In late February and early March, the weather was gorgeous. Temperatures were reaching the mid-60s. Flowers were blooming. Grass began growing. Trees got their leaves back. Upkeep’s phone started ringing.

“Are you guys servicing lawns yet?” several people inquired.

“Not yet,” we said. “Just leaf cleanup and mulch until the end of March at least.”

It pained us to turn away business. Customers new and old thought we were crazy. Spring was clearly here! It was time to get a jump on the yard work! But we had a hunch…

“God gave order to the seasons,” said a meteorologist from LEX18 here in Lexington. “And spring does not arrive until winter has come…and winter has not yet come.”

So we held off. We are so glad we did. Last week, we have had two days with highs in the mid-30s and overnight lows in the teens. Those temperatures are brutal for lawns beginning to green up. When you have consecutive days of sub-freezing temperatures before spring has fully arrived, you will find that everything you tried to do for your lawn was counter-productive.

If you jumped the gun, it may be too late to undo some of the damage your lawn is experiencing now; but for future reference, keep the following rules in mind. They will guide you the next time a warm March afternoon gives you the urge to do some yardwork.

Don’t cut your grass.

Really, neither you nor a lawn service should cut your grass until late March or early April (this goes for Kentucky). If you cut your lawn and freezing weather immediately follows, the moisture in the ground will cause some areas to grow but not others. The result is a patchy, uneven lawn that is off to a bad start before it has had any chance to thrive. The only time you should consider cutting your grass when it’s cold is in the late fall before winter sets in.

Don’t open up the ground.

Ideally you should be aerating in the fall each season. By opening up the ground too soon, you allow for infection and bacteria. You might think you see a patch of frost on the ground, but if you look closer, you’ll find that it’s actually mold and mildew. There is a window of opportunity each spring to aerate successfully–just don’t do it if there is a blizzard right around the corner.

Don’t trim bushes that need pruning.

Remember: things that bloom die in freezing weather. You can’t do anything about that; however, you can avoid nipping extra buds that you will need once the weather rebounds. If you want a flowering bush, resist the temptation to trim. There is one exception: bushes like boxwoods play by different rules. Trimming won’t hurt them one bit.

Don’t apply granular weed control.

If you apply granular weed control before winter is really over, most of it will wash away in the wintry precipitation. Not only will you have to reapply the weed control, you might be overloading the lawn because you’ll have no way of knowing if all of it is actually gone. That’s twice the cost and you might be hurting your lawn. You’re better off waiting until spring has truly come to apply your weed control.

Let your yard go through the whole cycle of the seasons. Will you have to put up with looking at an ugly lawn overgrown in spots while your shorts-wearing neighbor fires up his mower? Yes, but when the groundhog turns out to be right after all and winter makes an unexpected return–as it did this “first week of spring”–you’ll be thankful you waited. Your yard will thank you, too.