All The Things Your Fall Lawn Yard Care Plan Should Include

Now’s the time to decide how you’re going to implement fall lawn care. Fall lawn maintenance will help your lawn stay healthy during the cold season and be ready to perform in spring. By following these best practices, you can ensure your yard is fit for the fall.

Things To Include In Fall Yard Prep

Debris Removal

Any sort of organic material like fallen leaves, twigs, branches, and thatch should be raked up and removed. At Agxact Lawn and Pest, we offer aeration, which will break up the thatch layer for you. We’ll explain this in more detail later. Removing dead or dying organic debris is essential for the health of your yard. When debris covers your lawn or flower beds, it smothers the plants and can lead to disease problems like mold and mildew. Many pests thrive in dark, dank environments as well.

Add Mulch To Garden Beds

Mulch comes in many forms. The most cost-effective is using the leaves from your own backyard. Leaves are valuable sources of nitrogen and carbon which plants need to grow. You could also use compost, which you can make in your yard using a composter, or you can purchase from the hardware store. Mulching not only provides nutrients as it breaks down, but it also helps plants retain moisture – which is very useful during the cold, dry winter. If you’re not sure which type of mulch is the best one for your yard, don’t hesitate to ask your lawn care service technician.

Be Proactive About Weeds

In summer, weed control measures focus on post-emergent products that spot treat any stragglers that slipped past the spring defenses. In fall, you should apply pre-emergent weed control as you would in spring. That way, any lingering seeds will be wiped out before they ever have a chance to germinate. Make sure to use a “selective” weed control product, which means that it will only affect unwanted weeds – leaving your turfgrass, trees, shrubs, and flowers unharmed.

Clear Out Gutter Debris

Clogged gutters are a paradise for mosquitoes and other pests and diseases. Mosquitoes need a source of standing water to lay their eggs. When gutters are full of debris, they will easily meet that requirement. And if the threat of a mosquito infestation wasn’t motivation enough, clogged gutters can actually create structural problems with your home. Excess water can lead to leaky roofs, rotting wood, erosion around your home’s foundation, cracks in the foundation, and basement flooding. It can also pull down the gutters due to the excess weight. This can damage the metal gutters and the fascia board, which is the main board that supports the weight of the gutters at the base of the roof.

Fall Is The Perfect Time To Aerate

Aerating in spring is good too, but fall is unquestionably the perfect time. If you’re not familiar, aeration, also known as core aeration, is a process that breaks up compacted soil and breaks up the thatch layer. Soil becomes compacted over time from things like foot traffic or excess thatch. When soil is compact, it is too hard for the turfgrass roots to expand properly. In addition, the normal flow of air, water, light, and nutrients can’t reach the root zone. Your lawn will slowly smother, and the grass will wither and die off. Aeration solves the problem by removing thousands of small plugs of soil from your yard to loosen up the earth.

An optional service we offer that pairs well with aeration is overseeding. Fall is the perfect time to seed because cool-season grass likes warm days and cool nights. If compacted soil has created thin or bare patches in your lawn, we can overseed right after aerating so your lawn can repair itself before winter.

Don’t Forget Trees And Shrubs

Mulch around the base of trees and shrubs to give them extra moisture. Winter is cold, but it can be just as dry as summer – especially with all that wind. Deep-root injections will deliver nutrients directly into the root system of your larger plants, so they don’t have to compete with turfgrass or other plants. Lastly, consider a dormant oil spray. Also known as horticulture oil, this is a plant-safe substance that will kill any number of pests living on your larger plants. And it doesn’t matter if the bugs are eggs, larvae, or adults. It will also prevent them from returning in the future. To name a few of the common tree pests found in Ohio:

  • Spider mites
  • Aphids
  • Webworms
  • Whiteflies

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