As the winter season comes around each year, it would be very easy to think, unless you’ve owned your home for a long time, that you don’t have to do much work to prepare your yard for the winter. It will be cold outside in many parts of the country, which means that nothing is going to be growing, and thus, your job is done, right?

Unfortunately for millions of people across the country, primarily dads, this is simply not the case. There are several steps that you should take in order to ensure that your lawn will be ready and preserved for the winter.

As tempting as it may seem to put away that trusty lawn mower for a few months and not think about it at all, the reality is that if you are the one responsible for maintaining the lawn in your house, you will need to keep mowing right up until the ground freezes.

This is because, in multiple areas of the country, there are grasses, such as bluegrass, which continue to grow during the winter season. They do this at a slower rate than they normally do until the ground completely freezes over, and it is only at this time that their growth completely stops. As such, it is a good idea to maintain a ten to fourteen day mowing schedule to maintain the appearance of your lawn.

Two additional benefits that will come with continuing to mow your lawn are that any litter which may end up there, such as leaves, will not be of a sufficient amount, and the short height of your cut grass will reduce instances of fungus damage from the snow.

Aeration is another task that you want to keep in mind as you prepare your lawn for the winter, but unlike mowing it, this item on the list is a little more conditional and should be based on the current state of your lawn. If your soil is more compact than normal due to excess traffic exposure, or if your lawn clipping thatch exceeds more than a half inch in depth, then you need to aerate your lawn. Thankfully, all you’ll need for that is simply a standard issue garden rake.

Although the leaves always look pretty as we transition from fall to winter each year, unless you’re a child or the parent of a child, you won’t get to actually do anything fun with them. They can damage your lawn if they are left there during the winter, which basically leaves you with either two options: mulching them off of the lawn, or raking them off.

Mulching works great if the leaves are not overly thick and can be redistributed back into the lawn, but sometimes they are too dense for this option to work. In that case, the only other option you have left is to rake them off, and if you can pay to have that done, it’s better to spend your money than your time on that type of chore.

The upcoming winter season is the best time to get rid of weeds, as like everything else on your lawn, it will be fighting to survive the cold season. Use some organic weed killer to take advantage of the situation and get rid of them while they are already struggling to make sure that they are less likely to come back when winter turns to spring next year.

One important thing you should do to prepare your yard for winter that is often overlooked is to add surveyor stakes to both your yard and your driveway. However, you would be forgiven for not knowing what they are in the first place, so let’s begin there and explain why they are important to have.

Surveyor stakes are simply markers that you can stick in the ground on your lawn and your driveway to let people know where your land boundaries are, and where you do not want them to walk or drive over, in the winter time.

This is especially important for people who live in areas that receive a significant amount of snow. These areas are very likely to have city personnel whose job it is to come and clear the snow out of the streets and off of the sidewalk.

If they are unaware of where your lawn and sidewalk start and end, they may very well accidentally run over it, causing unnecessary damage to your lawn. Prevent this from happening in the first place by simply using surveyor stakes.