The leaves are changing colors, and the temperatures are finally dropping after another scorching Atlanta summer. You know what that means: Fall has arrived! Many Atlanta lawns are composed of warm season grasses, but just because your grass will go dormant soon doesn’t mean that your yard work chores are over for the year. If you want to keep your lawn looking great and your neighbors jealous, here’s your list of fall lawn maintenance to-dos.
Fall Lawn Maintenance Tips
Don’t Neglect Your Lawn
It’s easy to fall off on your lawn care routine once the hottest days of summer are over and your grass isn’t alternating between “parched” and “full-on jungle.” However, it’s still important to continue watering and mowing your lawn. Remember to water early in the morning so grass can adequately dry out during the day (preventing the development of fungal infections).
Edging and mowing are still important too, and should be performed in the late evening when the grass is dry and the cool night temperatures won’t cause additional stress. While you’re at it, you should also raise your lawn mower blade. It’s important that the last mow of the season leaves more of the grass blades intact. Leaving the grass a bit longer ensures that your lawn has the nutrients it needs to survive the winter. If you cut your grass too short before the winter dormancy period, it will not come through the winter as well, and may even be in “shock” come spring from the lack of nutrients—a condition that takes time to recover from, and which you don’t want to be dealing with in the spring when your lawn should be at its best!
Give Grass Breathing Room
Your lawn is a living organism, and like all living things, it needs to breathe! Fall is a good time to perform core aeration on your lawn. This process, which removes plugs of soil from the ground, allows more air and water to circulate among the roots. If you have very compacted soil (especially common in lawns that are heavily trafficked due to parking, kids’ playing, or people walking around for social events), aeration will help alleviate the problem.
Aeration isn’t the only important way to help your lawn breathe easy. It’s also important to remove leaves so they don’t smother the grass underneath. You can do this by shredding them and using them as mulch, or bagging them. Just make sure your kids enjoy a traditional leaf pile dive before you get rid of the leaves!
Grow the Good, Banish the Bad
Fall is the time to set your yard up for success in the spring. Late fall is the best time to plant trees or shrubs in Georgia, allowing them some time to “settle in” before the temperature drops too low, and plenty of time to establish root systems and adapt to their new environment before temperatures heat back up in the spring.
It’s also important to prevent the plants you don’t want popping up in your yard by applying a weed-control pre-emergent before the grass goes dormant.
At Redline Landscapes, we’re happy to help you maintain the best landscaping in the neighborhood with our range of residential lawn services. If you’re located in Marietta, Kennesaw, Acworth, Dallas, or elsewhere in Cobb and Cherokee Counties, give us a call for a free estimate!
