Fall Lawn Care: How to give your lawn some TLC

It’s been a long hard summer on all of our lawns. Did your lawn suffer from sitting water, cool turning to hot temps in the same day, lots of foot traffic? Every fall it’s important to give your lawn some TLC. We will help you debunk fall lawn care in this blog post. There are few things we recommend you do this fall to renovate your lawn and to ensure your lawn is in tip top shape when spring rolls around next year.

• Core aeration
• Dethatch
• Overseed and fertilze

Give your lawn a breather – Core aerate

Our lawns can get compacted from many sources – kids, pets, vehicles driving off the edge of the drive. To help relieve the compaction, it is a good idea to core aerate the lawn annually. Core aeration is the process of removing small plugs of thatch and soil from the lawn to improve the air exchange in the soil. These plugs should be 2″-3″ in depth. Plugs should be pulled out of the lawn at about every 3″. The plug-removal process is facilitated by watering the lawn the day before, but don’t water to the point of muddying the soil. It allows water and air to get down to the roots when thatch and soil compaction has built up. It’s a good idea to core aerate your lawn annually to keep it healthy.

Clean out the junk – Detatch

Dethatching is another good practice to do on your lawn. Thatch is a build-up of organic matter including dead plant material. It can build up on your lawn and prevent fertilizer and moisture to get to the roots. This can stunt the health and growth of the lawn. Removing this layer of thatch, helps make the lawn thicker, stronger and less susceptible to disease. It increases the levels of water, air and nutrients that can reach the roots and help make the lawn lush and healthy. Dethatching a lawn can be done using a thatching rake or a power rake. Raking can be tedious work, but the results are worth it. After raking, the dead plant material can be swept or raked up into piles to add to a compost bin or lawn bags.

Renew and replenish – Overseed and fertilize

Overseeding and fertilizing your lawn in the fall is a good way to strengthen your lawn’s roots to ensure it will thrive next spring. In our climate, fall seeding is best done mid-August through mid-September. Using a good fall mix of fertilizer will give the grass good growth before a long hard freeze and then focus on root growth until it goes dormant for the season. Applying a topdress of clean topsoil in bare spots will help fill in low areas and provide a good base for new seed. Fall is also a great time to apply fertilizer.  Plants are still putting food and nutrients into reserves and spreading out their root systems before cold weather. If you only fertilize once a year, fall is the best time—just stay away from high nitrogen fertilizers in the fall.

Spending some time on a fall turf renovation now will save you time and trouble in the spring. If you need help with these services and would like our crews to do the dirty work for you, give us a call at 800-955-7926.