10 Tasks You Should Complete Now to Prepare Your Lawn and Garden for Fall

Rake Leaves

If you have deciduous trees adjacent to your lawn or garden, then raking leaves will almost undoubtedly sit atop your fall landscaping checklist. It is necessary to rake the leaves, as a thick layer of them robs your grass of sunlight. And even though growth is slowed in the fall, cool-season grasses such as tall fescue or Kentucky bluegrass need sunlight in the fall for photosynthesis.

Nutrients are passed to the root system, where they are stored for winter. Next spring, your lawn will draw on those nutrients. By raking in a timely manner, you can help your lawn get off to a good start next spring.

Dethatch Your Lawn

A task related to raking is removing thatch from the lawn. If you rake leaves properly, you can dethatch your lawn at the same time. Rake vigorously rather than just skimming leaves off the surface. Push the rake tines down firmly to dislodge the layer of thatch that lies just below the surface. With the thatch removed, your lawn will breathe more freely and be better able to access water and nutrients.

Overseed the Lawn

In the process of dethatching, you may end up exposing patches of bare soil on your lawn. If so, then immediately undertake overseeding. While you can overseed in spring, too, fall is ideal because of the cool nights and mild, shorter days (all of which are great for grass seed germination). The seed retains moisture well, and the seedlings that follow won't be threatened by the extreme heat of summer. 

Continue Watering the Lawn

Continue watering the lawn in the fall. Because the temperature is starting to drop, you won't need to water as much as in summer. But the fall can have its hot, dry spells, too.

Cool-season grasses need that water because they are working hard to store nutrients for the long winter. Water a warm-season grass for as long as it's actively growing. When growth stops, rainfall will be sufficient.

Continue Mowing the Lawn

Fall is prime growing time for cool-season grass, so you will be mowing frequently. Mow it at least until the first killing frost slows down growth. Unlike cool-season grass, warm-season grass does go dormant in winter and will begin to slow down as the weather cools off in fall. As a result, you shouldn't have to mow as much as you did in summer. When growth seems to be coming to a halt altogether, mow one last time.

Weed and Feed Your Lawn

You should have already fertilized a warm-season grass in late summer, but you can fertilize a cool-season grass in early fall. This will help it get off to a good start in spring.

Check the lawn for weeds and try to get rid of as many as you can. In the case of an annual weed such as crabgrass, your goal is to keep the weed from going to seed and dropping that seed on your lawn (which will sprout next spring). When you see crabgrass flower heads, pull them off and dispose of them.

Your approach will be different for perennial weeds, such as dandelion. Dig down under the plant and remove it entirely by the taproot, and make sure you get the whole thing. The smallest root fragment left behind will result in a new dandelion next spring.

Clean Up Your Vegetable Garden or Flower Garden

Removing spent plants and debris from your garden in the fall means you'll have less to do in the spring to get your garden ready for the growing season. But there's another good reason for doing this work in the fall: removing plants or debris that harbor disease or pests means getting rid of problems in your garden next year. If, on the other hand, the plants and debris are disease-free and pest-free, you can add them to your compost bin.

Which plants should you remove? After harvesting, you can pull up winter squash, dying tomato or cucumber plants, and harvest any herbs. Trim perennial flowers for a tidier garden come spring.

Make Compost for Next Year

You've probably been adding things like grass clippings and kitchen scraps to your compost bin all summer, but fall makes even more compostable material available to you. Not only will your garden cleanup yield such material, but so will your leaf raking. But try to shred the leaves first: they break down quicker that way, meaning the compost will be ready to use in the garden sooner.

Transplant Shrubs and Trees

Fall can be a good time for transplanting, due to the cooler temperatures. For most trees and shrubs, you have two good choices for a transplanting time: late winter to early spring, or fall.

Some trees and shrubs don't like to be transplanted in the fall. These are the plants with thick, fleshy roots, like magnolia. Transplant such species only in late winter or early spring. But other types of trees and shrubs transplant well in fall.

Winterize the Landscape

Winterizing the landscape takes on a number of forms, ranging from protecting equipment to protecting plants.

• Once you're done watering, store away irrigation equipment properly for the winter.
• Disconnect hoses, drain residual water out of them, and bring them inside.
• Turn the valve (often located in a basement) for the outdoor water faucet to the off position to avoid damage to your pipe as the water freezes. Turn the faucet on one last time to ensure that no residual water lingers in the pipe.
• Apply a 3-inch layer of mulch around any plants that are only borderline hardy in your area.
• You can further winterize shrubs and small trees either by installing burlap tree wrap around them or building a shelter for them.