Autumn is a beautiful time of the year when leaves turn bright colors and decorate your lawn. Lawn maintenance may be the furthest thing from your mind during the cooler autumn months, but taking good care of your lawn in the months leading up to winter could help your grass get a healthy head start next spring. Here are some important lawn maintenance chores that get your lawn ready for winter.
Mow Until The Grass Stops Growing
Your grass will keep growing until the weather gets too cold, so keep mowing it to keep the grass at the proper height to encourage healthy roots. One benefit of mowing during autumn is you can mow over leaves so you don't have to rake them off of your yard. You can catch leaves in a bag as you mow or just mulch them if you have a mulching mower and let the leaves decompose and nourish your lawn. If you leave a carpet of leaves on the grass instead, the leaves hold moisture and kill off the grass underneath. If you don't mow over leaves, then rake and bag them before winter sets in.
Apply Weed Killer
You may want to apply a weed killer one last time in the fall. Be sure to follow the instructions on the product you choose because there might be a temperature range that's best for applying the herbicide. By applying the weed killer in the fall, you may keep dandelions and other weeds under control next spring while your grass gets off to a healthy start.
Spread Seeds Over Bare Spots
Fall is also a good time to plant seeds so they're ready for next spring. However, the seeds need to contact the soil rather than being spread around on top of the grass. For that reason, you may want to just spread seeds in areas where grass is thin and there is soil that the seeds can reach and grow in. If you use a lawn care service, they can use lawn equipment to inject seeds into the soil and seed your entire lawn for a better chance at a lush lawn next growing season.
Add Fertilizer
You may want to test your soil one last time to see what kind of fertilizer it needs for optimal nutrition for the type of grass you have. The fertilizer you choose will come with instructions on how heavily to apply it. To get consistent application, you may want to use a mechanical spreader or let a lawn care company do it. Fertilizer should be applied after the last time you mow but before the ground freezes.
Share18 October 2019
About a year ago, I realized that part of the reason the plants in my yard kept dying was the fact that they were planted in the wrong places. I didn't pay much attention to which plants needed certain amounts of light, and it was costing them their lives. Several of the plants were really struggling to live, and it was really hard to see. I realized that if I ever wanted to make things right, I would need to create a landscaping plan that would work well for the natural landscape of my yard. This blog is all about understanding landscaping.
