Fall is the best time to prepare your lawn for the next Spring, and though you’ve probably lost your excitement for yard work by this time of year, fear not! The fall planting season is the best time of year! Now is when you get to explore, and impact how your lawn will look in the Spring.
Not only can you do more to prepare the grass for Spring, you can plant flower bulbs. The bulbs will be in the ground through the winter, and will be ready to grow once the winter months come to an end. During the winter the grass will be focusing on rooting into the ground, which allows you to focus more on the density of the grass to help give you a fuller lawn for you to enjoy later.
Raking the leaves on your yard is an important thing to do in the fall. While the accumulation of dead leaves on your lawn can matte down your grass, the freezing and thawing during the fall and winter can cause leaves and dead plants to release soluble forms of phosphates and nitrates. These chemicals can end up in surface water. So when raking your yard, be sure to keep these dead leaves and plants off sidewalks and driveways as well.
If raking isn’t something you’re keen on doing, making a few passes over your leaf-covered lawn with the lawn mower can help to turn these dead leaves and plants into a mulch, which can be used during the winter months around rose bushes and other plants you use to landscape your yard. Chopping up the leaves on your lawn also means if some is left behind, it can’t collect water, and it still provides your yard with much needed nutrients.