How Do I Get My Lawn Back From a Freeze?

You don't have to live in northern Minnesota for your lawn to suffer winter cold damage. Warm-weather grasses in Southern lawns suffer the drying effects of freezing, too. It's not actually the grass blades that freeze -- they turn brown when the grass goes dormant. The part of the plant that lives through winter freezes is the crown that sits just below the soil's surface. As long as it is insulated from sudden temperature changes, the plant should recover. Take care to wake chilled crowns gently.

Aerator
Well-rotted compost or manure
Fertilizer
Adjustable fertilizer spreader

Instructions

- 1
  Practice patience. Green shoots take longer to emerge from crowns where lawns have suffered winter damage or late freezes. Give your lawn a chance to recuperate, and don't try to force it to grow.
- 2
  Water lawns only after nighttime temperatures stay above 60 degrees F. Water deeply, but never water more than an inch a week. Cold-stressed cell walls in crowns become brittle and sudden hydration of cells will cause swelling and wall breakage, killing more crown cells.
- 3
  Aerate the lawn if it begins to green up, and top dress it with 1/2 inch of well-rotted compost or well-rotted manure. Your lawn needs potassium and hardly any nitrogen: organic products provide gentle fertilization.
- 4
  Apply only 1/2 of the quantity of fertilizer you would normally use after your lawn begins growing strongly. Dumping high-nitrogen fertilizer on stressed turfgrass shocks it.
- 5
  Resod or replug bare patches as soon as possible after the ground reaches 60 degrees F and you're satisfied that the grass is dead in that area. Waiting until the heat of summer allows weeds to get a foothold in a stressed lawn.

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