Winter Lawn Care Tips for Fresno, CA

The seasonal change from warm weather to cooler weather can be a shock for your lawn. By the time winter comes, your cool-season grass will be coming in lush and your warm-season lawn will go dormant, looking less green or maybe even brown. The care your lawn needs this season is different than the care you gave it during the hot summer. Here are five tips for winter lawn care in Fresno.

1. Reduce watering

You won’t need to water as frequently during the winter months. Weekly watering is needed for overseeded lawns (cool-season grass seeded on top of dormant warm-season grass) and for cool-season grass types. If you have warm-season grass that’s gone dormant, you don’t need to water it on your regular schedule because it won’t be growing this season.

2. Reduce mowing

Because you aren’t watering as often and the grass isn’t growing as quickly as it did during the summer, you won’t need to mow as often. For your cool-season grass, you’ll only need to mow a few times a month at most. Just be sure you mow often enough to stick to the one-third rule and keep the grass healthy.

3. Continue fertilizing

Ideally, you gave your lawn a good application of fertilizer in the fall so that it was ready to get through the coming months. If you have a cool-season grass, you’ll want to continue to regularly fertilize your lawn according to your fertilization plan. However, if you have warm-season grass varieties, you can discontinue fertilizing while the lawn is dormant.

4. Remove all debris

In the winter, you may have leaves that have fallen or twigs and branches that have broken off trees. Remove these from the lawn by raking or picking them up so that the grass can still get good airflow, enough water and proper sunlight to grow. If you’re raking up the leaves, rake them onto a tarp or burlap square and bring them to your compost pile to be composted into mulch you can use in your spring garden!

5. Check your irrigation system

No matter the season, you should be checking on your irrigation system each month to make sure it is in good shape and operating as it should. You’ll want to check to make sure there’s no leaks or broken sprinkler heads as well, so that you know it’ll be ready to go when you need to water next.

Need help preparing your lawn? Visit our Fresno lawn care page to get in touch with a professional! In addition to Fresno, we provide lawn care services in other California cities, including Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Riverside.

Featured image source: Zillow Fresno