Don’t Freak Out Over Frost
Though it’s bound to get cold sooner or later, frost and freezing temperatures don’t affect the warm season grasses most common in our area.
Warm-season grasses include zoysia, St. Augustine, Bermuda, and centipede grasses. These breeds go dormant when temperatures start dipping below 60 degrees. Because they’re no longer trying to grow, they’re much less vulnerable to harsh weather.
“Psychedelic” grass is nothing to worry about.
As we experience the first few frosts of the year, your grass might take on a strange pattern. Sometimes, these patterns look like zebra stripes or leopard spots, and though it might look like something is going wrong, everything is fine.
While your grass is making the transition to dormancy, frost will affect different spots of your grass in different ways—Bermuda and zoysia grasses, especially. Some areas will go dormant faster, resulting in a pattern.
It’s perfectly natural and healthy.
Keep a tidy yard.
As we talked about in our October blog, make sure you mulch your leaves and rid your yard of debris. Your grass is working hard to make the most of the few nutrients it can obtain.
Grass covered by leaves or debris is essentially smothered and will be slow to green up in the spring.
Avoid compacting your soil.
Compacted soil puts a chokehold on your lawn’s root system, which makes it difficult to draw nutrients from the soil. High foot traffic, new sod, and standing water are just a few problems that can lead to compacted soil.
As the weather gets colder, your soil will naturally harden and become compacted. Now would be a great time to schedule an aeration treatment with one of our lawn care technicians, who can give you other pointers to get your yard through the winter.
Your grass will continue to hibernate until temperatures reach a consistent low in the 60’s.
At Lawn & Pest Solutions, we don’t think about your lawn one season at a time. Our certified lawn technicians want you to get the most out of your lawn. Our lawn care professionals work with you to create a plan that sets your grass up for a healthy winter and a more vibrant spring. Reach out to us through our contact page to set up your complimentary assessment.
