6 Things You Should Do in December for a Healthy Yard

Though the temperatures cool down and many grasses and landscaping plants go dormant in the winter, lawn care never ends! This article reviews some of the best practices for keeping a yard healthy all winter long, focusing specifically on habits for December that can set you up for success in maintaining a beautifully landscaped yard year-round. Try these six helpful tips to keep your yard healthy and flourishing through intentional December lawn care practices.

Six December Lawn Care Tips

Here are six tips for your December lawn care to cultivate a thriving lawn all year long.

December Lawn Care: Rake & Clean Up Your Lawn

The weather getting colder can be a sign for you that it is time to put away toys, rake leaves, and clean up anything left out on the lawn. Having objects or clumps of leaves and debris can cause grass to die, leaving brown patches in your lawn, or becoming a breeding ground for pests. For your December lawn care, take advantage of the changing seasons to clean up your lawn and run a rake across the grass, breaking up soil clumps.

December Lawn Care: Weed Your Lawn

Do you want to make your spring lawn care a bit easier? You can get a head start with December lawn care. Simply start by weeding out perennial weeds such as dandelions. Some people recommend using a  pre-emergent herbicide in the fall or early winter. Using this treatment during the fall or early winter season stops weeds that dropped seeds in the summer from sprouting.

Even if you do not want to use an herbicide, it is not a bad idea to spend some time dealing with weeds in other ways. You can hand-pull weeds, working to remove the plant at the root. In areas where you have other plants growing in a garden or shrubbery area, you can also prevent weeds by applying a thick layer of mulch. Using organic materials such as wood chips, straw, or even leaves as mulch can smother weeds and stop them from popping up in the spring.

December Lawn Care: Aerate Your Lawn

Next, December is a great time of year to aerate your lawn. If the soil of your lawn is too compact, water will pool on the surface of the ground and will not be absorbed efficiently. This can also cause your grass to freeze and die. Thankfully, you can avoid this by aerating your lawn’s soil to reduce compaction and help water filter down into the soil. This will also help the roots of your grass to get access to oxygen and other nutrients. Aerating is an important step to prepare your lawn for fertilizer too, so be sure to aerate first before applying any fertilizer! 

December Lawn Care: Fertilize Your Lawn

The first thing you may want to do in December for a healthy yard is apply fertilizer to your grass. You should apply winter fertilizers after your summer lawn stops growing, in the time when it is green and still active below the surface. After you aerate your lawn, spread fertilizer to help the grass in your lawn store the nutrients it needs to come back lusher than ever in the spring.

Using fertilizer in the winter is a great way to conclude your year’s lawn care and will help the grass stay healthy while dormant over the winter. Be sure to follow the instructions on your chosen fertilizer and only use the recommended amount. If you do not follow the directions and use too much fertilizer, you risk burning your grass.

December Lawn Care: Plant Cool Weather Grass Seed in Your Lawn

Some grass seeds are best planted during cooler months of the year. Planting these species of grass during the winter season is called “dormant seeding.” If you want to plant “cool weather” grass, spread your grass seeds over the lawn. Planting these dormant seeds in places where the winters are predictably cold can take place between November and February, so December is a great month to do it! The colder weather gives the seeds time to lay dormant in the soil, waiting for warmer temperatures that will come in the spring. Planting winter grass can benefit your lawn by anchoring the soil, preventing erosion, and keeping your landscape protected from winter rails that cause damage to lawns. Since most winter grasses naturally die off with changing seasons, they can help ease your lawn into warmer-season grasses.

December Lawn Care: Water Your Lawn

Even though it may seem counterintuitive to water your lawn during the winter, when the grass is anything but green and lush, it is vital to keep your lawn moist even in the winter season! If you reach your December lawn care and find that your area has not received rain recently, water your lawn on days above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. 

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