Many of us may be celebrating the cooler season as temperatures lower. But while you’re celebrating, now is not the time to be lax when it comes to yard care. What you do in the fall can impact the health of your lawn and trees over winter and into the spring. By following these guidelines, you should expect to see a greener, healthier yard in the future.
What Fall Yard Care Should Look Like
Address Thinning Or Patchy Grass
Whether from drought, extreme heat, disease, or foot traffic, there are many reasons why our lawns might have thinning grass or even bare patches. You can easily correct this problem with an overseeding application. It’s a very common lawn service we perform at Ashton Walden, and spring and fall are both ideal times to have it done. The days are still warm but not scorching, and the nights are cool but not yet freezing.
Give Your Lawn, Trees, and Shrubs Food For Winter
Fall is the time when turfgrass, trees, and shrubs will focus on storing nutrients for winter and strengthening their root system. By giving them fertilizer now, you’ll make sure their coffers are full for the long winter. For your lawn, now’s the time to apply a slow-release granular fertilizer. This will dissolve slowly over time, without running the risk of burning out the turfgrass. Fast-release fertilizers can sometimes do this. For your trees, shrubs, and larger ornamental plants, consider having a deep-root injection performed. This process delivers targeted nutrients directly to the tree’s root zone, ensuring that only the tree or shrub gets the food. If you distribute fertilizer around the tree’s base, on the soil’s surface, any nearby plants like turfgrass could compete with the tree. By injecting the fertilizer directly into the root zone, you avoid this problem. Your lawn care service technician actually uses a tool that resembles a syringe you might find in a doctor’s office.
Keep Pests Away
Another key thing you can do for your trees and shrubs in the fall is to have a dormant oil application sprayed. Also known as horticulture oil, these liquid products will coat your plants with chemicals that will not harm them whatsoever. But the same cannot be said for bugs. Dormant oil will eradicate all manner of insects – be they eggs, larvae, or adults – on your plants. This spray will last throughout the winter and prevent any new bugs from seeking shelter or eating your plants before winter.
Clean Up Dead Organic Material
If you leave larger pieces of detritus – like branches, twigs, or dead plants – on your lawn, they can create problems down the road. Pests, molds, mildews, and fungus all need shade and moisture to thrive, and when there are things branches, dead grass, or leaves on your lawn, they’ll hone in. Something that often gets overlooked during fall yard clean-ups is thatch. Thatch is the layer of dead grass in your lawn. Right now, in autumn, it will be the thickest it’s been all year. After the droughts and scorching heat of summer, and all the mowings, your lawn is probably full of the straw-like substance. Having some thatch in your lawn is beneficial because it can help trap much-needed moisture. But as stated previously, too much can smother the grass, resulting in those bald patches, and it can act as a shelter for pests.
Apply Pre-Emergent Weed Control To Your Lawn
Even though many broadleaf weeds are winding down for the year, you can beat them to the punch by applying weed killer on your lawn now. Be sure to look for products that are “selective,” meaning they are only going to target the weeds you don’t want – leaving your turfgrass intact. Pre-emergent products are specifically designed to target weeds before they’ve had a chance to sprout. So by applying it now, you can get behind the wave of weeds that sprout in spring.
Our Yard Care Services
If the idea of shopping for lawn and tree care products, doing research, and applying them all feels intimidating, don’t worry. You can leave it to the experts at Ashton Walden. For over 20 years, we’ve helped thousands of Texans prepare their yard for the cold weather.
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