What Should I Check on My Fort Collins Lawn in Spring After Winter?

Author: Dianne DeLongchamps

What should I check on my lawn in spring after a Northern Colorado winter?

A lawn that came through winter well greens up evenly across the whole yard within a few weeks of steady warm weather, without wide patches of thin, bare, or matted grass. Uneven green-up or circular matted patches usually point to a specific, identifiable cause rather than a failing lawn.

Luke DeLongchamps, who runs field work for Clean Air Lawn Care in Fort Collins, Windsor, and Timnath, says homeowners often blame brown spots on fungus or pests when the cause is usually watering or coverage, such as a sprinkler that does not reach that spot.

This is really a spring question, but we’re including it here because how your lawn comes through winter depends a lot on the fall and winter steps covered earlier in this series: fall feeding, mowing, the sprinkler shutdown, and occasional winter watering.

What healthy spring recovery looks like

As soil and air temperatures warm up steadily, a lawn that made it through winter well should show even color coming back across the whole yard at roughly the same pace, instead of some sections greening while others stay tan. Firm turf, meaning the crown and roots held on through winter, is another good sign.

Matted, circular patches: check for snow mold

Circular matted patches near where snow was piled or drifted are the first thing to look for. PlantTalk Colorado’s page on snow mold in Colorado lawns describes the disease as circular patches of matted, discolored turf. As the snow recedes, the patches look light yellow, straw, or brown, and the blades may be covered with gray or white webbing. PlantTalk says the disease develops when snow falls on unfrozen turf and stays for long periods.

PlantTalk’s advice is to rake the patches, which breaks up the crust and lets the turf dry out, and it says a light spring fertilizer application may be made. The turf begins its recovery with new leaf development, but affected areas may be slower to green up. PlantTalk also says long snow cover is uncommon on the Front Range, so gray snow mold is unlikely to be a problem on bluegrass during most years. These patches are covered in our post on gray, matted patches when the snow melts.

Uneven or patchy green-up: where to look next

Whether the grass is dead or just slow to wake up is covered in our post on how to tell if your lawn died over winter or is just slow to wake up. Patchy green-up on south- or west-facing slopes is covered in our post on dormant-season watering.

Trails, runways, and mounds

Walk the lawn once the snow is gone and look for narrow trails through the grass. PlantTalk’s page on vole damage in yards says to repair runway damage by raking, fertilizing, and watering the affected area, and it says extensive areas may need reseeding. Fan-shaped mounds of soil with closed entrances point to a different animal, the pocket gopher, according to CSU Extension’s fact sheet on determining species by burrows and damage. Our post on telling voles from pocket gophers walks through the clues.

What aeration does for a lawn coming out of a hard winter

If the lawn came out of winter looking stressed or thin, aeration is one possible next step. CSU Extension’s lawn care fact sheet says core cultivation is essential for all lawn areas, especially those that are thatchy or subject to high traffic, and it says to try to slow thatch buildup when the thatch layer exceeds 1/2 inch in thickness. What happens during core aeration is covered in our post on core aeration.

Handling thin or bare patches

For patching thin or bare areas, see our post on how to fix bare or thin spots in your lawn. Timing matters in spring. PlantTalk Colorado’s page on pre-emergent herbicides for crabgrass prevention gives a target date of mid-April in the northern Front Range, and it says lawn overseeding must be delayed until late summer or early fall when a spring pre-emergent application is made. Pre-emergents also kill germinating grass seed, so a patch you plan to seed this spring needs a different plan than the rest of the lawn.

Spring feeding: check the calendar before you buy anything

The lawn care fact sheet’s fertilizing table lists a mid-March to April nitrogen application for most cool-season grasses. It adds that if spring green-up and growth are satisfactory, you can delay fertilizing until May or June. Your walk-through tells you which of those two paths your lawn is on.

Why this check matters even if your lawn looks fine

It’s tempting to skip a real spring walk-through when the lawn looks green from the street. But the trouble spots are usually small compared to the whole yard: exposed slopes, south- and west-facing areas, and anywhere snow tended to pile up. A quick, deliberate look at those particular spots catches problems that a glance from the driveway won’t.

Building it into next year’s plan

Whatever this spring’s walk-through turns up is useful information for next fall. Our post on the difference between fall cleanup and winterizing covers the steps to repeat or change. If you would like a second set of eyes on a lawn in Fort Collins, Windsor, or Timnath, Clean Air Lawn Care serves all three. sheet on managing pocket gophers. The steps for keeping voles out of your yard before winter are in our post on preventing vole damage this fall.

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Nothing beats walking a lawn in early spring with Luke and seeing which ones clearly got the right fall care, it really does show. If your lawn doesn’t bounce back the way you’re hoping this coming spring, or you’d rather get the fall prep right the first time around, we’re here for Fort Collins, Windsor, and Timnath families all season long.

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Clean Air Lawn Care Northern Colorado is owned by Dianne, Paul, and Luke DeLongchamps — a family business serving Fort Collins, Windsor, and Timnath with organic lawn treatments and solar-powered electric equipment.

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