Winter is coming and it’s important to prepare your yard and home for the cold months ahead. Taking these steps towards winterizing your home can help assure you’ll get through the frigid season with a nice warm feeling.

Winterize your grass

According to hgtv.com, “Different grasses need different amounts of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn per year. Blue gramma, buffalo, and centipede grasses need up to 2 pounds. Bahia, ryegrass, fine fescue, St. Augustine, and zoysia grasses need 2 to 4 pounds. Bentgrass, Bermuda, Kentucky bluegrass, and tall fescue need 3 to 6 pounds.” After you identify what type of grass you have, calculate the nitrogen you need and start spreading your fertilizer.  Don’t forget to water your yard!

Winterize weeds by eliminating them

You don’t want other grass fighting for the nutrients taken up by weeds in your yard. Try and pull the weeds to before winter time to help protect the plants that matter to you the most.

Winterize your plant beds

According to huffingtonpost.com, “To maintain your flower and vegetable beds in the winter, it’s important to insulate the topsoil by adding mulch, planting a cover crop, or covering the bed with burlap. When possible, repost small plants and bring them indoors to survive. Many bulbs need cold weather in order to bloom in the spring, but tender bulbs like calla lilies may need to overwinter indoors.”

Winterize your HVAC (and possibly save your life)

Because Summertime just passed, most of our thermostats are set to cooler temperatures. But when it starts getting cool out, it’s imperative to switch over to heat to keep your pipes from freezing. Artofmanliness.com says to Bring in an HVAC professional to check your furnace for the following:

• A safety check for carbon monoxide
• Clean and replace air filters
• Check blower operation
• Clean motor and fan
• Inspect gas piping to furnace

Winterize your gutters

Not only is this a good habit to perform regularly, but it can also save you a lot of grief come winter time. Be sure to clean out your gutters in case a snowstorm brings lots of snow and melting water.

Winterize your ceiling fans: reverse their spin

Many don’t know this, but you can actually keep your home warm by reversing your ceiling fans in the winter time. By doing this, the fans will push the warm air back down and help recirculate it throughout the house. This is a great tip to help manage heat in your home on a budget.

Winterize with trees as a windbreak

Planting a row of evergreen trees around your property can help prevent arctic blasts from hitting your home head on and can ultimately help reduce your energy bill up to 30%. But, make sure to plant the trees far enough from your roof and driveway just in case they collect snow over the winter.

Winterize your old, heat-leaking windows

Aside from this being an opportunity to upgrade your home a little bit, replacing old and cracked windows is a great way to help prevent heat from escaping your home. By securing that no cold is coming in and no heat is going out, you can better control your home temperature and energy bill.

Getting ready for a change in seasons and have some work to do? If you’re worried about costs and don’t want to empty your emergency cash stash, a LendingPoint loan may be a great option.

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LendingPoint is a personal loan provider specializing in NearPrime consumers. Typically, NearPrime consumers are people with credit scores in the 600s. If this is you, we’d love to talk to you about how we might be able to help you meet your financial goals. We offer loans from $2,000 to $25,000 with terms from 24 to 48 months, all with fixed payments and simple interest.