It’s Thanksgiving. You are cooking for a big group of family and friends. There will be cars parked in your driveway plus up and down your street. Your guests will be carrying children, slow cookers, baskets of bread, and side dishes. It’s cold so they want to get into your home asap. They walk across your well-manicured lawn to the front door. No problem, right? Wrong!
Most folks believe that their lawn cannot be harmed during the colder months because it is dormant. Actually, grass is especially vulnerable in the colder seasons and still needs real lawn maintenance. Because your grass is dormant, it is not actively repairing itself. Your lawn needs to be protected.
Cool Weather Weakens Your Lawn
During the fall and winter months it is important to minimize the foot traffic across your lawn, especially when frost, ice or snow is present or if you have a septic tank in the area. Repetitive foot traffic can cause compaction of your lawn and increase the wear on the blades. This will not destroy the grass but can damage it badly enough that it will take a while to recover in the spring.
Constant foot traffic in a certain area that actually causes a path can, in fact, destroy that grass enough to cause you to have to replant in the spring. This traffic includes pets and children playing outdoors.
While grass can be quite resilient, during the cold, grass is fragile. Add in the wet, slush, ice and traffic and it is a recipe for grass destruction. Without the sun and proper maintenance, it will not repair until spring. Even then, it will need your help.
Prepare Your Lawn For The Inevitable
Be sure your home is ready for Thanksgiving foot traffic. Your lawn should have adequate drainage. Less sitting water means less freezing. Also, be sure guests have a proper pathway for entering and leaving your home. You can even ensure they use those pathways by creatively decorating around them, keeping guests from cutting through the lawn.
Before the big day, perform some general yard work. Keep sidewalks, driveways and entrances clear of all snow, ice and slippery leaves. If you have a large crowd coming to your home for Thanksgiving, designate a couple of people as helpers for those arriving with kids and dishes. Extra hands can mean less feet on the lawn.
Never, ever allow vehicle to park on your lawn. Any vehicle, even a motorcycle, can leave impressions in your soil. This can cause the grass underneath to die. This also makes the lawn more susceptible to weeds in the spring. Boats or campers that are being stored for the winter should be stored on a driveway, in a garage or at a storage facility to protect the lawn. Anything sitting long-term will definitely kill the lawn. If cousin Eddie shows up for Thanksgiving in his RV, you might want to point him in the direction of the closest RV Park.
Make Your Lawn Thankful This Holiday Season With Yepez Maintenance Service
Thanksgiving is about celebrating our past year with family and friends, but your lush lawn shouldn’t have to pay the price. Trust Yepez Maintenance Service to give you the best advice for keeping the foot traffic to the sidewalk. Contact us today to get your lawn on our schedule before the next big holiday hits.