How To Give Tired Lawns An Autumn Boost?

Autumn is coming and the weather is getting cooler.

Have you got any preparation to take care of your turf?

If not, let our experts share with you some simple and easy guides to give tired lawns an autumn boost. You’ll be surprised about the final results!

Provide Enough Sunlight

Sunlight is one of the three vital elements making a lawn grow healthily (the other two are soil’s nutrients and water). Meanwhile, shorts days during fall mean there is less sunlight for your grass photosynthesis.

To improve this, rake your lawn more frequently to clean off fall leaf fall and debris.

But it doesn’t mean you have to remove every last one from it.

Instead, reuse these dried leaves to mulch your garden or mow them over several times and leave them decomposed over time.

Remember to trim or prune bushes and trees that are overhanging your turf, too.

Fix Bare Patches

Outdoor activities during spring and summer, such as footballs, might leave some bare patches on your lawn. Now, it’s the perfect time to fix them.

You can shift the runners from your lawn edges to these spots, add a few turf rolls, or use lawn seeds.

Whichever the way you choose, always remember to water them properly and not walk on them for at least a couple of weeks until new grasses re-establish themselves.

Water The Lawn Consistently

It’s a myth that lawns don’t require watering in the fall.

To bounce back, turf still needs a good amount of water.

If you stop watering too early, it’s hard for them to enter the winter months in good conditions.

Can’t deny that the fall weather is quite cool, so you don’t have to water the lawn as frequently as during the summer.

Whenever the grass looks discolored and wilted, water it. Make sure that the total amount of water provided to your lawn every week should be 1”, consisting of rainfall.

The best time for watering is in the morning since grasses get the highest opportunities to absorb during the day and avoid any water residue on the ground overnight, which might lead to fungi issues.

If you’re using automated irrigation for your lawn, make sure the sprinklers are wind-resistant or adjust their height to avoid wasted water.

If it’s usually rainy during these fall months, you should adjust your irrigation system's timer to not overwater the lawn.

Frequently Aerate Your Grasses

After summer downpours and heavy traffic, the soil of your lawn might become compacted, which is not good for drainage and microorganism growth.

To give your tired lawn an autumn boost, you should aerate it.

Aeration is literally to leave small holes throughout the soil’s surface, which not only improves the two issues as stated above but also helps grasses absorb the fertilizer, water, and oxygen better.

You can use a garden fork or a lawn coring machine to aerate your lawn. In terms of special spiked shoes, we don’t like them because this method is inefficient.

While walking around the area in these shoes, your body weight will put extra pressure on the soil, making it more compacted instead of creating space for plants to thrive.

Use Fertilizers

Since the soil still holds some warmth from summer, this is the best time for fertilizing it. Your grassroots will grow deeper and healthier to get over harsh winter months.

Slow-release fertilizers are the best choice for a tired lawn.

The best time to fertilize is before the rain to help grasses and soil absorb nutrients more easily.

Follow the weather forecast in your area as well as follow the instructions in the fertilizer’s packaging. Control the quantity added to your lawn.

Before starting, always remove weeds, debris, and stones from the area for maximum effect.

To know which type of fertilizers for your turf, you should test the soil’s pH to know if it is neutralized, too acidic, or too alkaline. If you want to raise the soil’s pH, consult this guide.

Remove Weeds And Pests

Check the lawn for any fungal issues, pest infection, and weeds. Here are some common signs of a lawn with pest problems:

• Holes in the soil, visible insects in the turf
• Wilted grasses
• Bite marks on grass leaves
• Dying or die grass patches
• Brown spots on the grass

If none of them appears on yours, skip this step.

On the contrary, determine the infestation level. Remove weeds, mushrooms, and pests by hand if it is not too extensive.

Otherwise, it’s time to consider the right pesticide or solutions to kill them.

If you have applied some kinds of pesticides and weed-killers during the spring and summer, check if the weeds are dying. And if not, find another treatment.

It is best to check and treat these issues during May because pests and weeds tend to wane after summer.

Reduce Mowing

This is probably for some lawn owners. Since grasses naturally grow more slowly in cooler weather, they require less mowing than usual, around 3 or 4 times per week.

Longer grass leaves also help them absorb more sunlight while allowing them to restore more energy to withstand cold weather during the winter. A tired lawn also means weeds will get more chances to invalid.

Conclusion

By following these simple steps, you’ll see noticeable positive changes on your lawn. That’s all for this article. We hope that you will get a better idea of how to give tired lawns an autumn boost. Thanks for reading!