By DoMyOwn staff
Get your yard in top shape! Here are five essential lawn care tips for a lush, healthy lawn.
Hi I’m Kara with DoMyOwn.com. Fall is the perfect time to give your lawn the care it needs for a strong comeback in spring. So let’s cover some essential lawn care tips to ensure your grass stays healthy through the winter months. Here are five essential lawn care tips.
First, remove leaves. While they're fun to step on and pretty to look at, fallen leaves can promote disease growth in your lawn by trapping moisture and preventing airflow and sunlight from reaching the soil. Rake up leaves as they fall and add them to your compost pile or place them in approved lawn bags for proper removal.
Next, test your soil's nutrients. Fall is the perfect time to perform an at-home soil test. The results will let you know which nutrients your soil is lacking and suggest the right fertilizer to use. Once you know the results of your soil test, applying the proper fertilizer and soil amendments in the fall allows the soil time to absorb the nutrients, preparing it to grow and nurture grass-roots in the spring as they continue to grow through the fall and into winter. You do not want to apply fertilizer if temperatures go below freezing or if your lawn is frozen. If you have warm-season grass, we do not recommend fertilizing with Nitrogen after the early fall months. We suggest using Phosphorus and a Potassium-based fertilizers to feed your lawn instead. If you have cool-season grass, lawns like Kentucky Bluegrass, ryegrass, and fescue, you should apply fertilizer when temperatures start to cool off in September, as they continue to grow through the fall and into the winter. For cool-season lawns, overseeding might be needed. These grasses grow during the Fall and winter, but can be thinner than warm-season turfs, leading to bare spots. By overseeding, you allow new grass seed time to grow and fill in these bare spots, which is gonna improve the overall health and strength of your lawn.
Applying a pre-emergent herbicide is another important step. Pre-emergents prevent weeds from growing above ground. We recommend applying split applications in both fall and spring to extend the coverage. However, do not apply a fall pre-emergent if you plan on overseeding, as it may prevent the new grass seed from germinating.
If your lawn has large bare patches, thinning areas, or looks significantly less dense than desired, overseeding is likely necessary. If winter weeds are the bigger issue in your lawn, you may decide to apply a fall pre-emergent.
Finally, continue to mow and water your lawn until it goes dormant. Even as temperatures drop, your lawn still needs water and regular mowing. Keeping the lawn short helps prevent winter fungi and disease.
For a month-by-month breakdown of lawn maintenance tasks, check out DoMyOwn's Lawn Care Schedules. With these tips, your lawn will be healthy all year long. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and check out our other videos on lawn care and pest control. We’d also love to hear what you’d like to see more of and answer any questions you have in the comments. Thanks for watching!
