of compost over the lawn and then lightly rake it into the soil. Doing this after aerating is a great way to get healthy, natural nutrients into your soil.
Replanting Dead Grass
If you do have patches of dead grass in your lawn, you’ll want to make sure you replant that. Unless the patches are very small and scattered, they’re not going to fill in with grass on their own. It’s far more likely that they’ll be a spot where weeds take over.
When you’re patching holes in a damaged lawn, you have a choice between using seed, plugs, or sod. Seed is the easiest and least expensive way, but it also takes more time for the grass to grow. If you want fast results, plugs or sod are your best bet. Sow seed in late spring or early summer, after you’ve aerated and fed the lawn. You can lay sod at the same time or even earlier in the year if you want.
Hopefully, you’ll only be replanting patches of dead grass. But if most of your lawn was killed and you need to replant the whole thing, consider going with one of the more cold-tolerant varieties of grass, like zoysia.
Ongoing Care
Lawns that are recovering from a harsh winter benefit from a little extra care and attention the following spring and summer. To help keep weeds from taking over, you might want to apply a pre-emergent herbicide early in the spring (after the top 1-inch of soil has stayed above 55 degrees Fahrenheit for five days in a row). Just keep in mind that pre-emergents will stop grass seed from germinating so don’t use them if you plan to re-seed any parts of your lawn.
You’ll also want to make sure you fertilize the grass to help it reestablish a strong root system. Applying compost after you aerate will help with this, but you may also want to supplement with a commercially available fertilizer balanced for the needs of lawn grass. The best way to determine what kind of fertilizer you need is by doing a soil test in your lawn, and then applying the recommended nutrients. You can click here to learn more about fertilizing a Texas lawn.
Remember to follow the guidelines for healthy lawn mowing that relate to your specific type of grass. For most warm-season grass, you’ll want to keep them about 1 to 3 inches tall, making sure not to cut off more than 1/3 of the overall grass height each time you mow. For healthy lawns, it’s also a good idea to leave mulched clippings on the lawn so they can return nutrients to the soil.
Conclusion
Helping a lawn recover from freezing weather requires certain tools. You’ll need to buy or rent a core aerator to open up compacted soil. Applying dry fertilizer or grass seed is much easier if you use a spreader. And of course, a reliable lawn mower is a big help when maintaining a healthy lawn. You can find all this equipment—and more— at Richardson Saw & Lawnmower. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have and help you find the perfect equipment for your yard care needs.
A cold, harsh winter presents many challenges, including potential damage to your lawn. It is possible, however, to help your lawn recover from a hard winter. By following the steps in this article to renew your soil, replant dead patches, and help the grass develop strong roots in the spring and summer you’ll be back to having a green, healthy lawn as soon as possible.
