Are you a snow lover?
Or, are you one that hopes we make it through the winter snow-free?
If your lawn and landscape have a vote, they are voting for a snow!
Much of our landscape, particularly fescue lawns, groundcovers, and pansies, has a freeze-dried look this winter. It started on December 19th with a 13-degree night when we had gone 45 days without any rain. It continued with a couple of 11-degree and an 8-degree night in January. All without any moisture.
Thankfully, this week’s cold temperatures came with protection for your lawn and landscape.
That’s correct…protection.
Fresh snow is like a warm blanket on a cold night to your landscape!
Snowfall is nature’s way of insulating your valuable landscape from cold temperatures. A fresh snow cover of more than 2” is very beneficial to the landscape by trapping soil warmth below the snow.
Without snow, soil temperatures fluctuate more, dipping deeper during call spells. An example from this winter: When our low hit 8 degrees on January 21st, soil temperatures at 2” below the surface dipped to 37 degrees. But, this week with Friday morning’s low at 10 degrees in the Oklahoma City area and with a 6” snow cover, the 2” soil temperature was 44 degrees.
Your landscape is thankful for the blanket of snow that trapped the warm soil temperatures around its roots and kept the cold windy temperatures at bay.
Snowfall is moisture!
If we get a ½” rainfall, there is a lot of runoff. But, when the snow melts, it slowly soaks in. Nearly every single drop benefits the roots of your turf, flowers, shrubs, and trees.
On average, 10” snow equals a 1” rainfall. With a wet snow, your landscape may receive 1” of moisture for every 5” of snow. But, it takes a 15” snowfall to equal 1” when the snow is dry. My guess is this week’s 6-7” snowfall will gain us 1/3” to ½” of moisture as it melts. We will take every drop we can squeeze out of the white powder! It has been a very dry winter with only ½” of rain in the last 90 days.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac calls snow a “poor man’s fertilizer.”
Snow is full of nitrogen. As snow falls it collects nitrogen that is naturally in the air and distributes it evenly over your lawn and landscape.
Even though spring green-up is a few weeks away, don’t be surprised if our landscapes look a little more alive next week as the snow melts away. We may find the freeze-dried look to have faded just a bit thanks to a good blanket of snow.
So, which are you? Snow lover? Snow hater?
I know where your lawn and landscape stand on the snow issue!
Lorne Hall
Hall | Stewart Lawn + Landscape
(405)367-3873