Prepare Your Lawn for Winter: An Essential Checklist
As the chill sets in and daylight hours dwindle, it's time to shift your lawn care focus to preparing for the cooler months ahead. A little proactive care now can make a big difference in how well your lawn survives winter and bounces back in spring. Here's your essential winter lawn care checklist:
The Lowdown on Mowing: Adjust Your Routine
While your lawn's growth will naturally slow down as temperatures drop, don't put the mower away completely! It's still important to continue mowing, but adjust your frequency and always adhere to the "one-third rule."
What is the one-third rule? This golden rule dictates that you should never remove more than one-third of the grass blade's length in a single mow. Exceeding this can stress your lawn and lead to scalping, which weakens the grass. By consistently following this rule, you ensure your lawn remains healthy and robust, even as it enters dormancy.
Feeding Your Lawn: The Right Fertiliser for Cooler Temps
It is crucial to give your lawn a final nutritional boost before winter arrives. Fertilising helps your lawn recover from any stresses accumulated during the warmer months and can even help maintain its colour deeper into winter.
If you’re still experiencing relatively warm temperatures, granular fertilisers like Lawn Solutions Premium Fertiliser or Knights Coastal Special Mix are excellent choices. They provide a slow and steady release of nutrients.
However, if the mercury has already started to drop significantly, a liquid fertiliser such as Exceed is recommended. Liquid fertilisers are absorbed quickly through the grass blades, providing immediate benefits in cooler conditions.
Sir Walter Lawn fertiliser has been developed by Lawn Solutions Australia for use on Soft Leaf Buffalo and most other lawn varieties.
Exceed is a liquid fertiliser designed for fast uptake and visible results. Applied as a foliar spray directly onto the leaf blade, Exceed bypasses the soil absorption process entirely — nutrients are taken up through the leaf within hours rather than days, producing a visible green response significantly faster than granular alternatives.
This makes Exceed the product of choice when you want quick visible results — before an event, after a stressful period, or to top up colour between granular applications. It is particularly effective in cooler conditions when soil temperatures reduce the efficiency of granular nutrient uptake.
Exceed is safe for use on all turf types including Sir Walter Buffalo, TifTuf, Zoysia Australis and Nullarbor Couch. It can be applied through a hand sprayer, knapsack or hose-on applicator depending on the formulation selected.
Use Exceed in combination with a granular base fertiliser for best results — the granular provides slow-release sustained nutrition while Exceed delivers the immediate colour response.
Knights Coastal Special Lawn Mix is a granular fertiliser formulated specifically for the conditions Perth lawns face — sandy, free-draining coastal soils that leach nutrients quickly, and a climate that demands consistent colour and root health through both dry summers and cooler winters.
The balanced nutrient blend replenishes the nitrogen, potassium and trace elements that Perth's sandy soils cannot hold between applications. Unlike high-nitrogen products that push rapid lush growth, Knights Coastal is formulated for steady, sustained feeding — building genuine root depth and lawn density rather than quick but shallow top growth.
Apply with a rotary spreader at the recommended rate and water in immediately after spreading. Suitable for all lawn varieties including Sir Walter Buffalo, TifTuf, Zoysia Australis and Nullarbor Couch.
Best used as part of a year-round fertilising program with applications in autumn (April/May), late winter (August) and spring (October). The autumn application is the most critical — it builds the nutrient reserves the lawn draws on through winter.
20kg BAGS DO NOT QUALIFY FOR FREE THURSDAY DELIVERY - STORE PICK UP ONLY
Tackling Weeds Before Winter Takes Hold
Winter can be a prime time for certain weeds to establish themselves. Getting on top of any existing weed issues now is vital for a healthier lawn come spring. Identifying the specific type of weed you're dealing with is the first step in choosing the most effective treatment.
A broadleaf herbicide is your best bet for common broadleaf weeds like clover, bindii, oxalis, cudweed, and catsear. Consider these effective options:
All Purpose Weed Control: This product comes in a convenient hose-on bottle, making application straightforward.
Amgrow Bin Die: Available as a concentrate, this product needs to be mixed with water and applied using a knapsack or sprayer.
All Purpose Weed Control is designed to knock out common weeds such as Bindii, Creeping Oxalis, Catsear, Clover, Cudweed, Dandelion and Thistles.
This weed killer is suitable for established couch, bent, kikuyu, paspalum, buffalo, zoysia, fescue and rye lawns and turf.
Easy to use, clip on hose on attachment will make application easier than ever. No need to measure and mix up concentrates.
Lawn Solutions All Purpose Weed Control 2L ready-to-use bottle treats up to 200m2.
The Power of Pre-Emergents: Stopping Weeds Before They Start
For a proactive approach to weed control, especially against notorious seasonal weeds like Winter Grass, a pre-emergent herbicide is invaluable. These clever products create a protective barrier at the soil surface, preventing weed seeds from germinating and emerging as visible weeds in your lawn.
The key to success with pre-emergents like Oxafert is timing. Aim to apply them in mid to late autumn, as temperatures begin to cool in your area. This ensures the barrier is in place before those stubborn winter weed seeds have a chance to sprout.
By following this comprehensive checklist, you'll set your lawn up for success, ensuring it withstands the winter elements and emerges vibrant and healthy in the spring.
OxaFert is one of the most practical and popular products we stock for Perth lawns — a granular pre-emergent herbicide and fertiliser combined in a single application. Instead of applying a separate pre-emergent and fertiliser, OxaFert does both jobs at once, saving time and reducing the number of products needed.
The pre-emergent component creates a chemical barrier in the top layer of soil that prevents germinating weed seeds from establishing a root system. It is effective against the most common winter weeds in Perth — wintergrass, crowsfoot grass and oxalis. Timing is critical: OxaFert must be applied before weed seeds germinate to be effective. In Perth, the target window is May to early June, before soil temperatures drop consistently below 15°C.
The fertiliser component provides a balanced nutrient feed at the same time, supporting colour and root health through the transition into the cooler months.
Apply with a rotary spreader at the recommended rate, then water in immediately. Do not apply to dry soil without watering in — the pre-emergent must be activated by moisture to form the soil barrier.
Compatible with Sir Walter Buffalo, TifTuf, Zoysia Australis and Nullarbor Couch. Check label for application rates specific to your variety.