Fall is a crucial time when it comes to lawn care. For lawn pros, fall is the beginning of the lawn care season, and they take the necessary steps to improve the soil quality and lawn during this time.
Fall allows lawns to repair, rebuild, and thicken following the summer stress. During this time, lawns try to expand their root system, with the grassroots going deeper and accessing more soil nutrients. The blade growth also increases, with more food (carbohydrates) being made, with some of the food being stored for use in the spring and summer.
As fall is around the corner, now is the perfect time to think about preparing the lawn for fall and the lawn care activities to be performed in early fall.
Early Fall Lawn Care Tips to Maintain and Boost Your Lawn Health
1. Perform Early Fall Fertilizing
The heaviest fertilization of the year should be done in the early fall. This promotes grass growth and helps the grass by sending out tillers and runners to fill in the thin spots. Early fall fertilizing also enables the grass to generate food that it stores, which helps the grass get through winter and provides the lawn a headstart in the spring.
2. Improve the Soil
Soil compaction and clay can interfere with your lawn’s health even if you are doing everything right for your lawn. A bio-active and porous soil can help the grassroots go deeper and become fuller. When your lawn soil has a better structure, the nutrients from fertilizers as well as the naturally occurring nutrients in the soil, can be accessed more easily by the grass and other plants of your yard.
3. Rake the Leaves
Cleaning up your lawn is one of the most noteworthy fall lawn care tips. Remove fallen leaves as early as possible from your lawn. Avoid waiting until all the leaves fall from the trees to begin raking. If you wait, the leaves will become wet from morning dew and rain and stick together forming an impenetrable mat. If you leave this mat unmoved, it will cause the grass to suffocate and lead to fungal diseases.
4. Aerate your Lawn
Aeration involves perforating the lawn and pulling up plugs of soil. The plugs of soil break down, topdressing the lawn with topsoil. Aeration promotes microbial activity in the lawn which is quite beneficial to your lawn.
Core aeration enables microbes to break down thatch and dead grass into essential nutrients. With aeration, water, air, and nutrients can better reach the grassroots. This lowers thatch, improves drainage, and loosens the soil leading to a healthier and stronger lawn.
5. Overseed your Lawn
Early fall is an excellent time for seeding lawns, making overseeding one of the most important early fall lawn care tips. Overseeding offers various benefits. Besides thickening your lawn, it lets you introduce newer and more insect-, disease-, and heat-resistant types of grass into your lawn.
Let the new grass seeds get established during early fall, which will help the grass thicken more in the spring. From early fall till early October is a great time for seeding thin or bare areas on your lawn.
6. Control Weeds
Weed control is one of the most significant lawn care steps for fall. If you are being troubled by broadleaf weeds such as dandelions in your lawn, fall is a great time to control them. Like most plants, weeds absorb energy in the fall. They take in everything coming their way, including weed control products. To prevent weeds from appearing in the spring, apply herbicide in the fall.
For effective weed control, consider seeking the help of lawn care professionals. Fall lawn care experts at All American Turf Beauty can help you beat the toughest of weeds so that you can have a weed-free lawn in the fall and next spring.
Take the Right Lawn Care Steps for Fall with AATB!
Fall is the ideal time to prepare lawns for next spring. Take advantage of fall’s favorable conditions to benefit your lawn. All American Turf Beauty specializes in early fall and fall lawn maintenance. We can cover all your fall lawn care needs so that your lawn stays healthy through fall and comes out lush and green on the other side of winter. Our comprehensive fall lawn care program aims to provide lawns with much-needed care during the autumn months as well as prepare them to emerge vibrant and verdant in the spring of next year. To know more about our fall lawn service, request a consultation with us today!