When the weather starts to get chilly, it is time to look for lawn care tips for the fall. Taking care of your lawn in the fall is essential to your lawns year round health. With proper fall lawn watering, grass seed planting, fertilizing and mowing, your lawn will shine year round.
How high to mow grass in fall
The first step to a health fall lawn is to know how high to mow grass in fall. During the summer months, the grass should be left longer. Once the cool weather has set back in, you can reduce the cutting height to around 2 – 2 1/2 inches. Any shorter than this, and you will risk killing the grass.
Fall lawn watering
Fall lawn watering is the next component in our lawn care tips for the fall. Normally in the fall, rain fall returns to a decent level. This means that your fall lawn watering needs should be less. Measure the rainfall during the fall months. Make sure that your lawn is getting at least 1 inch of rain a week. If the lawn is not getting at least this much rain a week, supplement with the hose.
Fertilize the lawn in fall
When you fertilize the lawn in fall, you should fertilize once from September to mid-October. After this, the lawn stops taking up nutrients from the soil and prepares for winter. You should fertilize the lawn in fall with a high nitrogen fertilizer. When you fertilize the lawn in fall, your lawn will be better able to survive winter damage and will become greener faster in the spring.
Fall grass seed planting
Fall grass seed planting is an excellent way to fill in the bare spots in your lawn. Typically, fall weather has an ideal about of rain fall and temperatures for grass seed germination. You have two options for fall grass seed planting. You can plant the seeds in September and the grass will germinate and establish this year, or you can plant the seeds after this, and they will stay dormant for the winter and germinate in early spring, when the conditions are ideal as well. The bonus of a late fall grass seed planting is that many of the local birds will have left by then, making the seed less vulnerable to them. Then the winter rain or snow will quickly cover it up until spring.
Allow us to assist you with these lawn care tips for the fall and your lawn will be looking fantastic come next spring!
Tips courtesy of Heather Rhoades