Autumn Lawn Care

Caring for your lawn during the fall season as opposed to the spring and summer months differs mostly because of the climate change. The area in which you live will determine how you care for your lawn in the fall, and the tips below will help you keep it simple.

Watering Your Lawn in the Fall:

The MOST important thing to do to keep your lawn healthy is to make sure that you are using proper watering techniques. However, depending on the climate of where your live, your lawn will most likely not need as much water in autumn as it would during the spring and summer seasons. In fact, too much water during the fall months can actually harm your lawn more than help it. If you saturate your lawn’s root system with too much water it could actually damage your lawn.

Tips For Autumn Watering:

• During the fall season, water twice a week at 4 am with each zone set at about 20 minutes.
• If you are hand watering try to water as early in the morning as you can for the same time stated above.
• If you live in an area that consistently gets snow over the winter seasons then you can stop watering around the end of September or October because at that time your lawn is going into dormancy. If you live in a more humid climate that gets sun year around then simply curb your watering to once or twice a week for 20 minutes a zone.

Lawn Mowing:

There are a few different lawn mowers to choose from, but regardless of what type of lawn mower you own or plan on buying there is one thing that you always need to remember – keep your mower blade sharp.

A mower blade should be sharpened at least twice every year. If you have a dull mower blade then what will happen is the mower will not CLEANLY CUT your grass, but actually PULL at the top of the grass blade. This will leave a serrated edge. This can sometimes cause a browning at the tip and in some extreme cases, depending on the climate of your area and other factors, can cause some types of lawn diseases.

It is vitally important to keep your mower blade sharp during the fall season because of the commonly humid and moist temperatures that can occur.

Need Help With Your Lawn?

If your lawn is continuously cool and damp and you mow with a dull mower blade it can exacerbate the issues even more because the moisture that is already in the lawn can spread a possible disease in one small part in the lawn to other parts. Essentially the dull blade will be wiping the disease onto grass blades as it PULLS at the grass instead of CLEANLY CUTTING it with a sharp blade and not spreading disease.

Tips on Lawn Mowers and Lawn Mowing:

• A brand new lawn mower does not mean that the blade is as sharp as it could be. When you purchase a new lawn mower ask for the place you bought it from to sharpen the blade first before you take it home.
• Many people think that they need to purchase a new lawn mower when all that is needed is a new mower blade. This option is drastically less than purchasing a brand new mower.
• ALWAYS mow at the second to highest setting on your lawn mower. You want your grass to be at least 2.5 to 3 inches long to retain moisture.
• The most cost-effective lawn mower to purchase is a two-wheel hand push electric mower. This will save you money since most four-wheel lawn mowers (electric or gas powered) and riding lawn mowers will range from $200 – $2500. A CEL two-wheel hand push electric mower runs purely on electricity and will range from $100 – $150. It will commonly be found at your local big branch home improvement stores.

Weed Control and Fertilization:

Nobody likes weeds, they are the silent pest of the plant world. Getting rid of them can be frustrating during the fall season when they have been growing all year, but it is possible.

Also, while watering is absolutely necessary to keep your lawn healthy, fertilization is required if you want to strengthen your lawn. If you have a particularly thin lawn or just want to ensure its strength for over the winter season then the grass will need to be fed. This is done by fertilizing consistently.

Tips on Autumn Fertilization:

• Focus on fertilization during the fall season, especially if you are living in an area that consistently gets snow over the winter season. It is important that your lawn gets food just as it is going into dormancy.
• Round Up is a great product to use for weed control, but MAKE SURE you check the label to specify that you can use it on your lawn. Some Round Up products are to use on non-lawn areas only and will kill your grass.
• Ortho products are also effective with the only difference between being the two products being price. They can range from $25-$40 and can be found at your local home improvement store.
• RichLawn, MiracleGro and Scott’s Turf Builder are all good fertilizers to use. They are granular fertilizers which means that they are not liquid. IT IS NOT recommended to use a liquid fertilizer on your own, consult a professional company to apply liquid fertilizer. You will need a fertilizer spreader (price from $20 – $40) to spread it and the products range from $15 – $35 at your local home improvement store.

If you have the funds and really want great results quickly then consider hiring a company to do the weed control and fertilization for you. A company like TruGreen will construct a program of about $45 for each visit and commonly come out to treat your lawn every five to six weeks depending on your area. Each visit will give you both fertilization and weed control and the company states that it will guarantee the service. This will benefit those who do not know much about lawn care and will commonly spend more money trying to fix mistakes.