Winter Mowing

Even in mild climates like Hampton Roads, your lawn still benefits from occasional mowing during the winter. This practice is important for keeping both cool-season and warm-season grasses healthy, managing weeds, and ensuring your lawn looks its best in the spring.

For Cool-Season Lawns (Tall Fescue)

In Hampton Roads, Tall Fescue doesn’t go fully dormant in winter. As noted by experts at Virginia Tech, it simply slows its growth. Mowing regularly helps your lawn in a couple of ways:

• Improve Health and Color: Mowing removes the brown, dried-out leaf tips that develop from frost and dry winter air. This instantly improves the lawn’s color.
• Absorb Sunlight: This “cleanup” cut allows more sunlight to reach the new, healthy, undamaged blades. This helps the grass make food and remain in an active, healthy state, even in cooler weather.

We suggest mowing every 2 – 4 weeks in December, January & February with weekly mowing beginning in March.

For Warm-Season Lawns (Bermuda, Zoysia, St. Augustine)
While these grasses turn brown and go dormant, they are not dead. An occasional cut during the winter, especially during one of our inevitable warm spells, is very helpful.

• Reduce Disease: Mowing helps remove and break up the matted layer of dead, dormant leaves. This improves airflow across the soil and prevents moisture from getting trapped, which significantly reduces the risk of fungal diseases that can rot the dormant grass.
• Maximize Recovery: Keeping the dormant turf “clean” allows the sun and warm air to reach the runners during mild spells, helping the lawn recover from any winter damage and prepare for a stronger green-up in spring.

We suggest mowing every 4 weeks in December, January & February & March with weekly mowing beginning in April or May.

For All Lawns: Winter Weed Control
This is one of the most important reasons to mow in winter. Weeds like henbit, chickweed, and annual bluegrass are actively growing.

In order for a systemic herbicide (a weed killer that is absorbed by the plant) to work, the weed must be actively growing. If a weed is stressed, dormant, or too mature, it won’t absorb the chemical, and your application will fail.

Occasional mowing keeps these winter weeds in a more active, juvenile growth state. This makes them much more vulnerable to any weed control products you apply, ensuring you get the best results and enter spring with a cleaner lawn.