Fall Lawn Care Tips
Fall is generally high maintenance season for cool season grass lawns.
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There are many different commercial brands of cool season grasses such as bluegrass, ryegrass and fescue. Each type of cool season grass is suited to different conditions. For example, ryegrass is better suited than bluegrass for high traffic areas because it puts down better roots. Many lawns, and most of the best kept natural turf athletic fields, use a combination of ryegrass and bluegrass.
When you do your initial survey of the lawn for your fall planning, think in terms of its food, air and water requirements. Many experts advise that your once yearly lawn fertilizing take place soon after the Labor Day holidays. A rule of thumb for figuring your exact date would be the first week after the first good rain of late summer and early fall. Moist soil absorbs nitrogen into the soil more efficiently and you want your soil in top shape if you are planning for further seeding.
If you prefer organic fertilizers please note that they generally have lower levels of nitrogen than their petroleum based manufactured equitant. see Organic vs. Manufactured Fertilizers.
Once you are certain that the fertilizer has dissolved into the soil you might want to consider patching up some bare spots. Often times this is a very easy job requiring nothing more than sprinkling some ryegrass or a ryegrass mixture on top of the bare areas after a nice rain fall. Again, you want the soil moist to help with seed germination.
Reseeding can also be done on a grander scale. If you decide to redo your entire lawn, it is generally recommended that you start by aerating your lawn. see Aeration.
Cool season grasses grow best in fall when mowed at an average height of three inches in early fall. By the end of fall as the winter dormant season for your lawn approaches, you might want to shorten the grass a bit more. As always, different grass mixes might call for different optimal growing heights.
The warm season grasses that grow throughout the southern parts of the United States generally have a spring, summer and fall growing season. There are a couple of different types of warm season grasses, however, no matter which type of warm season grass is on your lawn, fall is typically your final growing season of the year. People with warm season lawns have a few maintenance choices, depending on your the amount of time they want to invest in lawn care.
For example, those who desire to extend the lawn growing season past the average dormancy time in late fall commonly re-seed their lawn with a ryegrass. In these instances, lawn care can also include some type of fertilizing and aerating routines as discussed above. Those who see winter are a low lawn maintenance time, normally can get by with mowing at regular intervals and picking up leaves to insure that clumps do not form and cause bare spots on the lawn during its winter nap.
© 2006. Patricia A. Michaels