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Fall Lawn Care and Maintenance
Fall is an important season for Lawn care maintenance and
is as important in many respects as is spring. There are a
number of things that should be done in the fall, all to
assist your lawn grasses in preparing for the winter. Fall is
probably also the one season where your lawn will look it's
best! It is one of the only times of the year where growing
conditions for almost any lawn type (and particularly the Cool
Season Grasses) are ideal, the weather is cooling off some so
the grass is not as subject to drought conditions as it is
during the summer, you'll typically get more rainfall and the
cool evenings relieve the grass of heat related stress.
In order to take advantage of these great conditions and to insure that
your lawn is ready for the cold winter there are a number of
steps that you should take. Below is a fall maintenance
program to help you in getting the best possible lawn
possible.
Aerate and Dethatch
For Cool season grasses Aerating
and detatching in the fall is desirable. Both of these
activities are damaging and stressful (although necessary and
ultimately beneficial) and should only be done during periods
of active growth. For the cool season grasses Fall is the
ideal time to aerate and dethatch. For the Warm season grasses
this is best done during late Spring or early Summer.
If you
have a lawn that has heavy traffic, the soil in it is likely
to be heavily compressed. This limits root development and
penetration and also reduces oxygen levels in the soil. Core
aeration will pull plugs of soil from the ground, opening up
the soil and allowing it to expand into the holes left behind.
You can also take advantage of the plugs pulled from the soil
to analyze how much thatch has built up in your lawn. Examine
one of the cores or plugs that is complete, you should have a
pretty good cutaway view and can see how much thatch has built
up. If the thatch is over �" of thickness then you should
dethatch as well. Refer to the section on Aeration and
Dethatching for more information.
Fertilize
Fertilization in
the Fall is as important, if not more so then fertilization in
the Spring. Typical fall fertilizing programs emphasize
Potassium (The third key element in a fertilizer) and nitrogen
to some extent with a minimal amount of phosphorous. A typical
fall fertilizer for cool season grasses may be a 22-3-14. This
is 22% Nitrogen, 3% Phosphorous and 14% Potassium.
The nitrogen and
potassium will help the lawn grasses grow a more extensive
root system as well as develop new stems and shoots. Another
key benefit of fertilizing in the fall is that of building up
a store of carbohydrates, which will help the lawn grass make
it through the winter.
Fall feeding is beneficial to both grass
types, Cools season as well as warm season. Cool season
grasses can be fed twice in the fall, once in early September
and again in mid to late October. Warm Season grasses should
be fed early in the fall, early September being a good time
for this. One of the benefits of feeding during this time
frame is that although a warm weather grass is entering a
period of slow leaf growth, it can dedicate it's resources
(and fertilizer) to growing it's root system and storing
carbohydrates. Please refer to the section on Fertilization
for additional information.
Clean Up
Another important
aspect of fall maintenance is cleaning up the leaves that are
falling off the trees. Leaving the leaves on your lawn for extended
periods of time rob it of the benefit of Sun, air
and water, All essential elements to a healthy turf grass and
a great looking lawn. It's best to remove leaves completely, although for
small quantities mowing it in with a mulching blade should be
ok. Consider composting your leaves to use as an
addendum for your garden or after properly composting for your lawn
itself.
Mowing
Continue to mow your lawn until it enters dormancy
and the grass stops actively growing. No height adjustments
are necessary (there is some controversy as to whether you
should mow lower in preparation for winter). If you are
compelled to mow lower, make it incrementally lower, certainly
no lower then 20% of the height you normally mow to.
Other Fall Lawn Activities
Since
fall is an active growing season it is also an ideal time to
reseed a new lawn or overseed an existing lawn. There are two
types of overseeding that you might do during the fall. The first
is to overseed an existing cool season grass with seed of
the same grass type to fill in bald or thin spots. The second
is to overseed a warm season lawn with a cool season grass
to give it a green look over the winter. Rye Grasses are
often used when overseeding warm weather lawns. Both perennial and annual grasses
are used for overseeding warm season grasses. Annual rye is
preferable since it wont compete with the warm season grass
once winter is over. A perennial rye will continue to grow and
compete with the warm weather grass.
Please refer to the
section on this site for the lawn type that you have for more
information on overseeding and new lawn
information.
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