Your Fall Landscape Chore Checklist

The kids are back in school. Summer’s just about over and fall is around the corner.

Life is about to get busier with school activities and a glut of holidays (can you believe that Thanksgiving is less than a month away?).

It’s important to take care of those end-of-the-season landscaping chores that can help protect your plants and keep your outdoor living spaces in top condition for the fall and winter.

There’s plenty to do around the yard when it comes to your garden plants or lawn care.

If you aren’t sure where to begin, don’t worry.

We’ve put together a helpful checklist of some of the fall landscaping chores you should definitely tackle as soon as possible.

Mulch your garden one last time

This is important.

In fact, depending on who you ask, some people think that mulching in autumn is more important than mulching in the spring.

Here’s why:

When it’s cold, moisture and nutrients are at a premium for your plants. Mulching now will protect the roots from the freezing temperatures and will help retain moisture in the wind and cold.

Make sure that when you do mulch your garden for the fall, it’s composted mulch that is full of natural material that will break down over the winter and early next spring, adding nutrients to the soil.

Remove dead landscaping, plants and branches

There are a few reasons you should do this sooner, rather than later:

• Getting rid of it now means you won’t have to look at it throughout the winter
• It removes potential hiding or nesting spots for animals and other critters
• It eliminates potential trip and fall hazards from walkways and front entrances
• It’s much easier to remove deadfall when it’s warm out versus in cold and wet weather

If you’re thinking of pruning in the fall, don’t.

Pruning promotes new growth and is best done when plants are dormant in the winter (so they’ll grow and bloom in the spring).

Protect your delicate plants

There are two easy ways to keep your plants protected from the harsh elements:

• Wrap them up with burlap or plant coverings
• Cover them up with overturned plastic bins or containers

Clear your eaves troughs, garden hoses and ponds or waterfalls

If there’s standing water or debris in your drip systems, decorative water features or in your garden hoses, it’s best to eliminate it now.

Otherwise, any leftover water or waste will freeze as the temperature drops.

And when water freezes, it can crack your ponds, hoses or troughs, which can cause significant damage.

Last minute lawn care chores

Make sure you give your lawn some attention to prepare it for the fall and winter by:

• Aerating your lawn to help rain and water reach the root system, while avoiding standing water and waterlogged areas

• Feeding your grass with fertilizer to make certain its roots stay strong over the winter

• Collecting fallen leaves and composting them so that, in the spring, you’ll have rich soil that can be used for new grass or spring flower planting beds

Need help getting through your list?

All you have to do is contact us at Wright Landscape Services.

We’ll be happy to come on over and provide whatever assistance we can.