Is Foot or Car Traffic Killing Your Baltimore County, MD Lawn?
Love your lawn? Then, limit how much foot and car traffic your yard gets during the wintertime.
Cold nighttime temperatures, early morning frost, and ice storms all affect your turf’s health. If you
walk on yard grass that has a heavy frost on it, you can cause the grass blades to rupture.
Playing on an ice-crusted lawn also damages the lawn grass crowns (where grass blade grows
out of) and leads to soil compaction.
Three Reasons Why You Need to Stay Off Your Lawn in Winter
You don’t want to limit outdoor fun on your Baltimore County, MD lawn, but there are certain
times when your children and pets should stay off it. Icy or frosted grass are times when you
need to limit foot traffic.
Learn more: Why Your Baltimore County, MD HOA or Commercial Property Needs
Professional Snow Plowing Services.
Stop your family from parking their vehicles on your yard as well since cars contribute to pull up
grass with its roots as well as soil compaction.
Conversely, if you’re living in a brand new home and construction vehicle tires made ruts on your
lawn, you need your Bowleys Quarters’ lawn service to fix it for you as soon as the ground thaws.
Here are three reasons why you want to keep all people and vehicles off your lawn:
1. On frosty mornings, your grass blades literally freeze. Water in the grass plants
freezes inside it. Since water expands, the damage from too much traffic on your lawn
causes these cells to burst inside the grass blades.
If your yard grass starts taking on a beige or white color, your grass is damaged due to
people walking on your lawn or someone parking their car on it.
2. You need to hire your Baltimore County lawn service to repair your damaged sod
or newly seeded lawn. If you’ve had sod installed or your lawn care company seeded
your turf this past fall, you’ll need them to come back in the spring.
While the lawn may not die from this damage, your lawn roots may be in
danger—especially if you’ve had construction equipment making ruts in your yard.
If your grass roots are damaged, then you’ll have dead grass come spring. Also, the
younger the lawn, the more risk it has with uprooted grass roots. Your lawn service technician will need to loosen the soil’s compaction with an aerator and then reseed or place new sod on those dead areas. It’ll cost more money to repair in the spring.
3. Your new construction home may have cheap grass planted on your lawn, which will need to be reseeded in the spring or fall. Many times, homebuilders use annual rye grass to give the new yard a quick green up. Yet, annual means it only lasts one growing season.
Your Middle River lawn care company can reseed your lawn in early spring or fall with perennial grasses. Your new property may look muddy with deep tire ruts that pulled up the grass.
Your lawn service technician will repair these ruts, loosen up the soil, put in soil amendments and then plant new grass seed or install new sod for you.
How to Prevent Lawn Damage
If your home is brand new, and there are ruts from construction vehicles, you’ll need to wait until
spring for your lawn care company to fix those ruts and plant new grass seed.
If your lawn is severely damaged due to bike riding over frosty turf or your teenager parks his car
on your lawn, there are some things you can do:
- Turn on your irrigation system or use your garden hose the night before a
frost to water your lawn. It sounds counterintuitive, but your wet grass will actually
not freeze because the water temperature is warmer than the air temperature
around it. - Stop your family or neighborhood kids from walking on your lawn in the
mornings. You’ll need to teach your teen how to park on the side of the street
without driving on your yard as well. - Make your appointment now to get your lawn core aerated and reseeded in
early spring. You don’t want to wait in line for your lawn care technician to fix your
frost-damaged or construction-damaged yard. - Water your lawn in the mornings. If you need to rescue your yard from frost- or
ice damage, you can water your lawn the next morning to melt the frost if you
didn’t get to it the night before.
How Ground Control Lawn Care is Your One-Stop Shop for Repairing a Damaged Lawn
Many homeowners want a beautiful lawn, but they don’t have the time to maintain it, let alone
repair it from construction damage. Instead, your Dundalk, MD lawn service will evaluate the
damage and make a plan of action to get your yard back into shape.
At Ground Control, we provide aeration and seeding services in early spring. If you need your
lawn repaired this spring, call us now to make an appointment at (443) 520-5646 or fill out our
estimate form.
We serve the following Maryland cities: Bowleys Quarters, Carney, Essex, Lutherville-
Timonium, Middle River, Overlea, Parkville, Perry Hall, Rosedale, and White Marsh.
