The daily work required to maintain your landscape may be over until springtime, but your lawn and garden still need some special attention during the fall. Even as the temperatures drop and the colorful summer blooms have fallen, there still is work to be done so that your landscape is ready for spring. That’s why Promier Landscapes suggests these five ways to enhance your landscape this fall.
Divide your perennials
Proper care for your garden means your perennials will grow and spread. Now that fall is here, you need to evaluate those thriving perennials. Have they gotten too big? If so, you need to divide and re-plant them to make maximum use of that new growth. Some of the fastest-growing perennials are hostas, daylilies, irises, black-eyed susans, and shasta daisies. In fact, these grow so quickly that if you don’t divide them, you run the risk of them taking over your entire garden or garden bed.
Transplanting to make more room
Is your garden starting to look a little cramped? Moving small to medium-sized shrubs can free up tons of space—and fall is the optimum time of year to do this. Popular varieties of shrubs such as rhododendrons, boxwood, spirea, and azaleas all can be moved with ease—especially in the fall when temperatures start to drop and the moisture content in the ground tends to increase because of more rain.
Get an early jump on spring cleaning
When you’re doing maintenance on your garden this fall, treat it like you would a cleanup session at the beginning of spring. This gets your garden primed for fall mulching. Simple tasks like raking leaves, trimming back or dividing perennials, and weeding and edging garden beds can go a long way toward reducing your to-do list at the start of the coming spring.
Weed control
Most home gardeners stop weeding by the time fall rolls around, but this is an easy way for late-summer weeds to be overlooked, forgotten, and then spread. Any weeds that are left go to seed before the winter. Those seeds are transported by the wind and birds, where they lie dormant until the spring, then sprout in their new location. That means more weeds for you to pull, assuming they land elsewhere on your property. Dense grass is the best way to cut down on weeds in your lawn—especially crabgrass, a pervasive annual that flowers, seeds, and dies. Those seeds germinate in patchy or brown areas. Good, dense turf grass is your best defense.
Overseeding
You might think spring is an ideal time to plant new grass seed. After all, the start of a new growing season is ideal for new growth, right? This is actually one of the worst times of year to seed your lawn. At the beginning of spring, the ground has yet to warm fully and is going to have a slower response time to any fertilizer that is placed. In the fall, on the other hand, the soil already is warm and responsive to fertilizer. The higher rainfall during the fall season also helps encourage new root growth.
Landscape maintenance in Johnson City
Follow this checklist, and your lawn and garden will be ready to tough out another winter and thrive come spring. We also understand this can be a busy time of year. Why not trust the professionals at Promier Landscapes to handle the job for you? We bring experience, as well as top-quality tools to manage any lawn care project—no matter how big or small. Schedule an on-site consultation with one of our landscaping experts today by calling (423) 872-2988 if you live in the areas of Kingsport, Johnson City, and Bristol, Tennessee.