Gardening: Check lawn, garden for winter damage

Yippee! The snow is about gone. We can find our gardens again, and this time it looks like it is for good. Our next challenge will be finding out what kind of damage was left in the wake of our record-breaking winter.

One of the first things will be to look for damage from snowplowing. With all the snow, it was hard to tell where the driveway edge ended and the sprinkler lines in the lawn started. As you open up the sprinkler systems, check for damaged heads. Some of them will be pretty obvious when they send geysers skyward. Other breaks and cracks will not be obvious until it gets hot later in the summer, too late for the plants.

Replace obviously broken heads and then turn on the system and watch for heads that have low pressure or wet spots that are the signs of cracked pipes or fittings. Follow the leaks down to the breaks. Continue to watch the system through the summer as not all breaks are going to show up right away. Some fittings or pipes may have been damaged and weakened and will break later under the water pressure.

Did the retreating snow leave a maze of trails and piles of grass trimmings in your lawn? Then the mice were busy under the snow taking the easiest route from one food source or warm spot to another, completely safe from predators. In the process, they chewed through the top of your sod, eating grass blades or hauling off trimmings to line nests. At the least the damage can be simply raked up and the grass allowed to regrow. At worst, it may be necessary to overseed some bare areas.

As shrubs and trees leaf out, watch for random dead branches on ground-hugging plants, particularly junipers. Follow the branch back to its base and look for areas that have been stripped of bark. The mice found the bark a tasty snack sometime over the winter and gnawed it off, killing the branch or even the whole plant. Trim out the damaged branches and then prune up the remaining low branches to reduce the problem next winter and to give the cat room to hunt the area this summer.

Snow mold on lawns is another common problem this year. It will appear as patches of matted grass and crusty-looking gray or pink mold on the surface of the lawn. As the weather warms, it fades away but may leave damaged areas.

Snow mold is more common on lawns that were heavily fertilized with fast-release fertilizer in the fall, were excessively thatched or shaded, are prone to drainage issues and where fall leaves and needles were not raked off the lawns before winter. Heavily damaged areas will need to be reseeded. To reduce reoccurrences, follow good lawn-maintenance practices including the use of slow-release fertilizers, aerating the lawn and proper mowing heights.