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Hemingway once said, “America is the land of wide lawns and narrow minds.” Now, I don’t know about narrow minds, but we definitely love our lawns. Fall is one of the most important times of the year to perform lawn care maintenance.

The process you need to follow will vary with the type of turf on your lawn. The two main types of turf grasses are cool season and warm season. The main difference is that cool season grasses require regular maintenance throughout the fall and winter seasons, while warm season grasses need to be prepped for the following spring. Common cool season grasses are ryegrasses, fescues, bluegrasses, and bentgrasses. Common warm season grasses include St. Augustinegrass, Bermudagrass, Zoysiagrass, and Buffalograss. If you are unsure what type you have on your lawn, you can take a sample to your local county extension and find out which type you have. The most important thing to remember is that maintenance doesn’t end when the grass stops growing.

The process of fall lawn care consists of the following steps:

* Test Your Soil
* Apply Herbicides for Weed Control
* Water
* Fertilize
* Mow
* Seed or Sod
* Remove Leaves and Thatch
* Maintain Equipment

Test Your Soil

The first thing you should do this season is perform a soil test to determine levels of nutrients, pH and other factors that affect the growth of your lawn. These results will help you understand what your soil needs this fall. If you need to reduce the acidity in your soil, you should apply lime. If alkalinity should be reduced, then you should apply sulfur. The Cooperative Extension Service of state universities will usually perform a soil test for a reasonable fee. You can contact them or a local service to determine how you should collect samples and where to send them.

Apply Herbicides for Weed Control

Many broadleaf weeds start to show their ugly faces in the fall. Dandelions, plantain, clover and creeping charlie are just some of the perennial weeds that come out to play. If the weeds are spread out and few in number, you can spot treat them with an herbicide. Spray container products make it easy to do spot treatments. You should complete this task while temperatures are still above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure you carefully evaluate the number and types of weeds in your lawn. It is not necessary to apply herbicides over your entire lawn unless there is significant infestation. Don’t worry about crabgrass and other annual weed-like grasses. These are controlled more effectively in the spring.

Water

Even though temperatures are cooler and the growth of your grass is slowing down, the lawn still needs to be watered. This is often one of the most neglected areas of fall lawn care. Visions of cool fall and winter weather often cause lawn owners to take a vacation and forget about their lawns. But, you should continue to water until the ground is cold and freezing temperatures are on the horizon. If you have an automatic sprinkler system, you will need to use compressed air to blow out the pipes and sprinkler heads before damage occurs from a freeze.

Fertilize

If you are a lawn fanatic like me, you can make two applications of fertilizer, once now and another in the late stages of fall (late October/ early November). This will provide nutrients to your lawn over a longer growth period. Late season fertilizing often causes lawns to be the first to grow in the spring. However, the longer you wait to fertilize, the less likely it is to be beneficial. When in doubt, simply skip the final application. If your soil test indicates that your lawn has a shortage of phosphorus, then you may consider using a ‘winterizing’ type of fertilizer. Otherwise, leftover spring fertilizer or a weed and feed fertilizer is sufficient. One final thing to avoid is slow-release fertilizers. During this time of year, soil has a lower level of microbial activity which means it takes longer to break down fertilizer and make its nutrients available to the grass.

Mow

You should continue to mow your lawn throughout the fall until growth stops. It is important to keep your grass 2″ to 2 – 1/2″ tall during fall. If your grass gets too long, it will mat and risk lawn diseases like snow mold. However, if you cut it too short (less than 2″), you can diminish the lawn’s ability to make and store food for growth in the spring.

Seed or Sod

This is not always a necessary lawn care practice, but this time of year is the best time to establish or repair a lawn by seeding or sodding. Seeding and sodding should be completed as soon as possible before really cold weather sets in. If you are overseeding your lawn, you need to rake up debris and dethatch your lawn if thatch is thicker than half an inch. This ensures that the grass seed will be as close to the soil as possible. You should also aim to keep the soil moist for a few weeks while the seeds are germinating.

Remove Leaves and Thatch

When leaves begin to fall in autumn, it is important to remove them before a thick layer forms that can smother the grass. Simply raking often removes thatch from your lawn, but in bad cases of soil compaction, you may need to get a lawn aerator to perform core aeration. If you have the funds, and you’re serious about lawn care, you may want to buy an aerator. Otherwise, you can simply rent one at a local hardware or garden supply store.

Maintain Equipment

Lawn care equipment requires constant maintenance throughout, but the fall season involves a more thorough maintenance process. Upkeep can save you tons of money and heartache in the long run. Fall is a great time to perform an oil change on your mower. You should also drain the gas from your mower or add a gas stabilizer. Consult your manual before using a stabilizer, because it may void your warranty.

Remove the mower’s spark plug with a spark-plug wrench. Lubricate the spark-plug cylinder with a teaspoon of oil through its hole. Install a new spark plug, but keep the spark-plug wire disconnected. Grease where necessary, especially the rear height-adjuster on a self-propelled mower.

