After a summer of heat and humidity, now it’s time for your lawn to prepare for vacation. Fall is an important transitional time for lawn maintenance. What you do now can mean the difference between a lush or weedy lawn in the spring. Follow these fall lawn care tips to help your yard stay healthy.

Fall Lawn Care Tips

Even though it’s fall, it’s never too early to start thinking about spring, especially when it comes to lawn maintenance. Like the spring, fall has the cool temps and occasional rain that grass and plants live for. This makes it an ideal time to prep your yard for surviving the winter and thriving next growing season. Here’s how.

1. Mowing. Your grass may have gone dormant over the summer, meaning you didn’t have to mow as much. However, now it’s working to absorb as much moisture and nutrients as possible to prepare for another dormant winter. Keep the grass at its ideal height and gradually shorten it as it gets closer to the first frost.
2. Clean-up. Leaves and other debris can easily take over your lawn. Clear any broken branches and mow or rake the leaves to allow grass to bounce back and prevent disease.
3. Aerate. All that summer backyard action could have compacted the soil, which means not enough resources are reaching the grass roots. Break it up to allow for air, water, and fertilizer to flow freely.
4. Fertilize. Fall fertilizer just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Grass roots are still growing even if the blades are slowing down. Fertilizing now helps deliver essential nutrients for these deep roots to reserve for a healthy start to spring.
5. Patch. Fill in any dead or bare areas of grass with seed. Remove thatch or dry grass, scratch up the soil, add seed, and water thoroughly until you see new blades appear.
6. Weeding. Even though weeds may die once the weather turns cold, it doesn’t mean certain broadleaf weeds won’t come back next year. Now’s the time to help prevent this from happening by applying a specialized herbicide while the weather is still warm enough for it to take effect.

Professional Lawn Care

Since fall is one of the essential seasons for lawn maintenance, it may be a good idea to enlist the help of a lawn care company to check off all the important tasks. While it’s possible to aerate, fertilize, and mow yourself, a pro has the equipment and know-how to get the job done efficiently and effectively. Plus, you can put a plan in place to get ready for growing season in the spring. Contact Cardinal Lawns to get your lawn ready so you can enjoy the season and your yard can become a haven instead of a hassle.