A Lawn and Garden To-Do Checklist for Late Fall
Experienced landscaping companies in Chazy, NY are familiar with the importance of year-round yard care and what needs to be done. For instance, landscapers know that late fall is a good time to winterize your lawn and garden. Not only does winterizing clear away unsightly dead foliage from last season’s growth, it also prepares the soil for new plants once the weather warms up. Here are a few things you want crossed off your fall to-do list.
Tend to your lawn
If you usually don’t feed your grass during fall, it’s time to learn the reasons why you should, as fall is the ideal season for improving the health of your lawn for the upcoming year.
Start with an easy task, like removing broadleaf weeds. This reduces the battle for available nutrients and water between wanted grass and unwanted weeds. Another step you might consider this November or December is having a soil test done to check the pH of your soil. A soil test can reveal excessive acidity or that your soil is too alkaline, as well as identify compaction areas. Finally, aerate, reseed and, if applicable, fertilize.
Remove vegetable gardens
Whether or not you plan to plant a fall or winter garden, you should remove all old plant matter—roots, leaves, stems, inedible fruits or vegetables, etc.—and place it in backyard compost bins or the green waste bin. Leaving old plants to decompose in the garden is an invitation to pests and plant disease once the new growing season arrives. Next, you may choose to rototill your garden soil. While fall may seem too early to rototill, many landscaping companies in Chazy, NY agree that doing this step now can make spring gardening tasks much easier.
To protect your topsoil from the ravages of winter, you can either plant a cover crop for large garden beds or apply a thick layer of mulch on smaller beds.
Get leaves under control
Speaking of mulching your garden beds, whole and ground-up leaves can be a free, natural source of mulch. If you want to use fallen leaves in sleeping garden beds, rake them up and drop them on top, then crunch them up a little bit. A super simple way to mulch your lawn is to run over dead leaves with the lawnmower without the grass catcher attached. This will spread the shredded leaves around the grass. Or, attach the grass catcher, mow over leaves, then dump the bag of leaf bits into your winterized garden beds.
Care for trees and shrubs
Fall is the time to winterize small deciduous trees and shrubs. Since deciduous trees drop all their leaves and sleep through winter, unlike evergreens, you won’t miss out visually if you cover them to protect delicate branches from harsh winter weather. Make sure to water all your trees thoroughly in fall, right before the ground freezes.
Of all the professional landscaping companies in Chazy, NY, Rand Hill Lawns, Inc. is the one to call for all your residential or commercial lawn and garden needs. Get in touch with us today for more information!
Categorised in: Landscapers, Landscaping