Looking for a few simple secrets to bring your lawn back to life this fall – and set the stage for an amazing yard next spring and summer?
After a long spring and summer season, a lawn can some some serious wear and tear by early fall. Bare spots, dry patches and ruts can be quite the eyesore. Unfortunately, leaving your lawn in this state through the winter months is only asking for more trouble.
Lawns that are bare and tattered make it easy for all kinds of weeds to establish in the soil. They also allow the soil to dry out without the protection of thick, lush grass. In addition, falling leaves can pile up and wipe out even more of your grass, leaving it even more exposed.
But here is the good news, fall is the perfect time to repair all of that damage! With cooler temperatures and a long winter resting period ahead, a little TLC now can give your lawn just what it needs to recover and rejuvenate.
Best of all – it will set the stage for it to look amazing come next spring. With a great lawn in mind – here are four simple tasks that can bring your grass back to life this fall!
4 Simple Secrets To Bring Your Lawn Back To Life This Fall
1. Feed Your Lawn
Fall is the perfect time to power up your soil and lawn with a little all-natural fertilizer. Just like gardens and flowerbeds, lawns need to have their power restored after a season of growing.
The good news is that you don’t have to reach for man-made or synthetic fertilizers to do the job. There are actually a whole slew of organic lawn foods now on the market – and they do a great job of safely greening up the grass and recharging the soil underneath. Safer Brand 9335SR Lawn Restore Natural Lawn Fertilizer
For best results, look for a fertilizer with a higher nitrogen content ratio. This will help thicken your lawn and green it up in the process. By applying it in the fall, it can start to work and prepare your lawn for a great start next spring when it comes out of dormancy.
If you really want to go organic – you can also feed your lawn with a 1/4 to 1/2 inch top dressing of compost. It will slowly feed your lawn while it breaks down to help energize the soil.
2. Give Your Lawn Some Air To Bring It Back To Life
If there is one chore that many lawn owners skip – it’s aerating. Unfortunately – it really is one of the most important fall chores of all!
Your lawn has had a long, tough spring and summer. Loads of foot traffic and heavy mowers rolling over it have compacted the soil. And compacted soil means that water and nutrients have trouble breaking through the surface to nourish the root system below.
But you can fix all of that by aerating your lawn in the fall. Fall is the perfect time to open up your lawn to let it breathe and take in nutrients again. Whether with a pull behind aerator, a self-propelled plug aerator, or even turf spikes, opening up the soil is a must to keep a lawn healthy. And it doesn’t have to be expensive. Most local rental shops carry aerators that can make quick work of the job and have your lawn breathing easy again.
3. Overseeding – Thicken Up Your Lawn To Bring It Back To Life!
Once you open that lawn up by aerating, now it’s time to fill in all of those bare spots all around your lawn – and thicken it up everywhere as well. And the best way to do that is by overseeding your entire lawn.
Overseeding is a simple and effective way to thicken your lawn up with new grass. All without having to tear any of your existing lawn up. And not only is it easy to do, fall is the perfect time to do it! The key is to start with a great mixed seed made for overseeding. Affiliate Link: Pennington Contractors Grass Seed Mix Northern Mix 40 lb
Overseeding is basically “planting” new seed into an existing lawn. It can be done easily with a regular lawn spreader, or even by hand by hand by broadcasting out. Begin by mowing your lawn down to a lower level of about 2 inches. Next, spread your seed over the lawn.
The new seed will be protected by the existing grass and have enough time to become established before winter sets in. You can even continue to mow since the seed will be protected by the existing lawn. For major bare spots, seed and cover with straw to help fill in.
By next spring, it will bring your lawn back to life – and it will be ready to take off for a thick, lush lawn all spring and summer. For information on seeding your lawn in the winter months, see our article: How To Winter Seed A Lawn – The Secret To Thick, Lush Grass Next Spring & Summer!
4. Keep Those Leaves Off Your Lawn
One of the biggest mistakes homeowners make with their lawns in the fall is allowing leaves to pile up on top of them. A thick coating of leaves left for long periods on a lawn will cause a lot of damage. And in quick fashion!
Whole leaves that pile up on top of the lawn’s surface rapidly deteriorate healthy grass below. Especially once they become wet and heavy. Healthy turf needs oxygen and light to survive. And a heavy coat of leaves keeps both from reaching the surface of the lawn.
But here’s the good news – that doesn’t mean you have to spend countless hours raking them. Instead, you can easily mow and mulch them regularly into your lawn to help it out.
Mowing and mulching leaves is actually one of the best things you can do to feed your lawn. But the key is to do it often enough to keep the coating of leaves from becoming too thick. To not over-mow your turf, simply set the blade of your mower a bit higher so you are only chopping leaves.
This one simple task can do wonders to feed your lawn and keep it safe from the perils of heavy leaf load!
Here is to bringing life back to your lawn this fall! Happy Gardening – Jim & Mary.
Old World Garden Farms
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
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