Lawn Care for Fall and Winter
November 20th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
Most folks don’t realize that fall is actually the best time to work on your lawn grass to prepare it for winter, spring and summer. When fall comes a lot of people are really tired of cutting their grass and just want to shove the mower in a corner until the spring. This is the wrong attitude. Just a few weeks of work in the fall can get your lawn through winter and into its best shape for the spring season. Here are five lawn care tips for the fall and winter season that’ll put your yard miles ahead of the neighbors come spring.
Fall is prime time for cool season lawn owners to go nuts caring for the lawn. Those of us with warm season lawns are almost ready to pack it in - but there’s still a few things left to do.
Fall and Winter Lawn Care Tip #1: Remove The Leaves And Mow
Don’t leave leaves on the grass until they all fall. You are suffocating your lawn and depriving the grass of needed sunlight, resulting in dead spots. Rake them up at least every two weeks; preferably every week. It’s a great idea to use the mulching option on your mower if you have it. Mulching, or finely shreeding the horde of leaves on the ground along with the cut grass and leaving them on the lawn is a great fertilizer. This lawn care tip for fall and winter can save you hours of raking. Freshly mulched grass clippings contain measurable amounts of the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium needed to feed your lawn.
How you mow is also key to lawn care for fall and winter. A lot of folks will have you believe that you should lower your mower’s blades in the fall when cutting to kill weed seeds. Baloney. Weeds like sunlight to germinate. By mowing more frequently at the proper height you effectively smother and deprive the weed of needed light. For cool season grasses (fescue, bluegrass) which continue growing into spring 2 - 2 1/2 inches is fine. For warm season grasses like bermuda and St. Augustine you may even raise the blade as much as 1/2 inch but not past 2″ for the final fall mowing in late October/early November. Warm season grasses go dormant in fall and winter and will not need mowing until spring.
The general rule is that when mowing any type of grass, mow when the grass is dry and only remove one-third of its height at any time to encourage its health.
Fall and Winter Lawn Care Tip #2: Aerate
Aeration has maximum benefits in areas of your lawn that bear the most activity and traffic. The soil in these areas can become compacted and air can’t get to the grass’s roots. Those roots need oxygen to grow and absorb nutrients and water. Compaction can lead to thin or bare patches in your yard. Basically with aerating you are punching holes in the soil so that water and nutrients can spread all the way down to the roots. Cool season lawns are aerated in the fall, while warm season lawns are best aerated during June and July.
When it comes to aerators there are several options to choose from. Look for aerators, manually operated or mechanized, that remove a small plug or Read the rest of this entry »
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