Prior to beginning your spring lawn care routine, you may find your grass is brown from going dormant or showing signs of damage from snow mold or voles. At first glance, these problems may seem overwhelming, but they are quite common to experience coming out of winter and easy to fix! All it takes is some knowledge about how to identify them, the use of tools you already own, and patience, as your lawn will be revived and green in time for spring. Read on for more information about how to properly identify these problems in your yard and easy solutions to fix them.
Dormant Grass
During the winter season, cool-season grasses experience a period of rest known as dormancy. The grass becomes dormant when soil temperatures fall below 45°F and is commonly mistaken for dead grass, due to its dull, brown appearance. To determine if your grass is either dead or dormant, you can perform a simple tug test:
Tug Test
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- Grab a small section of your grass and tug
- If the grass pulls out from the ground easily, it is dead. If the grass has some resistance and is difficult to pull, it is dormant.
Another way to distinguish the difference between dormant and dead grass is by watering your lawn. Dormant grass will begin to revive and green up again once watered, while dead grass will remain dull and brown.
To revive dormant grass for spring, lightly rake your yard. This will help loosen up the grass and generate airflow to the grass blades. You may have to lightly rake more than once for it to be effective. After raking, mow the lawn, and be sure to bag clippings afterward.
Snow Mold
Snow mold is a lawn fungus that affects all varieties of cool-season grasses. It is usually found in early spring after the snow has melted. Snow mold is caused by fungi that remain inactive in your lawn’s soil year-round and begin to develop in wet, damp conditions. Once air temperatures reach 45°F, the fungal spores begin to spread and can result in patches of dead grass in your yard.
Some key indicators of snow mold are areas in your yard where the grass is matted and covered with straw-colored circular patches that measure between 3 to 12 inches. There are two types of snow mold, gray and pink, with pink being the most damaging. Gray snow mold, or Typhula blight, is usually grayish-white in color and only affects the grass blades. Pink snow mold, or Microdochium patch, can kill both the blades and roots of the grass plant if left untreated and is typically whitish-pink in color with pink-colored growth on the outer edges.
If you have seen signs of snow mold in your lawn don’t worry! Snow mold fungus stops growing when temperatures are consistently between 45°F and 60 °F and the surface of the lawn is dry. To treat the effects of snow mold, first, lightly rake the lawn to promote air circulation, allow light to filter between grass blades, and dry out any dead material. This will create airflow and space for new grass to grow and prevent the disease from further progression. Finally, mow the lawn on a high setting as to not stress the lawn, and be sure to bag any clippings.
If your lawn struggles from severe infestations of snow mold year after year you may want to apply a fungicide like Jonathan Green Lawn Fungus Control in late fall as a preventative right before the first snowfall.
Vole Damage
Voles can also cause damage to your lawn in the winter, as this is when they actively run around your yard. A key indicator of vole damage is the tracks they leave behind from running through your yard and eating the grass. These unsightly tracks are known as surface runways and are about ½ inch wide. Vole damage will not cause long-term damage to your lawn, as opposed to mole damage, which can be severe and harder to treat because they tunnel in the soil vs voles that simply run on top of the lawn.
Vole damage can usually be treated without the use of chemicals by lightly raking the lawn in the affected areas. This will encourage growth and generate airflow. As cool-season grass begins its growth cycle in the spring, the tracks will eventually knit back together and grow in any damaged areas. If you still experience the effects of vole damage in the spring after raking and fertilizing, you can overseed the bare areas to thicken and create a more uniform appearance.
How to Revive Your Lawn For Spring
Once you’ve raked and mowed your lawn to resolve post-winter problems, these additional steps will help you to get your lawn revived and ready for spring:
Feed your lawn with nitrogen-rich fertilizer
Your lawn will need a boost of nutrients following a period of harsh winter weather. Applying a nitrogen-rich fertilizer in late March or April, such as Veri-Green Nitrogen Rich Lawn Fertilizer, will help to quickly revive your lawn for spring and stimulate growth. The key to solving most post-winter lawn problems is allowing the lawn to grow out of them. The best way to further supplement that growth is by using fertilizer. By fertilizing the lawn, you encourage the growth of greener grass instead of brown, dormant grass and thicker grass will fill in vole tracks and push out snow mold.
If you are unsure of when to start applying fertilizer in the spring, a good rule of thumb is to make sure your soil temperatures are at least 55°F.
Aerate the lawn
Your soil may be compacted after winter due to the weight of the snow on your lawn. Aerating your lawn can help to relieve compaction and generate airflow to your lawn’s soil. You can use a core aerator to help loosen soil plugs and make room for water, air, and nutrients to travel to the lawn’s root system. This will only provide temporary relief, however, as the holes will eventually fill back in and the soil will re-compact.
