Did you know that autumn is the best time for taking care of your lawn and flowerbeds?
Since the days are shorter, nights are cooler, and the soil holds moisture in longer, you’ll find that lawn and flowerbed cleanups go faster for you. In the fall, you’re doing a combination of cleanup and preparing for spring.
Fall Lawn Care Tips
If you have cool season grasses on your property, you have some time to take care of your lawn. Here are five fall lawn care tips to help get you started:
- Keep on mowing: If you have cool season grasses, you should cut your grass until it stops growing when the ground freezes. Make sure you take off 2” on your last mow so that the grass won’t fall over itself under the snow.
- Mulch those leaves: If you want to give your lawn an extra boost of nitrogen, turn on the mulching part of your mower to chop leaves into fine bits. Keep mulching your leaves until the trees are bare.
A lawn sweeper makes short work of gathering leaves off your lawn. Your back will also thank you when you use a lawn sweeper instead of a rake.
- Core aeration and overseeding: If you live in the northern part of the U.S., fall is the perfect time to core aerate and overseed your lawn. You’ll need a plug or spike aerator.
After you finish aerating, you want to overseed your lawn. Since you’re dealing with cool season grasses, here’s a brief guide:
- Northern U.S. and Canada – Cool season grasses
- Middle (temperate) part of the U.S. – Plant cool season grasses, like tall fescue or a fescue blend, in shady areas and annual ryegrass in sunny areas.
Use a lawn roller for grass seed to make better contact with the soil. Closer seed to soil contact encourages more seedlings to germinate and spurs on root development deep underground.
- Dethatch your lawn: Ideally, your yard should only contain up to a half-inch of thatch—the dead part of the grass layer.
If you cut out a square inch of grass and soil, you’ll notice the tan layer in between them—that’s thatch. Your yard won’t be healthy if you allow more than a half-inch of thatch to grow on it.
Instead, you need a dethatching lawn attachment that will “comb” through your lawn, loosening up excess thatch. Dethatching your grass allows light, oxygen, and water to penetrate the soil level.
- Fertilize your lawn: Fall is the best time to fertilize your yard—especially if you’re only going to add nutrients once a year. Nitrogen and potassium help strengthen the grass plant. Potassium also helps harden plant cells to prevent grass cells from bursting during a freeze/thaw period.
Learn more: Fall is the perfect time to check your property’s soil
And fall fertilizer provides your lawn grass with faster green-up and a deep root growth when spring rolls around again.
How to Clean Out Flowerbeds
After a hot summer, the flowers in your beds look tired and wilted. It’s time to clean up your landscape beds before winter. Here are some fall flower cleanup tips:
- Pull out all annuals and replace them with seasonal fall colors, such as chrysanthemums, asters, marigolds, and ornamental cabbage.
- Pull weeds so that you’ll have fewer weeds come spring.
- Freshen up the mulch. Raking the mulch helps restore the fresh look. Add more mulch if needed. Don’t put more than 2” of mulch down in one flowerbed because the heavy mulch will invite bugs and hold in too much moisture leading to root rot.
Watch more: Brinly STS-42BHDK Lawn Sweeper with Dethatcher
- Rake out any leaves. Too many leaves invite critters to make nests and tunnel underground to gnaw on your trees and other ornamentals.
- Plant spring color: Now’s the time to get crocus, snowdrop, daffodil, tulip, and other bulbs into the ground. These early spring bloomers will bring joy to you as the first colors of the season.
Fall is also a great time to plant young trees and shrubs for next year. Woody ornamentals grow deeper roots when planted in the fall before the ground freezes.
Tow behind carts help you take mulch, weed control, and flower bulbs to your flowerbeds. Likewise, you can fill your cart with garden debris for your compost bin or a contained fire.
Why You Need Brinly’s Lawn Care and Garden Attachments
Since 1839, Brinly-Hardy Company has been dedicated to providing quality durability and innovative lawn and garden tools made here in the USA.
You can find Brinly products online. If you can’t find any Brinly-Hardy attachments near you, contact our customer service at 877-728-8224 or by filling out our contact form.
