Get Your Lawn Ready For Fall

By Bartosz Bąk

The cooler weather of approaching fall makes it a great time to improve the appearance of your Atlanta, GA lawn. You’ll find it’s one of the best times of year to fertilize, control weeds, seed and carry out core aeration on lawns, particularly tall fescue. If your grass is looking a little wilted after summer or moss and thatch is becoming a problem on the lawn, then a major fall rescue operation should be put in place to ensure it recovers before next summer’s warm weather arrives.

Fall Treatments for Your Georgia Lawn

Some of the principal lawn treatments to consider this fall are:

• Seeding – If your tall fescue lawn is patchy and bare in places then seeding should be one of the first jobs you carry out this fall. Sow seed onto prepared ground to a depth of up to 1/2 inch, you should use around five pounds of seed to every 1,000 square feet of soil for over-seeding and you should expect germination within 14 days. Fall is a great time to sow tall fescue seed as the cooler weather encourages development of a strong root system
• Core Aeration – This will reduce thatch and help loosen the soil and improve drainage. It involves pulling plugs of soil from the lawn, ideally using some form of aerating product. Simply punching holes into the grass will actually increase compaction of soil over a period of time, so should be avoided. If you haven’t over-seeded, mid-September is a great time of year to think about aerating the lawn.
• Fertilization – Once any seedlings have germinated and any aeration to the lawn has been carried out, the final fall task to keep your lawn looking great is fertilization. October is a great time of year to fertilize a tall fescue lawn and will help maintain and strengthen grass roots and prevent cold weather damage, while a starter fertilizer will help newly germinated seeds to create vigorous root systems.

It’s important to treat your lawn as early as possible in fall, particularly if you plan to seed areas of grass. Grass is easily damaged during colder spells, so getting your Atlanta, Georgia tall fescue lawn in great condition through fall is an important garden chore. If you don’t have time, call Simply Green at 770 923-0387 and our professionals can soon sort out your lawn for winter, ensuring it’s lush and in great condition.