When you live in Idaho, you’re used to crazy temperature fluctuations and weather.
A spring thaw in February? You bet. A big freeze in April? Sure, why not? An unusually warm winter? Mother Nature gets a big kick out of keeping us on our toes.
A warmer-than-usual winter can cause issues in your landscaping— especially when unseasonably warm weather is followed by a bitter cold snap, which almost always happens here.
What’s the warm winter impact on plants, including your lawn?
Table of Contents
- Plants Can Bud Early, Then Lose Them to Frost
- Warm Winters Can Confuse Your Trees
- How Does a Warm Winter Affect Lawns?
- Warm Winters Might Mean Earlier Crabgrass Control
- Warm Winter Problems: Lawn Diseases
- Temperatures Matter When Considering Potential Harm
- Warm Winters Mean Extra Pest Control
- How You Can Prevent Warm Winter Harm
- Professional Options for Protecting & Renewing Landscapes
Plants can bud, then freeze, causing damage. You might need to start lawn care earlier, especially weed control, to ward off crabgrass. Unwelcome insect pests can appear earlier in warm weather, making them even peskier. Mulch can be your new best friend, helping protect your vulnerable plants from erratic fluctuating temperatures.
What can you do to avoid warm winter harm?
Let’s learn more about how a warm winter affects your landscape.
Plants Can Bud, Then Freeze
An early warmup tricks plants into thinking it’s time to come out of their winter dormancy — like you happily wearing shorts on a mild February day. If plants could say “woo hoo,” they would.
But what’s the warm winter impact on plants? That early new growth can be damaged by subsequent freezing temperatures.
Plants here in Idaho need a period of cold dormancy to prepare for their normal spring growth; warm winter weather can disrupt that.
Warm Winter Harm to Trees
An early warm spell followed by freezing temperatures can be dangerous to trees.
A few years ago, when Idaho Falls had a really early warmup, followed by a bitter cold snap in April, honey locust trees were hit hard, and many died.
An early spring causes trees and shrubs to push out buds and shoots. But those buds are tender and not designed to survive freezing temperatures. If the buds are damaged by freezing, they won’t leaf out, one of the biggest warm winter impacts on plants.
That means fewer pretty blooms in spring, reduced fruit yield, and overall stress on trees.
How Does a Warm Winter Affect Lawns?
Lawn Buddies technicians know to be flexible regarding weather fluctuations and our lawn care program.
If it’s warm enough to start and the snow is gone, we’ll start with the spring application.
But lawn care like fertilizer and weed control is based on soil temperature, not air temperature.
Even though you happily head to the grocery store in flip-flops on a balmy March day, the soil underneath your grass might still shiver. Even though it feels warm to you, it could be a while before our Idaho soil reaches the 50 degrees or so needed to start lawn care.
Fertilizer will only be effective and start greening your lawn if the soil temperature reaches 50-55 degrees. Before that, your grass is still asleep.
It takes two or three weeks of warm days in a row for that soil to warm up — not just a brief warm spell or two.
Warm Winter Problems Might Mean Earlier Crabgrass Control
There’s a specific window for crabgrass control, and it’s important to stay on top of it. Applying that crabgrass preventer is one of the first tasks of spring, as crabgrass germinates when the soil temperature reaches 60 degrees. It’s crucial to get pre-emergent down before that happens.
Other weeds can pop up earlier than usual, too, once it gets warm.
You need a complete, proactive lawn care program that includes treatments to prevent weeds before they sprout and target them once they’ve reared their ugly heads.
And those treatments will start earlier than usual if the weather demands it.
Warm Winter Problems: Lawn Diseases
How does a warm winter affect lawns? An unusually warm winter can lead to lawn diseases like dollar spot and fairy ring — fungal infections that thrive in warm, wet conditions.
Extra moisture that sits on the ground and doesn’t freeze can cause unsightly lawn diseases to show up, but most will go away on their own when the ground dries out.
How a Warm Winter Affects the Landscape: Temperature Matters
Some of the plant health care services we offer are based on temperature, so warmer weather earlier can speed those up.
Dormant oil is a good example.
Also called horticultural oil, dormant oil spray is used as an insecticide to suffocate insects and insect eggs that have overwintered on trees and shrubs.
Instead of poisoning the bugs, you’re smothering them with the oil. The oil kills lingering insects and their eggs so they won’t hatch in the spring.
But it has to be applied when plants are dormant — before they leaf out.
A warm winter can move up that timeline.
Certain insecticides also have a temperature range we follow for the best treatment window. Fluctuating temperatures make it extra challenging to get the timing right.
Warm Winter Problems Include Pest Control
Warmer winter temperatures can allow insect pests to survive and become more active earlier in the season.
That can mean starting perimeter pest control services earlier, to repel bugs once they’re out and moving around.
What You Can Do to Prevent Warm Winter Harm
Idaho lawn and plant care pros are used to staying on top of changing weather and temperature conditions to keep landscaping healthy.
You can play a key part, too. Here’s how:
Start by Choosing the Right Plants
Not every pretty plant that captivates you can survive our cold Idaho winters.
This can be tricky because some larger chain stores will carry many plants that may not be best suited for our area.
Always check the plant tag before you buy.
Protect Plants from Fluctuating Temperatures
Even though we may have warm spells throughout the winter or an unusually early spring, it still gets cold enough here to damage trees and shrubs.
And if a warm spell causes new plant growth too soon, it needs extra protection.
Applying mulch around plants can help insulate roots and protect them from temperature fluctuations.
Keep an eye on your plants during warm winter and be prepared to protect new growth if necessary.
Let the Pros Handle It
Regarding landscape care in Idaho, you have to watch the weather like a hawk.
But do you really want to?
Get on board with a comprehensive lawn care program and plant health care, and let the pros keep an eye on the changing temperatures, soil temperature and other factors that determine when your services should kick in.
Warm Winter Problems? Trust Lawn Buddies
A spell of warm weather in winter can be fun. Grill some burgers! Dig out your flip-flops!
But it can mess things up in your landscaping. How are you supposed to know if it’s time to battle crabgrass? What if your favorite tree starts to suffer?
Partner with expert lawn care and landscaping services in Boise and Idaho Falls, and rest easy.
First, sign up for our 6-step complete lawn care program. You’ll be glad you did.
Choose an Idaho Falls or Boise professional lawn care service that makes it easy, bundling your yard’s most-needed treatments into one convenient, no-fuss plan.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started. You can simply fill out the form on this page, call us at (208) 656-9131 or read more about our services. Then, you can kick back and relax in your clean, pest-free home.
