When it comes to lawn care, many people believe they only need to add fertilizer, water, and mow the lawn during the high growth seasons like the spring and summer. This is, after all, when your lawn is fully on display to everyone who even walks by your home.
If someone does engage in a little bit of lawn care in the fall, it is likely just to rake the leaves, though many still choose to leave them littered across their lawn, often a result of working hard all summer and just needing a break.
However, it is actually essential to care for your lawn throughout the fall. In fact, fall is the best time for lawn care! Wondering why that’s the case? Here are the major reasons:
Absorbs Benefits For The Winter
Your lawn actually does grow and prepare for growth quite a bit throughout the fall and winter months. In the fall, your lawn works to absorb as much moisture, energy, and nutrients as it possibly can, since things do become dormant in the winter and it still needs to not only survive, but thrive. Doing what you can to care for your lawn through the fall ensures it absorbs as many of these beneficial things as possible, which means your lawn is in the best position for future growth come springtime.
Fertilizing For Spring Growth
Speaking of growth for the springtime, fertilizing your lawn in the fall is the most important and effective thing you can do to make sure you have lush, green grass when the snow melts away in the spring. The numbers on every bag of fertilizer indicate the percentage of the three nutrients needed for healthy growth, according to weight. They always appear in the same order by law, which is N-P-K, standing for nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium.
Put your best foot forward and try a winterizing fertilizer with high K, as potassium is the key to your lawn surviving the cold winter. Fertilizers with high N make it harder on your grass during the winter as it results in top-heavy growth and weakens the roots, when what you truly need are strong roots to survive the cold winter. One such fertilizer to keep your lawn at its best throughout the fall and winter is the PRO-MIX Fall & Winter Lawn Fertilizer 10-0-32, which uses MYCOACTIVE technology to help grow strong roots and improve the lawn’s tolerance to stress. It also uses peat moss to introduce organic matter back into the soil, making it even healthier for growth.
Higher Weed Control
If you pay attention to your lawn in even the slightest way, chances are you experience frustration when you see weeds scattered throughout the grass. How does it happen? How do you get rid of weeds? The best time to really fight back against the weeds is during the fall. Why? Much like the rest of your lawn, weeds are absorbing as much energy as possible in the fall. This means they will be back in full force come spring.
You can help combat this by applying a weed killer like Wilson WeedOut Ultra on your lawn or other herbicide on your lawn. Since the weeds are absorbing just about everything they can get access to, this includes the weed killer. You may still encounter some weeds come spring, but you will have much more control if you prepare during the fall.
Overseeding
Does your lawn have thin or bare areas? Do you often have an issue with weeds or insects when spring rolls around? This makes fall the perfect time for overseeding. Overseeding your lawn in the fall means taking advantage of the ideal seed germination conditions (cool nights and milder, shorter days). We know everything in your lawn is trying to absorb everything it possibly can, including moisture. The seeds are better able to retain this moisture during the fall months. A perfect grass seed to use during the fall is the PRO-MIX All Condition Grass Seed, which establishes well in cool or drought conditions, and will even germinate faster at low temperatures like 4 degrees Celsius.
Raking For A Lush Lawn
The colourful leaves on your lawn make for good pictures, there is no doubt about it. However, layers of leaves on your lawn can actually smother the grass and result in dead patches when spring rolls around. Instead of facing this possibility, we recommend raking away the leaves. In addition to preventing those dead patches in the spring, raking the leaves also makes your lawn look much neater immediately. Once you rake the leaves, you can use them as compost, or create mulch for your garden during the spring.
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