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| this was taken from my house this morning |
People want that lawn envy in the spring. That lush dark green thick lawn but, you know what no one wants to do the work in the fall to achieve it.If you want this lawn you see above in the spring and all year round the truth is the work starts in the fall.
Some people actually put all there power tools away for the summer in the fall as soon as the calendar hits September thats a huge mistake.
It all Starts in August
The truth is the lawn envy that you want to achieve the hard work starts actually starts in mid august .
Not only that but,those tools you just put away for the summer you really need to go to your garage or shed and take them back out. You also need to run back out to your garden store to purchase some stuff and put it away for future use before it sells out.
Reseed in August
Okay for starters August is the best time to reseed your lawn because of the dropping temperatures and the longer cooler nights.So go outside with your smart phone or tablet and take a picture of your lawn. If you have an android with stylus this would be perfect.
Come back inside after taking the pictures and take your stylus and draw a circle around each minor and major bare spot in the lawn.
The beauty of dormant seeding
The major spots like anything over 500 Square feet you would need to do in August. Any minor spots like 10 to 200 sq feet you can do in the winter as dormant seeding.
So go inside look at your tablet,the reason you do this inside is so your neighbors don’t get any ideas and you want your lawn looking better than theres.
So your inside pay attention to the pictures you have taken. Any grass under pine trees or any trees or any grass in shade you will prefer a shade grass like fine fescue,sheep fescue,chewings fescue,creeping red fescue. Any of those grass types would be perfect in the shade.
Any grass in full sun youd want to go for tall turf type fescue or grass in sun/partial shade youd want a tall turf fescue bluegrass mix.
Then like a said earlier if you have only minor areas like small areas just wait unti december and dormant seed.
Do larger areas first in August
If you have one or two huge areas like 2000 sq feet you need to do that asap . As it takes grass like 3 to four months to really get established and up in the north you can sometimes have a early frost like the first or second week of October.
So this is why if your going to reseed a larger area do not wait til labor day like people tell you to do its best to do it around August 7th or August 13th this way by the time the first frost sets in in October 13th by then your grass is already on its way.
Now back to dormant seeding if you just have a few areas where you would not notice these areas if you were on the sidewalk just areas only you see and only that bother you then heres what you do.
Run out to your garden store pick up some compost or peat moss ,pick up some top soil enough for each minor bare spot. Put the compost or peat moss in basement as it wont be used until December or early January
Order some tall turf fescue for your yard,you can get some here.The rule of thumb is to get 10 pounds for every 1000 sq feet you want to plant. Last year I bought 40 pounds and first tried to get by with 20 pounds then needed some more so I put down 30 pounds in one area so most likely it was 3000 sq feet.
You can get grass seed anywhere,but the truth is if you rely on getting grass seed from your big box store or your local garden store you will be disappointed in the quality of your seed so thats why i recommended some better quality seed for you to get.
I got a bit sidetracked sharing you my story but anyhow back to your dormant seeding.
How to do it
Make sure you wait until November before the ground gets too hard or frozen. Go outside and remove any dead grass or weeds in those areas like you normally would in spring.
Then expose the area to just soil,do this to each area you will want to dormant seed.
As soon as December gets here or if youd rather do it in January its up to you. Just go outside id recommend before a snow or rain storm to just put the seed on top of the top soil you got,then cover it slightly with the peat moss do this on every minor area all around your house.
Just let mother nature take its course and it will work the seed down in the soil so by spring time you will have deep roots and will start to germinate as soon as it starts getting warm. The only thing you have to do is water it when it starts growing in spring around May.
Thats not all
Fall is the time to do your Aerating ,your,
Fertilizing and do not put your lawn mower away just yet.Fall is also a great time to do your mowing make sure you mow and mulch your clippings as its like free fertilizer. Lastly lets not forget crabgrass control as you'd want to put down a weed and feed pre emergent in September and again in November and again in February yes February!
So if you want your lawn to look like my lawn in the picture above ,your preparation should start in the fall. Any questions you may have just ask me about your lawn care and don’t forget to subscribe so you can stay updated on my latest posts. Also do share pictures of your lawn below in the comments section.
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