The Service Solution

Lawn care for some is a blessing, for others a curse. While you may love spending your fall evenings on the lawnmower, others may look at the darkening sky and tremble. Luckily, we’ve compiled a group of lawn care tips for the coming season that’ll satisfy both groups.

• Know your grass type. Knowing whether you have a cool- or warm-season grass will help you know what you have to do to take care of it. Cool-season grasses include bluegrass, bentgrass, fescue, and ryegrass. Warm-season grasses include Bermudagrass, Saint-Augustine grass, zoysiagrass, and buffalograss.
• Don’t forget fertilizing cool-season lawns. Although it may seem counterintuitive, fertilizing cool-season grasses before the winter hits will help with the root growth that occurs at that time. The best fertilizers will be those that are high in both nitrogen and potassium. Don’t fertilize warm-season grass, as it could interfere with the hardening process these species undergo.
• Don’t forget watering, either. Water is also needed for fertilizer saturation and root growth. Regular rain will usually do the trick, but if your location isn’t blessed with precipitation, make sure you are aerating and watering it yourself.
• Overseed warm-season lawns. If you would rather not have your lawn looking like a brown carpet during the winter, you can put down a layer of annual winter ryegrass seed. This seed will die at the end of the season and let the warm-season grasses take back their rightful place in your lawn.
• Don’t mow too short. Don’t cut your grass shorter than 2 to 2 inches. This way, you can leave the grass clippings in the lawn to help with fertilization. That way, you won’t have to rake up the grass afterward, and your lawn will be sure to thrive.