Salt Spray Sheds
  • Home
    • Delivery Area
    • Selecting the Right Size Shed >
      • How We Match Your Home
      • Ensuring A Successful Installation
    • Why Pick Salt Spray
  • Shed Styles
    • Standard Features
    • Optional Features >
      • Benches
      • Cupola
      • Demolition
      • Doors
      • Door Hardware
      • Flooring
      • Foundation
      • Head Room
      • Lofts
      • Roof Pitch
      • Roof Shingles
      • Siding
      • Window Boxes
      • Windows
  • Gallery
    • Garages, Barns, Cottages
    • Custom Doors
    • Shed Viewing Locations
    • Inside Your Shed
  • Request-A-Quote
  • The Next Steps
    • Payment Options
    • Permits
  • Contact
    • Salt Spray Blog
    • Local Business Referrals
    • Client Contracted Services and Policies

Fall maintenance tips for a lush green lawn next spring

9/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​(BPT) - The days are getting shorter and the nights are cooling off. The kids are back in school. Yes, fall is in the air, and that means it's time to start thinking about prepping your lawn for winter.

"Many homeowners see spring as the most critical season for lawn care," says Bryan Ostlund, executive director of Grass Seed USA, a coalition of American grass seed farmers and turf specialists, "but in reality, at least in the transition and cool zones of the U.S., fall maintenance can have just as much impact - if not more - on the year-round health and appearance of your lawn. Once temperatures are consistently below 60 degrees, your lawn will start storing up nutrients in preparation for winter. That's when you should start your fall lawn care regimen."

Following are three proactive measures you can take in the fall to ensure lush green grass come spring.

Picture
Reseed thin or bare areas. At the end of a long, hot summer with lots of outdoor activity, it's not unusual for lawns to show signs of wear. By reseeding after the summer's heat subsides and before the first winter freeze, you can repair the damage and give your turf an eight- to nine-month jump start on root growth. The longer and stronger the grass's roots are, the less water your lawn will require during drier months and the more resistant it will be to disease and weeds. A thick lawn also helps reduce erosion, which can be particularly important in regions that experience rainy winter weather.

Before you reseed, mow your lawn and remove the clippings, and then prepare the soil by raking with a straight rake. This will remove dead organic matter and loosen up the top half-inch of soil to improve contact with the seed. Then apply a high-quality seed that is appropriate for your local climate conditions and is resistant to currently prevalent pests. Ask your local extension office (see https://nifa.usda.gov/land-grant-colleges-and-universities-partner-website-directory for a directory) for recommendations of blends that have tested well in your area. You'll want to use fresh seed, so check the label to confirm that the seed was tested within the past 12 months. After planting, water the reseeded area lightly and regularly to keep it damp until the new grass is established.

Although new warm-season lawns are best planted in the late spring or early summer, if you live in the warm zone you might consider overseeding your warm-season turf with cool-season grass seed in the fall. The cool-season grass will thrive until the warm-season grass turns green again in the spring, ensuring year-round color.

Aerify. Aerifying your lawn combats soil compaction and thatch buildup and enables water, nutrients and oxygen to reach the grass's roots more easily. You can hire a professional to aerify your turf for you, or you can rent a core aerator that uses hollow tines to pull up small plugs of soil at regular intervals throughout the lawn. If you're reseeding, aerify right before you apply the new seed.

Apply fertilizer. Cool-season grass should be fertilized in the fall - even if your lawn looks perfectly healthy and has no bare patches - to promote good root development, enhance the storage of energy reserves and extend color retention. Most of the benefits of fertilization will be seen the next spring and summer, with earlier green-up, improved turf density, greater tolerance to spring diseases and reduced weeds.

Note that new grass and established lawns need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in different proportions. So if you're reseeding, apply a starter fertilizer at the time of planting and then follow up with a second application, this time using standard fertilizer, four to eight weeks after germination. Your extension office can help you determine which fertilizers are best for your type of grass and local conditions.

Investing a bit of time and effort in fall maintenance will pay off next year, with greener grass earlier in the spring and a thicker, healthier lawn that is ready to stand up to the rigors of summer wear and tear.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Salt Spray Sheds

    Download our free garden shed plans for the sun and shade here

    Picture

      Subscribe to Email Updates

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Archives

    January 2023
    June 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    July 2021
    April 2021
    October 2020
    March 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    Bathroom
    Bathroom Renovation
    Cape Cod Gardening
    Cape Cod Gardens
    Carbon Monoxide
    Chemical Free Backyard
    Clean Eating
    Cleaning
    Clutter
    Co Detector
    Custom Shed Doors
    Delicious
    Disconnecting
    DIY
    Eatclean
    Emergency
    Emergency Preparedness
    Evaporative Cooler
    Fit
    Fixer Upper
    Flooring
    Foodie
    Garden
    Gardening
    Garden Sheds
    Gardens On Cape Cod
    Grass
    Green Lawn
    Healthy Eating
    Healthy Food
    Healthy Lawn
    Healthy Lifestyle
    Healthy Living
    Heating
    Home
    House
    House Maintenance
    Hvac
    Landscaping
    Lawn
    Lighting
    Luscious Lawn
    National Disaster
    Neighbors
    New England
    New England Gardens
    Nutrition
    Organic Lawn
    Organic Lawns
    Organization
    Organizing
    Outdoor Buildings
    Outdoor Living
    Outdoor Rooms
    Outdoors
    Outdoor Spaces
    Plant Based
    Power Outage
    Reducing Clutter
    Renovation
    Repairs
    Roof
    Shed
    Shed Doors
    Sheds
    She Sheds
    Smoke Detectors
    Spring
    Spring Garden
    Spring Gardening
    Springtime
    Springtime Garden
    Staying Warm
    Storage Shed
    Storage Sheds
    Summer Gardening
    Tools
    Tornado
    Trim Branches
    Weeding
    Window Boxes
    Winter
    Workbench
    Workshop

    RSS Feed

Home

standard features

Optional Features

gallery

request-a-quote

 INSTALLATION INFORMATION

© Salt Spray Sheds 1994-2023 · Family Owned and Operated
Building Post and Beam Accessory Buildings,
Year Round, at Your Property

235 Great Western Rd, S. Dennis, MA 02660
​Office Hours M - F
10 am to 2 pm.
​
Phone 508-398-1900
The office is experiencing higher than normal call volume and office appointments, we encourage you to
​
email us for a quote or questions.

(The office will be closed from Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Please leave a message with our service or email us.


*Please note, the office is closed on all federal holidays.

We encourage contacting us via email for quotes ​
Email saltsprayshedsinc@comcast.net 
Copyright © 1994-2022
​Policies Warranty Registration
Salt Spray Sheds Incorporated in South Dennis, MA on Houzz
Photo used under Creative Commons from jeans_Photos
  • Home
    • Delivery Area
    • Selecting the Right Size Shed >
      • How We Match Your Home
      • Ensuring A Successful Installation
    • Why Pick Salt Spray
  • Shed Styles
    • Standard Features
    • Optional Features >
      • Benches
      • Cupola
      • Demolition
      • Doors
      • Door Hardware
      • Flooring
      • Foundation
      • Head Room
      • Lofts
      • Roof Pitch
      • Roof Shingles
      • Siding
      • Window Boxes
      • Windows
  • Gallery
    • Garages, Barns, Cottages
    • Custom Doors
    • Shed Viewing Locations
    • Inside Your Shed
  • Request-A-Quote
  • The Next Steps
    • Payment Options
    • Permits
  • Contact
    • Salt Spray Blog
    • Local Business Referrals
    • Client Contracted Services and Policies