Fall is that beautiful time of year when the leaves begin to change, the cool weather starts settling in, and the entire landscape of the world around you is evolving. Fall in New Jersey is a gorgeous time of a year to enjoy the beautiful scenery and the brisk mornings and evenings. Fall can also mean getting those last few precious days or weeks outdoors before a cold winter settles in.
When fall comes around, we typically make the conscious decision to do less work on our yards and lawns. Aside from the occasional clearing of leaves that have fallen on our lawns and driveways, most people decide to peel back their efforts on lawn care, assuming that nature will take over the care of their lawn and the tending to their grass.
What you may be surprised to know is that shirking your lawn care efforts during the fall can be a big mistake. Lawn care experts are saying that it is much better for the health of your lawn and your property to continue caring for your lawn, even during the fall and the cooler months of the year. Today, we are going to discuss four essential fall lawn maintenance tips that you can use to keep your lawn and yard look good throughout the season.
1) Rake the Leaves First
Raking the leaves can sound like a huge endeavor and maybe even a waste of time. What’s the point in making time to rake the leaves that you have now when more leaves are going to fall on your lawn again shortly? Isn’t that just creating more work for yourself to do more raking?
The biggest downside to leaves is that if they are left on your lawn for long enough, they will block the sunlight from your yard, and trap all of the moisture that your grass needs to grow. As harmless and lovely as the leaves may seem, they can spell disaster for your yard. Give these leaves long enough on your grass, and you will come to find that you have a lot of dead patches on your lawn, after the fall is over.
Make sure that you make time to rake your lawn, even after all of the leaves have fallen off of your trees. Even after the trees are bare, fall winds can still whip fallen leaves around your lawn and cause dead patches of grass.
2) Keep Mowing Your Lawn
When we think of mowing our lawns, we imagine being out mowing the grass in the spring or the summer. The spring rains and all of the sunshine in the summer are what cause our grass to grow the fast. Though our lawns may experience the most growth in the warm months of the year, it’s also a great lawn care strategy to keep your grass mowed to the proper length in the fall.
Your grass will keep growing until you get the first hard frost of the winter. Up until that time, you need to make sure that you maintain your grass at between 2.5- 3 inches in height, which is the ideal height to prevent molds from growing on and under your grass during winter. When your lawn is higher than that, it can be prone to developing those molds. When it is shorter than 2.5 inches, this can inhibit the roots of your grass.
3) Keep Watering
Make sure that your lawn is getting enough water in the fall. If it’s not getting at least an inch of water every week, it is going to have trouble maintaining its length, which will make your grass more vulnerable to be damaged or dying.
While you may get more rain and dew on the ground during this season, that doesn’t mean that the roots of your grass are getting enough hydration. Watering your lawn weekly is a great way to make sure that those roots stay productive and hydrated, and make sure that your garden keeps looking vibrant.
4) Pick a Schedule and Stick to It
The way to keep your lawn the healthiest during the fall is setting a schedule that you stick to throughout the entire season. Setting these tips up in the proper order of execution and putting them in your calendar is going to be the best way that you keep your lawn looking healthy through the fall, and setting you up for success year round.
For many people, fall is one of the most hectic times of the year. It can be challenging to keep up with lawn maintenance and other chores that return to the schedule during the fall. Let a professional landscaping service keep up with fall maintenance while you take care of routine business. Keeping up with the yard through the fall ensures it will look its best in the spring.
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