Fall Is Here, Is Your Lawn Prepared?
Summer is a tough time for your lawn. It must endure intense sunlight and heat with little rain to parch its thirsty soil. This is also the time of year it is most likely to get trampled by little feet playing tag. Fall is actually a very important season for your lawn. As the weather cools, you can use this time to help your lawn recover from summer and prepare it for spring before the winter snows put it into hibernation. The work you do during the fall season will play a major role in whether you have a lawn of thick, vibrant green grass come spring, or a sickly lawn filled with embarrassing bald spots.
Here are five major fall lawn treatment tips to prep your lawn before winter:
1. Time to Aerate
Your soil desperately needs oxygen, water, and fertilizer after the intense summer. Use a lawn aerator to punch holes in the soil to let these crucial nutrients in. If you’d rather not rent an aerator and spend one of your precious weekend days aerating, use a professional lawn care company like Nature’s Elite.
Fertilize the Lawn
The winter is a harsh season, so help your grass fill up on good nutrition by putting down fertilizer in the fall. This is actually the most important time to fertilize throughout the year, because the fertilizer your lawn absorbs now will directly affect the quality of the grass that appears in spring.
Address Bald Spots
No one likes bald spots in a lawn, but sometimes they are inevitable, especially if you and your family spent a lot of time on the lawn in summer. Luckily, grass can always take up root and grow again with a little help. In the fall, put down lawn repair mixture in any bald areas or areas that look a little thin. Just make sure to use the same grass seed as your lawn. Most lawns in Idaho tend to be Kentucky bluegrass.
Tackle Those Weeds
It’s better to take on those pesky dandelions now than to wait for them to multiply like crazy in the spring. Like your grass, weeds need to pack in nutrients in fall to prepare for winter, which means they’re taking those resources away from your grass. It’s time to lay down some herbicide and kick those intruders out.
Rake the Leaves
Raking leaves is not the most exciting chore in the world, but it’s important to do it regularly. It might be tempting to just wait until all the leaves have fallen from your trees, but this is oftentimes a mistake. If you have a layer of leaves on your lawn during a rainy day, the leaves will begin to break down and stick to each other covering your lawn in a gummy layer. This layer of leaves not only blocks sunlight and oxygen from your grass, but it can also be a breeding ground for fungal disease.
We realize that not everyone wants to spend an entire weekend pulling weeds, raking leaves, and putting down fertilizers. If you’d rather spend that time watching the big game, spending time with your family, or snuggling up with a mug of hot chocolate and a good book, contact Nature’s Elite Lawn & Landscape.
We provide a specialized fall Seasonal Cleanup Package to help prep your lawn for a successful spring rebirth. If you live in Boise, Eagle, or Meridian, give us a call today at (208) 340-0820.