You should check your blade and the bolts on the unit to ensure tightness. You should also inspect and possibly sharpen your mower blade. After you have completed these steps, store the mower in a clean, dry place away from any possible ignition sources.

Final Thoughts

Following the fall lawn care practices outlined in this article will prepare your lawn for winter and reward you with a healthy, thriving lawn in the spring.

To learn more about lawn care visit Blades Lawn Care, where you’ll learn all about taking care of grass, fertilizing, and much more.

You’ve just purchased your new home and it came with an expansive patch of green grass known as a lawn. Since you care about curb appeal, and the opinion of your neighbors, you purpose to have a golf course lawn all year long.
But first, you have some major and minor purchases to make. Here are the basic tools you’ll need to keep your lawn in shape for years to come.

The Lawn Mower

You need this one not only to keep the manicured look, but also to avoid fines from your city of township for an overgrown lawn. You can spend anywhere from $125 to over $1,000 or more for this tool, and it will probably be the most expensive tool in your garage.
A good quality walk behind mower with self propulsion will run you around $300. Make sure your mower is at least 5.5 horsepower and has both bag and mulch features.

The Weed Whacker

Also known as a string trimmer, the weed whacker is the tool that gives your lawn the clean edges that will set it apart. There is nothing worse than a lawn that is cut but not edged or trimmed along driveway and fence lines.
String trimmers come in electric and gas powered. Gas powered trimmers are more mobile but cost more to operate and give off fumes and more noise. There are also cordless rechargeable trimmers available that will do a fine job for smaller homes.

Power Sweeper or Blower

This may not seem like a necessity, but if you live in a part of the country where trees lose their leaves in fall, your blower will come in very handy. Most homeowners can get away with an electric corded blower for about $30, but if your lawn is larger and you have multiple large trees, you may decide to invest in a back-pack blower that packs more power for around $500.

Fertilizer Spreader

All beautiful lawns need fertilizer and weed control, and the best way to deliver these products is through a spreader. These come in handheld models, push models and tractor pulled models.
I always recommend using a broadcast-style spreader and NOT a drop spreader as the broadcasting type offer more even coverage and are easier to use. If you buy a push spreader, look for one with air filled rubber tires and a metal frame. It will cost you around $60 but will last a lifetime.

Sprinklers and Hoses

Watering the lawn is important too. Choose a sprinkler that keeps the water in large droplets and low to the ground. This will minimize water lost to drift and evaporation. Impact sprinklers are the most common and are adjustable to cover just about any size or shape area. A metal-bodied impact sprinkler will cost you about $10.
When buying a hose, you don’t need the most expensive, but definitely not the cheapest. You should buy at least 2 medium duty hoses in varying lengths so you can run 2 sprinklers simultaneously to save time.

Before you close on your new house, consider adding these basic lawns tools to your garage collection.

Al Haneson offers lawn tips about Choosing Grass Seed and Planting Grass Seed over at his blog, Life and Lawns.

When thinking about Bonsai tree care, the most important thing to think about is proper watering. This is the type of tree that can die from both over watering and under watering. If you over water this tree you can cause a fungus to grow in the soil, which will essentially cause the roots of the tree to decompose. If the tree is not watered enough, it can suffer drought which is a lack of water and the tree will once again die. While bonsai trees can be grown indoors, at some point in order for the tree to be healthy and survive for a longer period of time it must be taken outside. Bonsai trees that are grown exclusively inside do not have a high success rate.

The soil and the pots that are used when planting a bonsai tree are extremely important as well. The type of soil you use will affect how often you feed and water your tree. The recommended soil content should be as follows, 30% grit, 70 % humus for deciduous trees. However the type of soil that you use will depend greatly on which type of bonsai tree that you grow. For example the combination of grit and humus is reversed for evergreen bonsai trees. The type of pot that you plants your bonsai tree in plays an important role as well. While there are different recommendation for pots you try to select a pot that is two third to three quarters as well as the tree is tall. It should also be half as deep as the tree is tall. A general rule is to keep the pt as high as the width of the tree trunk. This will give the tree room to grow and expand in the pot. If you have selected a pot that you that you tree has outgrown or will outgrow do not rush to replant the tree. Replanting the tree can cause some damage and cause the tree to die.

Another important part of caring for your bonsai tree is called pruning. There are different ways to prune your bonsai tree. There is branch pruning and root pruning. However, they do go hand in hand. If you are pruning the roots of you bonsai tree it is important that you also prune the branches of your tree. This will keep the tree balanced. The less foliage that you have up top means that there is less foliage that the roots have to support. If you are planning on doing some branch pruning it’s a good idea to clip the tip of the branches and the some slight pruning of the leaves. If you have branches that are crossing each other to crossing the trunk of the tree it is a good idea to cut these branches to give tree room to continue to grow. If you have twigs that are pointing straight down off the branches it is also a good idea to cut these as they will cause the branches to droop down.

For more information on bonsai tree care,tips to help you care for a bonsai tree and other bonsai tree related information visit http://www.MyBonsaiTree.com