The Lawn Work You Might Want To Skip This Fall, But Shouldn’t.

Cool mornings, falling leaves, and lawns covered with morning dew mark the beginning of Fall for us here in Central VA. This wonderful season is the best time to start planning and preparing your lawn and plants to be the best version of themselves come spring.

The same way we need to water our minds with positivity and fertilize our bodies with healthy food is the same way our plant-babies need certain treatments to be their healthiest.

Many new gardeners and hobbyists make the mistake of letting all their hard work fall by the wayside because they don’t do the final things a healthy lawn needs to continue growing strong. If you want your lawn to come back next year full of life and less stressed, here are 3 tips on what not be overlooked during this opportune growing season:

1: Aeration, Fertilization and Over-Seeding

Aerating your yard makes it ripe and ready for the over-seeding and fertilizing process for cool season grasses, it’s akin to working out and then eating healthy.

So, what is aerating?

Aerating is a process landscapers use to put small plugs into the lawn that allows nutrients, air, and water to reach deep into the soil. High traffic areas will benefit greatly from this process and the lawn will recover fully. When done properly and at the right time, your lawn will come back stronger with plenty of new growth.

For cool season grasses, such as tall fescue or Kentucky bluegrass, the time is now (mid/late September) or early spring. For warm season grasses, such as Bermuda or Zoysia grass, the process should be done in late spring or early summer.

2: Mulching

Fall is a great time to mulch your flower beds, as it helps keep the earth warmer for longer while we move into the cooler season. The warmth gives earthworms and microbes an environment to stay active in longer, which keep improving your soil, and earthworms are the mother natures aerators! (See tip 1)

The mulching you do at this time also insulates plant roots, which help protect them from the upcoming frost that Jack brings with the cold weather, funny but so true.

3:To Prune Or Not To Prune

STOP! Don’t go overboard with pruning at this time. Pruning promotes new growth, and during this time of year you don’t want a bunch of new growth on plants that won’t be able to withstand the harsh winters.

Now is the time to get rid of those dead, dangerous or diseased branches and limbs. Hold off on the urge to clean up your garden by cutting back in the fall and save that task for when your plants are deep in dormancy or early spring, when the haircut will promote new growth.

Be sure to not trim spring flowering shrubs until after they bloom, or you risk cutting next year’s flowers off. Plants that flower in the Summer, such as crape myrtle or rose bushes, will benefit from that winter dormant trim we talked about earlier.

Take these three tips with you as you prepare and plan your lawn for next season.

As always, if you ever need help maintaining or planning your fall garden schedule, reach out to us at Clark and Sons. We’ll be happy to help guide or work out a schedule for your outdoor space.