The awe and joy in viewing or spending time in a beautiful landscape improves our mood. We become calmer and more balanced and want to spend more time outside. We crave to beautify our landscape with fall plants and all-season plants that last through the harsh winter. Summer is ending and the fall season is fast approaching. How can you prepare your landscape for the fall season? Fall or Autumn is a great time for flowers and plants as its cool temperature with increased moisture makes for a healthy root system for new plants and lush lawns.
Get Started – Know Your Landscape Soil Type and pH Levels.
Getting your soil tested for its pH levels and identifying your landscape soil type is the best place to start in preparing your landscape for the fall season. Knowing your landscape soil type and its benefits and shortcomings will assist you in identifying the right plants, how much, and how often to water your landscape. Identifying your soil pH level will aid you in avoiding planting pH-sensitive plants that will not thrive in your landscape. How often should you get your landscape soil tested? The recommendation is to have your soil pH levels tested every 2 to 3 years for sandy soil and 3 to 4 years for clay soils.
Improve Your Landscape Soil Structure
Fall is the best time to adjust the soil structure of your landscape. The results from the soil test will inform you whether your soil requires more nutrients or organic matter. No matter what soil type your landscape has, adding compost will make for healthier plant life as it allows the soil to drain better and promotes the plants’ roots to grow. We at Keleny Top Soil can provide you with shredded topsoil to put in your new lawn or top-dress your existing landscape to enhance your soil for better plant growth.
Add fertilizer to your landscape soil 6 to 8 weeks before the first fall frost in your area, anywhere from September through early November. Adding the fertilizer in this period will allow the soil to absorb all the nutrients it requires and assist the plant roots store nutrients for the winter.
De-Weed Your Landscape
Treat annual and perennial weeds with a weed killer that combines a pre- and post-emergent herbicide. The post-emergent herbicide kills the already grown weed at the root as the pre herbicide kills the weeds that have yet to sprout.
Mulch Dead Landscape Leaves
It is not necessary to remove leaves before you mow your landscape. A mulch mower shreds leaves into tiny flakes that create a nutritional mulch for the fall grass and decomposes into an all-natural fertilizer.
Overseed Your Landscape
Over time your landscape can begin to dry out, thin out, and have dead spots in certain areas. Overseeding your landscape early in the fall promotes its health back to lush, green, and thick landscape grass. Fall is the best time to overseed your lawn. The soil is warm, the temperature is suitably cool, and new grass has fewer weeds to compete with for much-needed nutrients.
Trust a Worm to Know Good Dirt
Contact the professionals at Keleny Top Soil for help with your landscape – 608-833-4835.