Maintaining a home’s yard and garden can be a time-consuming endeavor. We’ve noticed this to be the case for every house we’ve lived in. We appreciate all the praise we get for our well-kept yard, but many don’t realize the amount of time and money involved. Through trial and error, we’ve identified some helpful strategies to make the work easier and more affordable, particularly with vital activities we enact in autumn to make spring maintenance less strenuous. We’d like to share our top autumn lawn care tricks to potentially assist you save time and money next spring.
LAWN CARE:
For our yard, the lawn plays a significant role in the autumn maintenance routine, because it constitutes most of our overall yard area. During peak seasons, it demands a lot of attention—a task I am not particularly fond of. However, we have gathered a few tips that help our lawn recover nicely in spring with minimal labor required during autumn.
MOWING:
Our first key tip is to continue mowing the lawn until the first frost arrives, ideally stopping a couple of weeks earlier. We typically keep our grass shorter than the recommended 2 1/2″ – 3″ height because of the heavy rainfall in our locale. This allows us to mow every two weeks instead of weekly—a routine which I thoroughly enjoy!
While we no longer use a gas lawnmower, mowing still incurs costs. We transitioned to a battery-powered Greenworks lawnmower and love it. However, we need to charge its 60-volt battery before each mow, and that electricity doesn’t come free!
A well-cut lawn should be at an optimal height by the time the first frost arrives. This ensures that your grass grows back uniformly as soon as spring arrives, without patchy areas. If your lawn is too long, it risk developing mold and fungi. Conversely, if it’s too short, the root system could suffer damage.
Continuous mowing can also help handle another issue—fallen leaves—that can severely damage your lawn. Autumn leaves can potentially kill the grass underneath them if not removed prior to winter.
LEAVES:
This leads us to our next significant autumn lawn maintenance tip: clear away the leaves that fall in your yard by raking, blowing, or mulching them. We typically blow our leaves daily due to our pool’s proximity. Any remaining leaves on the lawn get mulched during our mowing routine. The mulched leaves subsequently create nutrient-rich soil that helps grass grow; this means a faster, greener spring revival for your lawn. Fantastic!
PROPER COVERING:
Your lawn also requires proper covering, especially in certain parts. This trick, which we learned just a year ago, has proven invaluable. With frequent visitors from multiple dogs, our yard risks getting disrupted in the autumn. Therefore, if:
1. You own pets
2. You host pets
3. You have areas in your yard prone to erosion,
Strategically placed hay bales might be your answer. Distribute hay over any areas showing signs of dying grass. This offers protective layering against further damage whilst safeguarding the roots for resurgence next year. If you’re sowing grass seeds this autumn, cover those areas with hay to keep birds from eating the seeds and allow the seeds to take root fully.
Analogously, to avoid weed resurgence around your flower beds or young trees, use pine straw. Apply pine straw around cleaned beds and tree bases to enhance hydration and prevent weeds from cropping up in spring.
TRIMMING TREES AND BUSHES:
Maintaining trees and bushes can be quite a chore, particularly for those living in green areas like us, where trees and shrubbery grow abundantly. Thus, we recommend trimming back your trees and bushes in the fall to reduce the workload come spring. Trimming them now will allow them to sprout beautifully in spring with minimal maintenance needed until late in the season.
Interestingly, the trimmed limbs find great use in our fire pit for roasting marshmallows or hot dogs – an excellent way to save money by using what’s already available instead of buying logs!
FALL YARD MAINTENANCE TIPS SUMMARY:
In conclusion, there are multiple beneficial activities to undertake during autumn in preparation for spring. Implementing some of these suggestions can save a considerable amount of time and money next year.
Ensure your lawn is correctly cut to between 2 1/2″ – 3″ when the first frost appears. Rake or mulch your leaves during your mowing routine. Cover vulnerable grass sections with hay. Spread pine straw in places where you want to inhibit weed growth. Finally, trim all your trees and bushes.
Even undertaking just one or two of these autumn yard maintenance tricks will help you start the subsequent spring with an advantage.
Do you have any personal favorite fall yard maintenance tips that have proven effective in saving you time or money for spring?
