Fall Lawn Care Tips

Hot & humid starts changing into cool & dry and cold fronts bring rain…not necessarily cold air every time. Here’s some changes that you might or might not be aware of as we roll into full-fledged fall.

My poor windshield wipers have been replaced a couple times this summer as the Florida weather decides to alternate random thunderstorms and extreme heat in direct sunlight. The good news is that’s about to go away. The bad news is that we’ve got to start changing some of our habits that we’ve accrued over the last 3 months. Hot & humid starts changing into cool & dry and cold fronts bring rain…not necessarily cold air every time. Here’s some changes that you might or might not be aware of as we roll into full-fledged fall.

Let Your Lawn Show You What It Needs

In the summer, you could bet your paycheck that your lawn needed to be mowed once a week. I could also take a gander and say that if I shut my irrigation system off for a couple of weeks that I’d be fine. Everything is kind of predictable in the Florida summer. Not so in the fall & winter. Our advice? Be prepared, be ready, and listen to your lawn. If you’re irrigation is broken, now’s a good time to fix it. The key to fall landscape maintenance is to observe and be ready to act. Your grass and shrubs will tell you what it needs.

Reduced Mowing Frequencies

What’s great about cool weather…grass doesn’t grow fast! I know we all want the manicured lawn, but when cool temps settle in, it’s important to give our grass a break. Weekly mowings need to be reduced to bi-weekly at the maximum. When the freezes settle in, keep the mowing schedules to mid-day whenever possible to avoid grass stress. Also, change your mowing patterns if you haven’t already done so to avoid rutting.

Watering & Irrigation

As the rains dissipate you’ll notice an increase in irrigation (depending on early cool temps). Keep an eye on the color of your grass. If it starts to turn different shades of green…time to water. If it looks good, don’t bother it. As the cool temps dip closer to freezing at night, avoid evening and morning irrigation times. When the freezes are an every day/week occurrence, water during the day on an as needed basis. Start wrapping above-ground irrigation in insulation (backflow, valve shut-off, etc.)…it’ll save you lots of trouble in the future.

Ask Questions

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, ask questions if you are not 100% sure what to do. There’s a lot of good, professional landscape companies out there so pick up the phone and call someone.