December 4th, 2018 by Chris Chapman

Gardening isn’t fun in the winter time, but you can always retreat into your cosy living room after a wintry gardening session. Your lawn isn’t so lucky! Being exposed to the elements all winter will mean your lawn can start to look bare as it’ll be weakened by the cold, wet weather. Your lawn is more susceptible to pests, diseases, and other problems in its weakened state, so if your lawn is looking patchy this winter, you’ll want to read this guide to the UK’s most common lawn problems.

Moss and Liverwort

When your grass is weakened by harsh weather conditions, it can struggle to compete with other, stronger plants for space on your lawn. And, as plants go, there aren’t many that are stronger than moss! Moss thrives in wet, dark conditions and is incredibly aggressive. If your lawn isn’t in a particularly healthy state, moss can quickly and easily overpower it over the winter. It doesn’t actually kill grass, but it does grow on the surface of your lawn and compete for water and air. Moss’s close relative, liverwort, looks very similar (it’s a little flatter and more fuzzy-looking) but in practical terms, they’re both the same. Moss is tricky to remove from your lawn with regular herbicides as these can also kill off your lawn. However, you can get rid of moss using iron sulphate. Iron sulphate is a fertiliser which adds nutrients to your lawn while also turning moss black, allowing you to simply rake the moss away! You can use regular doses of iron sulphate to keep your lawn looking lush and green through winter while also weakening moss, or you can use a stronger dose to remove any particularly stubborn patches of moss.

Dogs

Dogs are a nightmare for a well-kept lawn! They'll dig up small patches of turf every now and then (some dogs are worse than others for this), but a more serious problem is the urine stains they can leave on your lawn. Dog urine is high in nitrogen, which will actually burn away patches of grass over time. In summer, your grass will grow more quickly so your lawn can repair itself, but in winter, grass doesn’t really grow that much. This means those burn marks won’t be repaired and those dead patches can quickly spread around your lawn. Try to take your pooch out on a long walk and encourage it to do its business away from your garden if you can. If your dog does go in your garden, you can hose down where they’ve been to rinse away and dilute the concentration of nitrogen. This will help reduce some of the burning effect.

Water Puddles and Drainage Problems

Winter is wet. If you’ve lived in the UK for any length of time at all, you’ll know this better than anyone! If your lawn is poorly drained, however, this water can pool on your lawn, smothering your grass and leaving massive barren patches of dirt. Poor drainage occurs when the soil becomes too compacted beneath your lawn. This can be due to the consistency of the soil, compacted roots, or heavy rainfall. Aerate your soil regularly with a garden fork to help relieve compaction – this should help your lawn stay strong throughout the winter by allowing water to drain through it properly.

Lawn Diseases

Lawn diseases are much more common in winter because your grass is weaker, so it finds it more difficult to fight them off. Most lawn diseases are fungal infections which take advantage of weak and dormant grass to take hold of your lawn through the winter. Generally speaking, the healthier your lawn is, the less risk there is of a lawn disease infecting it as your grass will be strong enough to fight off the infection. What this means for you is that prevention is the most effective cure, so make sure your lawn is in top condition before winter hits! That means keep mowing it until you get the first frost, use regular doses of iron sulphate it, aerate it, and sow new seeds if you need to. If you do find yourself with mysterious brown patches appearing on your lawn alongside some strange-looking fungus, you might want to read this guide on the UK’s most common lawn diseases.

Lawn Pests

Leatherjacket image By Rasbak [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia CommonsMany common lawn pests are active throughout the winter, causing damage to your lawn even in freezing weather. Lawn pests like chafer grubs and leatherjackets are small grubs that live under your lawn and feed on the grass roots from late summer through until spring. For a healthy lawn, this isn’t a problem, as the grass can simply re-grow and repair any roots that are eaten. However, unhealthy lawns or lawns that are severely infested with hungry grubs can quickly be completely destroyed, leaving you with a bare patch of dirt where your lawn used to be! There isn’t anything you can do that’ll guarantee no pests will infest your lawn, but you can reduce the odds of it happening. Iron sulphate has the side-effect of making the soil under your lawn slightly more acidic, which makes it less appealing for grubs. It also helps provide your grass with the nutrients it needs to stay healthy even as its roots are under attack.