Give your lawn one last feast

Everyone is making plans for the big Thanksgiving feast and crazy Black Friday shopping. This weekend is also a great time to say thank you to your lawn. Your lawn has slowed into dormancy for the winter and it is time to give it a final feeding.

After you have feasted on that Thanksgiving turkey and all of the trimmings, take a walk around your yard with the fertilizer spreader. You want to get this extra nutrition on the lawn after it has stopped growing, but before the ground has a chance to freeze. The roots will store carbohydrates, kind of like a bear eating lots of food before it goes into hibernation. Those carbs will be ready to help your lawn green up quickly in the spring.

Slow release winterizing fertilizer is what you are looking for. The first number will be high and that means the bag contains mostly nitrogen. The second number is for phosphorus helps with root growth and the third one is for potassium and will give a plant's flowers and fruits an extra boost. So, you can see why you are looking for a bag of slow release fertilizer with a high first number. You will need some food for the roots too, so a typical slow release winterizer might have numbers like 20-2-6 or 10-0-15.

Even a good dose of gourmet food won't hurt. Instead of bagging up that last layer of leaves, keep mowing them into your lawn. Once they are finely mulched, they will filter into the root system for the grass and give the roots some nutrients for the early spring.

Other natural fertilizers such as bone meal, fish blood, or chicken manure will help your turf. You will need to sprinkle it on your grass and rake it into the soil line for it to be effective.

Last time to mow

It hasn't been long since you were riding around your yard with the mower deck at a good three-inch height. Well if you haven't done it already, it is time to give that lawn its last mow of the year. It has stopped growing for the season and is ready to be put to bed for the season.

Put the mower deck down a little lower, to cut the grass at about two-inches long. This will leave less space for disease to find a home on each of the blades during the winter.

Honey-do list

This is a good time to take a picture of your garden. It isn't the blooming beauty it once was, but it is a beautiful time to take a good look at its structure and see how you can improve it next year. You should have taken one in early spring, another in the early summer, then late summer, fall and then now in the late fall.

Always shoot the photo from the same spot so you can see your garden change through the seasons. That will help you fill in the empty spots and help you find areas that need some height or seasonal color.

Create a focal point. Get rid of some of the clutter in your landscape and give your eye a place to start. You've got a few months to dream about it.

Contact Kelly Heidbreder at getgrowing@gmail.com.