The worst of the summer heat will have subsided soon. Refreshed by the thought of breathing cooler air, you’re poised to roll up your sleeves and do some fall lawn maintenance — in between carving pumpkins, of course! But you should read these fall lawn care tips first. The regimen right for your fall lawn care will vary, according to whether your lawn is composed of a warm season turf grass or a cool season turf grass. If you are unsure which type comprises your lawn, take a sample to your local county extension.

Fall Lawn Care Tip: Find Out Your Grass Type
Common cool season turf grasses include:

•bluegrasses
•bentgrasses
•fescues
•ryegrasses

Among the common warm season turf grasses are:

•Bermudagrass
•Saint-Augustinegrass
•zoysiagrass
•buffalograss

To be sure, there will be some fall lawn maintenance you’ll have to do regardless of the type of grass on your lawn. Let’s look at these tasks first:

•Apply herbicides to broadleaf weeds
•Correct soil pH: if your lawn is not performing well, have your soil tested. If the soil test should show a need to reduce acidity, apply lime now. If alkalinity needs to be reduced, apply sulphur.
•Thatch removal: dethatch your lawn, by raking; for bad cases of soil compaction, you may have to employ the technique known as core aeration, for which lawn equipment known as “aerators” can be bought or rented
•Rake leaves, or use a leaf vacuum, lest the leaves smother your grass over the winter
•Lawn equipment care: make sure to drain old gas out of lawn mowers after last mowing

The nature of the following fall lawn care chores depends on whether it’s a cool season or warm season turf grass that you have to care for:

•Watering
•Fertilization
•Setting lawn mower height

Fall lawn care for cool season grasses entails ensuring that lawns receive enough fall water to carry them through the long winter. Don’t think that because the temperatures outside are no longer high, you can forget about watering in the autumn. Another fall lawn care tip that applies specifically to the maintenance of cool season grasses is fertilization. Apply 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn.

Conversely, avoid fertilizing a warm season turf grass in the autumn. The latter undergoes a hardening-off process during this time of year to prepare it for winter. Fertilizing warm season grasses in the fall may interfere with that hardening-off process.

So what fall lawn care tasks should you be performing for warm season grasses? By overseeding with annual winter ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), homeowners whose lawns are composed of warm season grasses can enjoy a green carpet during the winter, instead of having to look at a brown lawn. But when you buy the seed, be sure to ask for the annual, not the perennial. Annual winter ryegrass will die back when summer’s heat returns, turning over the lawn once again to the warm season grasses. This exit is a timely one. The problem with the perennial winter ryegrass is that it doesn’t go away, competing with your warm season grasses for sunlight, water and nutrients.

Lawns composed of cool season grasses can also profit from overseeding. But in this case, the motivation behind overseeding lawns is not winter cosmetics, but to fix bare patches — with an eye to next year’s lawn.

Lawn Care Tip Concerning Lawn Mowing:
Adjusting lawn mower height for fall mowing is not an issue with cool season grasses. Just set the height as you normally would, right up until the time when growth stops and you stop mowing. But an adjustment should be made to lawn mower height in the fall for warm season turf grasses: increase the height by 1/2 inch.

So at exactly what height should you set lawn mowers, in general? According to Robert E. Kozlowski at the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, mowing your lawn with a lawn mower set at a proper height can save you from having to rake or bag your lawn clippings. His rule of thumb is, “Mow when your grass is dry and 3 to 3-1/2 inches tall. Never cut it shorter then [sic] 2 to 2-1/2 inches or remove more than one third of the leaf surface at any one mowing.”

Kozlowski’s premise is that the valuable nutrients in the grass clippings can do your lawn some good, left right where they lie after mowing — as long as their bulk is kept at a minimum. By following his rule of thumb and cutting only about an inch off the top of your grass at any one time, the bulk of the grass clippings is kept low.

Employing Kozlowski’s lawn care tip will entail more frequent mowing, to be sure. But the result will be a healthier lawn, fed by nutrients that you would otherwise be hauling away. Think of it this way: with Kozlowski’s approach, you’re essentially mowing and fertilizing at the same time. Taking care of two lawn maintenance tasks at once — that’s for me!

Some useful lawn equipment to perform this task is the mulching lawn mower. With mulching lawn mowers, you don’t need to be quite so careful about the height at which you cut your grass, since the clippings are shredded up more finely.

Efficient watering and common sense saves this precious resource.
Experts estimate that Americans use nearly 408 billion gallons of water per day. On average, 50 to 70% of home water is used outdoors for watering lawns and gardens.

The Irrigation Association Organization’s goal is to raise awareness of the importance of water conservation in the lawn and garden. According to IA, most homeowners are sending their watering dollars down the drain.

Technological advances in home watering systems are making it easier than ever to preserve this resource and save money at the same time. “Smart” watering systems, from computer-assisted programmers to inexpensive drip watering kits, are now available to homeowners.

 Here’s the top ten things you can do to conserve water right in your own backyard:

1. Put a layer of mulch around your plants. Mulching helps to retain moisture and prevents evaporation. A generous amount of 3- to 5-inches is best.
2. Install a drip irrigation system around your shrubs, hanging baskets, flower and vegetable gardens. Drip irrigation systems use 50% less water than conventional sprinklers. And, they’re more efficient because they deliver the water slowly and directly to the plant’s root system.
3. Install a home irrigation system with a rain sensor. Many states and local water districts now require rain sensors. Homeowners who have irrigation systems use less water on their lawns and gardens than those who don’t. Watering efficiently, and only when your plants and lawn need it can save a great deal of water. Rain sensors interrupt the watering program if it rains, saving even more water.
4. If you already have a home irrigation system, make sure you’re getting the most out of your timer. New technology makes it easier than ever to program and monitor your watering needs. Consider upgrading your timer. Automatic, programmable timers save more water than mechanical models.
5. Don’t fertilize during hot, dry weather. Applying fertilizer can actually enhance drought problems. When you do feed your lawn and garden use a slow release fertilizer.
6. Raise the blade on your lawn mower. Closely cropped grass requires more water.
7. Recycle your grass clippings back into your lawn by using a mulching mower. You’ll not only conserve water, you’ll save time while mowing.
8. Cut back on routine pruning. Pruning stimulates new growth, and new growth requires more water. Only prune your plants when it wilts or leaves die out.
9. If you use a hose and portable sprinkler, buy a hose end timer to regulate your watering time.
10. Sweep your sidewalks and driveway rather than hosing them down.