Gardening: Now that the snow is gone, it’s time to assess the yard

The snow is gone! We can see our gardens and lawns again.

It’s happy dance time!

Or is it? Underneath that blanket of snow a lot of critters were having a party, and they left behind a mess for us to clean up. Throw in a little snow mold and it isn’t a pretty sight.

Mice and voles don’t hibernate. Instead, when the snow creates a nice deep blanket for months on end, they move along the surface of the ground protected by the snow. As they go, they nibble away at the grass and either take it to their nests for insulation or eat it for food. When the snow melts, we see their trails and nest holes all over the lawn. While all this looks terrible, no serious damage has been done. Once the grass starts growing, the damage will disappear. Simply rake out the dead grass and wait a few weeks.

There have been a lot of cases of snow mold reported to the WSU Master Gardener Plant Clinic in the past couple of weeks. Snow mold appears as a gray or pink patchy growth on lawns as the snow melts. The patches are caused by two fungi; gray snow mold or typhula blight is caused by typhula spp., while pink snow mold or fusarium patch is caused by microdochium nivalis. Both grow well when conditions are cold and wet and both probably got a head start last fall with all the rain we had in October.

As was the case with the mouse damage, no serious long-term damage has occurred to the lawn. The patches can easily be raked out to remove dead grass and help the soil begin to dry out. It is not necessary to apply any fungicides. To reduce its occurrence next spring, next fall cut your lawn to a medium height on the last mowing, rake up leaf debris and don’t apply a high nitrogen fertilizer too late in the season.

If your lawn is plagued with crabgrass, now is the time to apply a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent the seeds from sprouting. This is the only time of year you can nip this pest in the bud. Once it and your lawn start growing there is no way to kill crabgrass without also killing your lawn. The grass will likely start growing by the end of the month so don’t wait to do this.

With all the rain and snowmelt we’ve had this winter, the soil is completely saturated, which means it needs to dry out quite a bit before we start any major digging or tilling projects. To test your soil for saturation, take a good handful and squeeze it together. Open your hand and poke the ball of soil; if it easily falls apart, your soil is dry enough to dig in. If it doesn’t, wait a week and try it again. Clay soils won’t dry as fast as sandy soils so plan accordingly if you have clay.

Master Gardener Pat Munts is the co-author of “Northwest Gardener’s Handbook” with Susan Mulvihill. Munts has gardened in Spokane Valley for more than three decades. She can be reached at pat@inlandnwgardening.com.