Guest Post: How to Prep Your Lawn for the Fall Season

The ending of summer marks the beginning of fall.  No longer waiting for those hot, humid days to pass by quickly, you are ready to open your windows and welcome the cool air that resonates with fall.

This Sally Court garden has a well-cared for yard space

However, as you prepare your household for the upcoming season, you must not forget to tend to the needs of your home’s exterior too.  You don’t want all the hard work and preparation you did during the summer to be for nothing.  To keep your lawn alive, you need to prepare and protect it from the changing weather conditions.

Here are a few tricks and tips to help you as you prepare your lawn for the fall season:

Fall is the perfect time to take care of your lawn and help it replenish and regrow to its full potential.

• Continue to Water: Don’t be misled to believe that your lawn dies during the fall and winter seasons.  Although it’s not growing at a rapid pace, it is still alive and resting.  You should water your lawn to maintain its moisture.  If you live in a place known for its heavy snowfall, then you aren’t required to water because when the snow melts it becomes the lawn’s water source. If you live in a place where it doesn’t snow, continue to water your lawn but cut back on the frequency.
• Feed It Right: Before it gets too cold for you, make sure you feed your lawn with the proper necessities.  You have a six week window to feed and prep your lawn to protect it from the cold.  A high in nitrogen-based fertilizer will nourish the roots in your lawn and should be applied three weeks into September.  The next fertilizer that will need to be applied to sustain the lawn is high in phosphorus three weeks later, or before the first snowfall.  These two fertilizers are important and essential to the regeneration of your lawn.
• Air It Out: Aerating your lawn is a process that puts small holes into the ground to allow air, water, and nutrients to transcend into the ground and are essential for its survival.  This process also allows you to remove unwanted weeds from manifesting.  This promotes healthy grass roots to thrive underneath the cold temperatures.

Above Ground Maintenance for Your Lawn

Before the cold weather descends, you want to protect your lawn and prep it from root to tip.  Now it’s up to you to keep your lawn’s surface from being destroyed.

• Level It Out: You do not want to keep your lawn too short or too long during the cold seasons to avoid dead sections of grass.  Continue to mow your lawn until you notice that is has stopped growing or has significantly slowed down.
• Removing Debris: If your place of residence is prone to a lot of leaves, then your landscaping chores and duties can’t be neglected.  Your lawn still needs access to sunlight to stay alive.  Remove and rake away any leaves and debris from your lawn to provide equal distribution of sunlight.  By doing this, you are removing any threat of mold or disease that can infect your lawn during the cold seasons.
• Refrain From Mowing: One of the biggest mistakes you can do to destroy your lawn is over mowing it.  Mowing your lawn during the fall season encourages the grass to grow – an encouragement you don’t want as you prep your land for hibernation.

This past spring and summer, your neighborhood was green with envy when they looked at your perfect lawn.  To avoid doing a lot of work for next spring, you are determined to shock your neighbors yet again – you and your yard will not be forgotten.  Follow these helpful tips to blow your neighborhood away by your tedious passion you have for your lawn.  Prepare and protect your lawn from the harsh weather conditions, and be ready to unveil your masterpiece next spring.

Author: Philip Brown considers himself a lawn care enthusiast. Philip now spends his timesharing what he knows with others. When he’s not blogging about lawn management and lawn care, you can find him tending to his own front yard down in Loganville, Georgia. Be sure to check out his blog for more tips and tricks from a lawn care enthusiast.