Your winter lawn: mostly, leave it alone

Somewhere around June, half the lawns in Melbourne's north turn a shade best described as "hay". If yours is one of them, it's almost certainly fine. Couch and kikuyu are warm-season grasses: when soil temperature drops and the frosts start, they shut the factory, live off their roots, and wait. Purple-tinged kikuyu after a frosty week in Mernda is a healthy plant doing healthy plant things. Your job through winter is mostly holding the ground until spring.

Keep mowing (just barely)

Growth slows but doesn't stop, and winter weeds definitely don't stop. Every three to four weeks is plenty, and raise the cut a notch or two - longer leaf means more photosynthesis on the few growing days, and the extra height shades out germinating weeds. Never mow frosted grass: frozen blades snap instead of cutting, and every footprint and wheel mark bruises black into the lawn. Wait for the frost to melt off, which in Melbourne is usually by morning smoko. Wet-day scheduling is its own subject - the wet grass guide covers why your mower keeps sliding the day.

The real winter enemy: winter grass

Poa annua - winter grass - is the bright lime-green tufty stuff that appears in autumn, loves Melbourne winters, and drops thousands of seeds by October. It's the main reason a lawn gets thinner and weedier every year. By the time you can see it, it's already seeding; the effective move is a pre-emergent in April-May that stops the seeds germinating at all. Missed the window? Hand-pull what you can before it seeds, mow with the catcher on so you're not spreading seed, and diarise next April. Broadleaf weeds (capeweed, bindii - which you want dead before it sets its summer prickles) are much easier: they're actively growing in winter, so a selective broadleaf spray now works brilliantly. Check the label suits your grass; buffalo is fussy about some herbicides.

What to skip

• Fertilising couch or kikuyu. A dormant lawn can't take the feed up. The winter grass can, though, and will send a thank-you card. Feed when growth resumes - covered in the spring guide.
• Watering. Melbourne winter rain has it handled, near enough to always.
• Scarifying, heavy aerating, patch repairs. All recovery jobs, and nothing recovers in July. Park them until mid-spring.

The exception: fescue lawns

Tall fescue is a cool-season grass - winter is its growing season, which is why it stays properly green while the couch next door goes to straw. Fescue keeps a fortnightly-ish mowing rhythm all winter and appreciates a light feed in early winter. If your lawn stays green in July and clumps rather than runs, this is probably you; the grass types guide settles it.

Quietly useful winter jobs

Rake leaves off the lawn before they smother patches; keep some traffic off the soggy corners so they don't compact; and use the quiet months to sort the mower - or the mowing. Winter is a good time to set up a regular round: mowers have capacity, every-three-weeks winter service costs less than the growing-season schedule, and come the October flush you're already on someone's round instead of joining the spring scramble with everyone else in the suburb.

Quick answers

Should I mow my lawn in winter?

Yes, but only every three to four weeks, and raise the cut a notch or two. Never mow frosted grass: frozen blades snap instead of cutting and every footprint bruises black. Wait for the frost to melt, usually by mid-morning.

Should I fertilise my lawn in winter?

Not couch, kikuyu or buffalo. A dormant lawn cannot take the feed up, but the winter grass can. Feed when growth resumes in October. Tall fescue is the exception: it grows through winter and takes a light feed in early winter.

How do I stop winter grass?

A pre-emergent in April to May stops Poa annua seeds germinating at all. Once you can see it, it is already seeding: hand-pull what you can, mow with the catcher on so you are not spreading seed, and diarise next April.