As the weather turns colder, many people are out taking care of some fall lawn care to prepare their homes and yards for snow.
You might see neighbors winterizing sprinkling systems, raking leaves, and trimming bushes, which can lead you to wonder, “What do I need to do to prepare my lawn for winter?”
Here are some of our top fall lawn care tips.
Fertilize
Fall is an excellent time to fertilize your grass to make sure it grows green and lush in the spring. A good, organic fertilizer is one of the best-kept secrets of lawn care. As long as you get it down before the snow accumulates, your grass will eat it right up.
Put Those Leaves to Work
Generations of leaf rakers have probably led you to believe that raking leaves is a fundamental requirement of homeownership, but you might be surprised to find that raking up and removing leaves might not be the best thing for your lawn. Though excessive layers of thick leaves can be suffocating for the grass, small pieces of leaves strewn about the yard are actually very healthy and can provide much-needed nutrients to the grass.
Instead of discarding the leaves, run a lawnmower without the bag attached over them to break them into smaller pieces and spread them around the yard to act as mulch. In areas where a lot of leaves are piling up, gather up some of them and discard or compost them in order to avoid snow mold diseases or inhibited growth in the spring.
Winterize Sprinkling and Irrigation Systems
The thought of turning on your sprinklers in the spring to find broken and leaky pipes is a scary one. Before the first hard freeze (temperatures drop to 10 degrees Fahrenheit), it’s important to turn off your irrigation water and winterize your sprinkling systems. Read more about how to winterize sprinklers here.
Don’t Cut Your Grass Too Short
Although in the summer months you likely mowed every week, as fall carries on, you can extend the length of time between mowing to 10-14 days and eventually stop mowing altogether. As the weather turns colder, be careful not to cut the grass too short. In Utah’s cool-weather climate, your grass should be about .75” long to stay healthy all winter.
LaytonScape Can Handle All Your Fall Lawn Care Needs
Fall in Utah is a magical and beautiful time, so leave all the worry of lawn care to us so that you can enjoy the football games, cozy sweaters, and pumpkin-flavored foods with your family. LaytonScape can handle the mulching, fertilizing, winterizing sprinklers, and any other landscaping needs you have. We serve Davis, Morgan, Summit, and Weber Counties in Utah. Call us today!
