Allow lawn to catch up with season

I could almost hear my lawn breathe a sigh of relief when the cooler weather arrived last week. Within a week the dry patches had started to green up. It has caught its second wind.

Fall is an important growing season for lawns. In the space of four to six weeks, they have to recover from the summer heat and get ready for winter. If they have the right care now, we will reap the benefits next spring when we are yearning for green the most.

Even though we have had some rain and it’s gotten somewhat cooler, keep watering. The subsoil in many places is bone dry and will take a lot of water to recover. Apply enough water to wet the soil down to at least four to six inches. If you aren’t sure how much water your sprinklers are putting out, set out some shallow containers (flat tuna or pet food cans work well) around the yard and measure the water after the sprinklers have run. Because it has been so dry this year, consider increasing the run time of the system for a few weeks to get some moisture down deep in the soil.

September is a great time to start or rejuvenate a lawn. The warm soil will allow seed or sod to grow quickly and form a root system before the cold weather sets in. In the spring it will take off quickly.

If you are putting in a new lawn, work some organic material into the soil, rake it smooth removing any clods or rocks from the surface. Scatter the proper amount of seed in two passes at right angles to each other. Cover the seed with a good quality mulch and roll with a lawn roller to bring the seed into contact with the soil. Keep the seed bed moist well into October especially if the weather stays dry.

If you need to rejuvenate areas of your lawn, it might be a good idea to treat the whole lawn to a little TLC. Bare spots are often a sign that turf isn’t as healthy as it could be.

Start by giving the lawn a good mowing and raking. Mow the lawn at the proper height of two to three inches depending on the type of grass you have. Rake up and remove leaf and pine needle debris. Rake hard enough to bring dead grass at the base of the grass plant to the surface. This is not the same as thatching.

Rent a hollow-core aerator or hire someone to aerate the lawn. This machine pulls out a two- to three-inch long plug of soil and opens a path to the roots for water and nutrients. Try to go over the lawn in two directions, paying special attention to areas that receive a lot of use or foot traffic. Leave the plugs on the lawn as they will break up quickly and disappear.

Spread a half- to one-inch layer of compost over the entire lawn and rake it into the grass. This also goes into all those little holes you just punched in the lawn and takes the composts right down to the roots. Now broadcast seed into thin areas and gently and lightly rake the seed into the new compost. Apply a cover of mulch to large bare spots and roll with a lawn roller. Water well as for a new lawn.

Do not thatch lawns in the fall. Wait until early spring if at all. Thatching now tears up the grass plants just at the time they are trying to build up reserves for winter.

Thatching should not be done on a regular basis anyway. Most lawns don’t need it at all. The layer of dead grass most people think is thatch is normal in a lawn and is actually a source of nutrients as it breaks down.

Recent research has found that applications of fertilizer in the fall are the most important of all applications. The nutrients are picked up by the grass roots and used to develop stronger roots now and to store nutrients for use in the spring. Use the holidays of Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Halloween as a way of remembering when to apply through the year. Use fertilizers where the three numbers on the bag are in a ratio of 3-1-2.

Use a blend of fertilizer specifically intended for fall application. In this blend, the nitrogen level is lower because the goal isn’t so much to green up the lawn as provide the grass nutrients it can store up.

Spot treat any weeds that pop up with the cooler weather. Keep in mind that some herbicides like Weed-B-Gon and others don’t work as well as the weather cools so read the label carefully and follow the directions. Use a weed and feed product only if you have extensive weed problems. While it’s easy to use, the unnecessary blanket application of herbicides in this manner is one of the leading sources of ground water contamination.

Continue mowing grass until it stops growing. Most bluegrass stops growing and goes dormant when the soil temperature drops to between 45 and 50 degrees. This usually doesn’t happen until late October.