Maintaining a lush lawn is an ongoing battle. Between watering your grass and flowers, getting rid of weeds, ensuring proper aeration, and protecting everything from inclement weather, lawn care is difficult enough in a single season. The transition from summer to fall only makes it worse, with falling temperatures and decreased sunlight further complicating your efforts to keep your yard beautiful. Faced with such a difficult season, you may feel there is little you can do in the way of fall lawn care.
Fall lawn care may be challenging, but with the right preparations, you can take control of the situation and keep your yard lush, beautiful, and healthy. As a professional lawn maintenance company, Senske Services seeks to empower homeowners, giving you the information you need to protect, preserve, and enhance your yard. Through the following guide, you will not only be able to keep your lawn healthy during the fall, but you will set a strong foundation for growth and beauty throughout the year.
Fall Lawn Care Service
The first step to effective fall lawn care is to understand when to take different precautions. As the season progresses, your lawn’s needs will evolve. You thus need to time your care properly, providing different services in:
Early Fall- At the beginning of the season, you will want to fertilize your lawn. Not only does this help to fill in thin areas of your yard, but it will also allow your grass to produce and store enough food to make it through the winter. Besides fertilization, you should also seed your lawn, aerate it, and take steps to keep insects under control. If you notice any weeds during this time, remove them before they have a chance to go dormant.
Mid Fall- The biggest threat to your lawn during this period is fallen leaves. While decomposing leaves do provide nutrients, they can also harbor diseases, insects, and rodents, all of which threaten both your own health and that of your lawn. You should thus gather up leaves as they fall; if you want to use them for fertilizer, compost them before placing them with your plants.
Late Fall- As winter grows closer, you’ll want to mow your grass one final time. You should also apply fertilizer with high potassium content; this will prepare your grass for harsh winter temperatures.
Senske Services evaluates the unique needs of your yard over the course of the fall. Based on this, we time our services carefully, allowing your grass to adapt to changing conditions.
Fall Weed Control
If you’re fed up with weeds, fall is a time to strike a decisive blow against them. Because there is less sunlight during this season, weeds are absorbing energy from every source that they can. Herbicides will thus have the biggest impact now since weeds will drink them in quickly. Fall applications ensure that there won’t be any weeds left to grow back in the spring.
The best time to spray herbicide in the fall varies based on the product you are using. In general, you should spray it sometime during early or mid fall; after mid fall is too late, as weeds will become dormant then and stop taking in as much from the outside. Look at the manufacturer’s instructions on the label for specific information on when to use an herbicide.
Besides killing weeds that are currently growing, you can take preventative steps so they will have no chance to grow next year. One is to fill in any holes you find in your yard with a mixture of soil and grass seeds. This way, weed seeds, and spores won’t have anywhere to take root. Aerating the soil and providing proper nutrients can also make your grass grow stronger. Senske Services provides each of these weed control services as needed, giving you enduring weed protection.
Fall Lawn Fertilization
Since grass grows more slowly in autumn and winter, applying fertilizer in the fall may seem strange. But there is no better time to fertilize your grass. While the leaves might stop growing as it gets colder, the roots and rhizomes of your grass keep expanding at a rapid rate. The more nutrients they can get, the stronger they will grow, providing a solid foundation for your grass to flourish during the spring. Thus even if you don’t fertilize the rest of the year, you should do so during the fall.
For fall fertilization, use a crank broadcast spreader or a walk-behind drop device; this equipment will allow you to apply fertilizer evenly to every corner of the lawn. While you can use a standard fertilizer at the beginning of fall, switch to one that is high in potassium toward the end. Potassium helps prevent grass blades from drying out or cracking in cold weather. It also allows them to maintain the same color, use water more efficiently, and take advantage of other nutrients, especially nitrogen. Senske offers quality fertilizer products to preserve your lawn throughout the winter. We administer them in abundant quantities, giving your grass the nutrients to not only survive the cold weather but begin growing again in earnest when warmth returns.
Fall Lawn Insect Control
As with weeds, the best time to get the upper hand over grubs is early fall. To prepare for winter hibernation, insects spend the beginning of fall eating as much as they can. If you apply pesticides now, they are more likely to consume it and die before going into hibernation. You can thus cut their populations off early, leaving few left to attack your yard in the spring.
To kill insects, use a pesticide labeled for turf pests. Apply it as instructed on the label and then water your lawn for up to one hour. This will spread it through as much of the soil as possible.
Besides pesticides, you can further the fight against insects by:
- Tilling your plants and removing grubs by hand
- Overseeding the grass so grubs have nowhere to grow
- Watering your yard infrequently but deeply
- Removing thatch that grows thicker than 3/4ths of an inch
The Senske team takes full advantage of all these insect control methods, using them to eliminate the specific pests that threaten your grass.
The Importance of Seasonal Lawn Care
Seasonal lawn care is important because each season provides different opportunities to enhance and protect your lawn. This is particularly clear when it comes to aeration. If you aerate your soil during the early fall, you allow any pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and water you apply to spread all the way down to plants’ roots. Senske provides aeration services that are carefully catered to your lawn’s needs, allowing the grass to stay healthy throughout the winter.
Lawn care isn’t easy, but you don’t have to do it alone. Senske Services offers comprehensive fall lawn maintenance services. For more information or to request a free estimate, call 877-944-4007 or contact us today.