Helping Your Clients Learn Winter Lawn Care Dos and Don’ts
Initial preparations for the winter months may seem like a daunting task for a lawn care company. However, a great winter lawn care program for...
Oct 12, 2021
# of Minutes to Read
Initial preparations for the winter months may seem like a daunting task for a lawn care company. However, a great winter lawn care program for your business could include educating your clients about protecting their yards and plants from harsh conditions in the winter. Since the frequency of lawn care visits tends to wane in the winter months as growth is minimal, consider sending out an email or making a flier to teach clients about the dos and don’ts of winter lawn care. These efforts will make your job easier when spring rolls around and give your clients better results—it’s a win-win!
Winter Lawn Care, Do:
Clean your yard
As the winter months approach, it’s essential for clients to maintain the cleanliness of their yards by removing winter weeds. If winter weeds are left through the whole cold season, they may risk creating severe damage to your yard. To remove weeds effectively, advise clients to take action as soon as they see them and not wait until the lawn is covered in frost or snow, as weeds are easier to remove when a lawn is moist or soft. Additionally, pulling any weeds that crop up in the colder winter months will cut down on the amount of weeding needed in the spring.
Apply fertilizer
If a client isn’t already opting into this service with your company, applying fertilizer should be part of their winter lawn care, as it can feed their grass one last time before the cold winter months hit. There are various winter fertilizers to choose from, depending on which type of lawn and grass they have. Advise clients to fertilize their grass towards the end of the fall season while the soil is still moist, as this will keep the grass healthy during the winter months.
Mow until the initial winter frost hits
As you know, the end of the summer season is not the time to stop mowing your lawn; instead, you should continue mowing your client’s lawn until the first frost hits. Cold weather will cause warm-season grasses to go dormant, so there is often no need to mow your lawn in the winter. Let your clients know that mowing their lawn when it’s covered in frost can do more harm than good, as the grass could end up being cut too short! So, once that initial frost hits, put away the mowers until spring.
Winter Lawn Care, Don’t:
Walk on your lawn
Advise clients to avoid walking on their lawns as the weather starts to cool. Because grass becomes dormant during the winter, it is best to stay off it to protect the turf crowns. To help clients avoid stepping on their lawns, try focusing your lawn care visits on keeping their sidewalks clear during the winter and recommend that they do the same between appointments.
Use salt to melt the ice on your driveway
Although using rock salt may help melt ice and snow on sidewalks, make sure your clients know that it ends up damaging lawns in the process. Usually, the salt ends up washing away to your nearby lawn, and when excess salt is absorbed into the soil, that’s when problems start. As salt attracts water, water is absorbed by the ground rather than the grass, which can dehydrate a lawn. The problem might not become apparent until the snow melts in the spring. That is why clients need to know that shoveling snow and ice will give the best results, and to avoid the use of rock salt.
Shovel heavy mounds of snow onto your plants.
Since we know that using rock salt should be replaced with shoveling, in your winter lawn care to-do list, it’s important to know where to pile all that snow. Snow can act as a good insulator for a lawn or flower bed, but too much can suffocate or even damage it. Tell clients to be mindful and to shovel carefully when next to the lawn or garden. Recommend that they choose a spot to pile the snow where it won’t fall back onto the path or your lawn.
