It’s Halloween which means lots of decorated lawns and houses, costumes for kids and adults, and that wonderful yearly tradition of trick or treating. Many will take the time to admire elaborate displays on neighbors’ lawns when they’re out and about with the kids on Halloween night, but it’s easier to forget that your lawn needs special care in the fall to make sure it is prepared to survive the winter. Luckily, we’ve got some helpful tips.

First, lower the height of your mower. You want your lawn to enter winter without young, tender growth that could make it more vulnerable to winter lawn diseases like snow mold, or that is prone to drying out after the first winter winds come through. Now that we’re in late fall, begin to gradually bring down the cutting height on your mower one or two inches. It’s important to do this in several steps in order to avoid suddenly removing all the green leaf tissue and damaging the turf.

Second, make time for a late fall lawn fertilization. Because the lawn’s top growth has slowed, lawn fertilizing nutrients go straight to the roots to provide a strong start next spring. Essentially, your
turf will convert this fertilizer into food reserves and load up its root system so it’s ready, willing, and able to get a quick and healthy start for growing grass when spring comes back around.

Finally, remove leaves and other debris from your lawn. This is especially important if snow is on the horizon. Leaving debris on your lawn can smother grass and create problems with winter or early spring lawn diseases. And if the soil is not frozen, you can still give your lawn a good aeration. Core aeration in late fall gives plugs plenty of time to melt down and to get thatch decomposing.

A little planning can go a long way, so make sure you take care of your fall lawn care before winter sets in!

From all of us at Spring-Green, we hope you have a safe holiday filled with fun, costumes and candy! Happy Halloween!