A natural alternative to core aeration is to apply Love Your Soil®, which naturally loosens hard soil and improves grass growth, root penetration, and root mass. Love Your Soil® contains fast-acting gypsum to soften hard soil and beneficial humates which stimulate soil microbes so they can break down organic matter and convert it into nutrients the grass can absorb.
Mow and water regularly
Mowing and watering your lawn regularly can help to stimulate growth in your lawn before spring. It’s important to not mow too low, so set your mower height high (3 to 4 inches) to ease your lawn into spring. You should also water your lawn if there is not enough rain to encourage new growth. On average, lawns need 1 – 1.5 inches of water per week during the growing season. Do not overwater as this can encourage fungus to grow.
The Bottom Line
Even the healthiest lawns will need a pick-me-up after awakening from winter dormancy. While problems like snow mold and vole damage may seem severe at first glance, they are actually quite common and easy to fix. Giving your lawn a light raking, mowing, bagging your clippings, and applying a nitrogen-rich fertilizer are the best methods to help revive your lawn for spring. The most important thing to remember when caring for your lawn post-winter is to have patience, as your lawn will grow out of most of these problems once the spring growth cycle begins. Want to know more about how to care for your lawn in spring? Check out our 8 of the Best Spring Lawn Care Tips article!
Hello,
Our entire lawn is 90% Black Beauty Ultra. After using your lawn care products from fall Sept to late October 2021, my lawn front and back stayed green all winter to present and it appears that it didn’t when into Dormant. My neighbor’s lawn looks like the picture above in the article. Should we be worried?
Maurice & Wanda
Not at all! Grass that is in great condition in great soil and has been properly fertilized will hold it’s color unless you have a prolonged freeze. Keep up the good work!
Ground moles elimination to grow green grass Ground moles are a disaster
The moles may be feasting on grubs. Check the area and treat if needed.
How do we tell if the damage we have is from moles, and how do we get rid of them?
Surface tunnels or ridges also indicate mole activity. Entrance and exits will have dirt piled around a hole. Please reach out to your state university cooperative extension service for the best advice for mole repellant.
Hello, if you are starting the four step in early spring, when do I incorporate Love your soil or Green up or not necessary? A friend suggested Ironite, but I wasn’t going to explain my 4 step. Also, the gas company dug up part of my tree lawn in January, right before a snowstorm. It was muddy after the snow melted. Not sure if they are coming back to drop hay. Should I put more dirt and add grass seeds, plus avoid crabgrass and weed preventer in that area with the upcoming steps?
Thank you,
Love your products so far; second year.❤️
Lisa H
PS I have a neighbor who doesn’t do anything, but get her grass cut. Her yard is full of dandelions in the spring, but oh well. Out of my control. ????
Lisa,
Add soil to the dug up area if needed and seed. Avoid crabgrass preventer in that area until your new seedlings have all come up and have been mowed 3x. You can use Green-Up here or in any area where crabgrass prevention is not needed. Love Your Soil works best in warm soil temperatures so we suggest applying between May and October. Keep up the good work!
Thank you .. Most helpful .
We have ditched chemical lawn care to help keep our naturally reared dogs healthy. In turn we now went from the best looking lawn on the block to the worst. So happy to hear of your Organic line and can’t wait to try! We did Espoma last year and we now have a yard full of weeds we have never seen before. On top of that our entire neighborhood is infested with voles, tunnels everywhere! HELP! Can you advise how to incorporate your Organic products throughout the year so we are using correctly? We will definitely want to incorporate your Love Your Soil as well. I equate the condition of the soil like our gut biome, we need the correct balance of microbes and fungi, etc. in order to have a healthy lawn. 🙂
We replied by email but begin with Corn Gluten Weed Preventer when soil temperatures reach 50°. Water in well and let dry out when no rain is expected for at least 2 days and keep all traffic off the lawn during this time.
I have been using JG products for years and have always been one of the best lawns on the block. I have a puppy now and have been thinking about trying your Organic line this Spring. I kinda started it last Fall w/ the Organic Lawn Food. Do you have a 4 step program for Organics?
Thanks again for the great products.
CJ
Yes, we do. Check out our annual programs on our shop site. It consist of Corn Gluten Weed Preventer, Organic Lawn Food and Mag-I-Cal Plus.
I read what to do to create good soil etc, but last year I had a bad weed problem, at least 30 speciesplus onion grass. should I put your weed killer first or fertilizer and soil help first,
Soil foods and weed killers can be applied on the same day provided you apply them according to directions. You could apply the soil first first and water it in and then apply the weed killer to the still wet lawn.
We have a lot of moles we treat every year, start in spring, end with snow. Please recommend something for me. I want them gone!
Please reach out to your state university cooperative extension service for the best advice for mole repellant.