As a homeowner, you probably want your property to look its best. But you can’t just leave your yard alone and hope it “springs” into action each growing season. Though you might have a few nice blooms, you’ll still need to manage your yard even during the fall and winter months.
Contrary to popular belief, lawn care is actually a year-round job. And while many people slack off of caring for their lawn during the fall and winter, this is actually the best time to get your yard primed and ready for the next growing cycle.
When you walk out of your front door in spring, you’ll likely want to be able to enjoy the lush green landscape and any florals you may have planted. But you won’t be able to do this without getting your yard ready for spring.
Here, we’ll explore a few techniques for priming your yard for the next growing cycle.
Mowing and Maintenance
Once the leaves begin to fall, many homeowners stop cutting their lawn. But as mentioned, lawn care is a year-round job. And you’ll want to keep having your grass cut at least until the first or second frost of winter when your grass finally stops growing.
Further, once your grass stops growing, you may be inclined to rake up your leaves and bag them for disposal. However, not all lawn care experts agree with this method.
A few reasons for keeping your leaves on the ground are as follows:
- Helps to fertilize grass, trees, and plants naturally
- Provides shelter and nutrients for animals and insects
- Can reduce emissions from landfills
- Suppresses weed growth
If you don’t like the sight of a yard full of leaves, you can also mow them and turn them into mulch. These smaller leaf particles are more easily broken down by microorganisms and this also provides for a healthy overall fertilizer for your yard during the fall.
Aeration and Seeding
Over the summer, your lawn usually suffers from heat stress and soil compaction. And this can result in dark spots, patches of missing grass, and a range of browning or thinning which will reduce the overall lushness of your lawn. And the best remedy for this is aeration.
Aeration usually includes removing soil plugs from the lawn in order to make room for nutrients to reach down to the roots of your lawn. And when you perform aeration in the fall, this preps your lawn for lush, green growth in the spring and summer months.
When it comes to seeding your lawn, it’s best to be proactive and seed your lawn in the fall months when you can see the dark spots or the patches where grass has thinned. And though it’s best to seed in a manner where you know that the seeds will be able to reach the soil (not lay on top of the grass), you may consider sowing the seeds into the soil by a process known as power seeding.
You’ll want to note that some landscapers differ in their approaches to seeding. And where fall seeding doesn’t produce much initial growth, spring seeding may be too late for a thorough seeding. However, this also depends on your geographic location and the local climate as well.
Maintain a Schedule
As a rule of thumb, just like with home maintenance, you’ll want to be active in your yard year round just to ensure that you’ll be able to spot any maintenance needs as they arise, before it’s too late.
Along with this, you’ll also want to keep a tight schedule in the fall, because if you do any seeding or aeration too late in the fall or in winter, you likely won’t see any of the benefits mentioned here.
Additionally, you’ll also want to keep up with pest control in the fall and winter months. And this is because during the fall and winter months, you’re likely to see more pests such as spiders, roaches, and mice attempting to get into your home. And ensuring that your yard is optimized for pest control can mitigate any problems that you might have to deal with inside the home.
Keeping your property beautiful is a full-time job. And if you want to wow your neighbors and create curb appeal if you ever want to sell or rent your home, maintaining your yard is the best way to meet these goals. Remember, landscaping is a year-round affair. And the more time you spend perfecting it, the better your results will be.
