Fall is a great time for football, pumpkins, changing—and raking—leaves. Now that the weather is cooler, it’s a perfect time for preparing your yard for winter. What you do now can help keep your yard healthy and prevent pests, lawn disease, and more work come spring. Follow these simple fall lawn cleanup tips to make the most of this season.

Fall Lawn Cleanup

The cool thing about fall is it’s like a breather between the harsh summer heat and the long winter sleep. This is the time of year you want to help your lawn store enough nutrients to make it through the colder months. Bonus: the crisp, cool weather is refreshing for both you and your yard. Here are some tasks to add to the list of yard work:

Aerate. Over the summer, soil can become compacted from too much foot traffic and lack of circulation. Break up the soil to help prevent water from pooling and make it easier for nutrients to get to the roots. There are a few different methods of aeration that work best depending on the size of your yard.

Fertilize. Once you aerate, it’s a great time to fertilize and encourage root growth. Choose a slow-release product that will also continue working throughout the winter and see the lush results in the spring.

Mow. Slowly start to lower the setting on your mower to keep your lawn short before winter sets in. Once the first frost hits and the grass goes dormant, you won’t need to mow. But you do want to make sure your grass is not long enough to attract shy pests or fungal diseases. Mowing also helps break up any thin layer of fallen leaves and turns it into fertilizer for the grass.

Mulch. Rake up any thick layers of leaves and shred them to use as mulch for your trees and garden.

Fall Planting

This is an excellent time of year for planting as well. Your gardens could probably use some sprucing up and pops of color after the heat got to your plants. Use this time to break up any perennials that took off this year. Divide up the strong survivors and plant them in other areas of your garden.

It’s also not too early to start thinking about next year’s growing season. Plant spring bulbs and shrubs along with your fall annuals to bring out color now and later.

You also want to help protect plants that are sensitive to the cold. Bring in any potted plants you’ve kept outside in the warm weather. Add a layer of mulch to your trees and garden beds to help keep them warm in the ground. For any extra sensitive plant, you could consider wrapping trunks to prevent sunscald or freezing.

Fall Cleaning

While spring cleaning may be focused on inside your home, there’s a lot of fall cleaning to be done outside. Between the wind, rain, and dropping leaves, there could be a lot of debris building up on your lawn. Rake up leaves and clear out veggie and flower beds to help prevent pests from cozying up there in the winter. Break up any natural debris and add it to the compost pile.

Fall is not a great time for major tree work, but it’s always the right time to prune dead, damaged, and diseased branches. The weaker limbs are more susceptible to breaking in a winter storm, so get rid of them while you still can.

All those fallen leaves may not have made it to your lawn. Make sure you clean out your gutters to help ensure proper drainage.

Once the pruning and mowing are done for the season, clean, oil, and sharpen your tools so they’re ready again come spring.

You also want to dry out your hoses, fountains, and any other irrigation system that may freeze over the winter.

Professional Fall Lawn Cleanup

While the list of fall yard chores may seem like a lot, it’s a lot less work than having to deal with the repercussions of not taking care of your lawn. Since preparing your yard for winter and spring is essential for lawn health, you may want to consider hiring a professional lawn care company to help. Contact Cardinal Lawns to find out more about how you can take advantage of the optimal fall weather to get your yard in shape for the following seasons.