SOUTHERN UTAH — As weather begins to shift into milder fall temperatures, you may have noticed that your lawn is looking a little dried up from the summer heat. Your initial instinct may be to just turn on the sprinkler and not worry about it until after winter. What you may not know is that right now is the most vital time to be paying extra attention to your lawn.
“Winterizing your lawn is the single most important lawn application you can do,” Tate Cleverly of St. George’s Morgan Lawn and Pest Control said. “This is the peak season for lawns to be growing.”
Coming out of extremely hot summer temperatures, cool season grass is stressed and in need of nutrients to revive and prepare it for the colder months ahead. During winter, grass goes into dormancy, which is essentially a state of hibernation that plants enter to conserve energy. Once spring rolls around and the ground begins to thaw, grass roots will need the fuel to jump back to life.
It is imperative that your lawn has the essential nutrients before the ground freezes. A common misconception exists about when is the best time to fertilize, Cleverly said.
“People tend to think that we’re going into winter, so ‘why fertilize?'” he said, “when in reality, now is the most important time to fertilize your lawn.”
Washington County is located in a unique area when it comes to the varieties of grass that can survive and thrive here. St. George and surrounding cities exist in a transitional zone between cooler temperatures in northern Utah and warmer temperatures in central Arizona.
This distinct area allows for both warm season grass as well as cool season grass to be grown. However, it is important to know which type occupies your lawn, as it will more than likely need extra care as you head into winter.
Blue grass and rye grass are most common among landscapes in Southern Utah. These cool season grasses would survive in Salt Lake City, but not in places like Phoenix, Arizona. Both of these types require fertilization before December.
Bermuda grass is another type of grass that is grown in St. George. Contrary to cool season grass, Bermuda grass would thrive in southern Arizona but not in northern Utah. This type does not need fertilizing until the spring.
“Spraying high concentrations of a nitrogen-based fertilizer on your lawn will repair it from summer stress and prepare it for winter dormancy,” Cleverly said. “This important lawn application will also allow for earlier spring green up.”
“If you’re only going to fertilize once a year, this is the time to do it,” Cleverly said.
Resources
Morgan Termite and Pest Control | Telephone 435-673-9172 | call for an estimate or with any questions concerning your lawn.
A D V E R T O R I A L
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Honestly, that’s a great advertorial. Yes, it overtly advertises their service, but it also gives me the information to do it myself if I choose to. Well done. I applaud you.
Very nice to know, great info thanks.