A Definitive Guide to Fall Weather Lawn Care in St. Louis, MO

Do you want your lawn in St. Louis to be gorgeous enough that transforms into the envy of your neighbors? Do you want it to be healthy and lush throughout the whole year even when it’s freezing out there? If your answer is a resounding “Yes” to any or both of these, you’ve come to the right place. At Kozeny’s Lawn Service, we’ve been frequently receiving queries from Oakville, Mehlville, and South County St. Louis lawn owners about how to take proper lawn care to make it prepared for the upcoming winter. 

Instead of answering those questions through different posts, we decided to create this guide on fall weather lawn care to help our lawn owner friends maintain the best health of their yards even in the chilling temperatures of St. Louis.

The Importance of Lawn Care in Fall Weather

The transition from late fall to winter means your lawn grasses going into dormancy because the snow keeps them insulated during the colder months. It’s also the time when common lawn diseases such as red thread and pink snow mold start, grow during the winter, and finally, appear in spring. It means, if you want to come out of the winter with a luscious lawn, you must focus on appropriate lawn care during the fall weather.

Essential Lawn Care Steps During Fall Weather

Don’t let all your hard work done for your lawn during spring and summer going in vain by neglecting it during the fall. Follow these lawn care tips to help your yard grow stronger and healthier. These might be done on your own but it’s best to hire a reputable lawn care service provider such as Kozeny’s Lawn Service to handle them with utmost efficiency.

Let’s delve deeper into the steps.

Carry Out Lawn Aeration

Lawn core aeration is one of the most important parts of preparing your lawn for the upcoming winter. The perfect time for aerating your lawn is early fall. Though different methods of aeration are there, the most effective one is core aeration. Lawn aeration comes with the objective of opening up the soil in the lawn so it can absorb water and air in a better manner. Consistent foot traffic or regular irrigation may result in soil compaction which makes it difficult for turfgrass roots to perform their job. By performing core aeration, you’ll be able to improve soil composition while maximizing its absorption of essential components. Though you can perform this at different times of the year, doing so during the fall weather would be a prudent decision. There’re two main reasons behind this. First, it’ll prevent the lawn from being compacted as it’ll most likely receive minimum foot traffic during the colder months. And second, the soil won’t be drying out due to the cooler temperatures. Core aeration gives the best output when seeding and fertilizing programs are performed afterward.

Apply the Right Fertilizer

As Missouri remains in the transition zone of the country, temperatures heavily vary throughout the year here. As a result, our residents often tend to grow different types of grasses in their yards. Some lawn owners choose between cool season grasses and warm season grasses while some others prefer to have a combination of both. If your lawn has warm season grasses such as Zoysia and Bermuda, the fertilizing program should stretch between July and August. And if you’ve got coos season grasses such as Bluegrass and Fescue, you should fertilize between September and November. Be sure to apply a special winterizing fertilizer when you perform the last application during cooler temperatures. It’ll not only make the grasses hardier making them ideal for the winter months but help you to get a lush lawn in the springtime as well.

Perform Mowing

Similar to core aeration, mowing is also an important part of the lawn care regimen in South County St. Louis, Mehlville, Oakville, and other areas in Missouri. If you live in an area where the weather remains comparatively mild and the temperature doesn’t drop excessively, blades of your turfgrass may continue to grow during the colder months and need regular maintenance provided through mowing. But if the temperature drops too much in your area, it’ll significantly delay the growth of the turfgrass. You may also find moisture and even frost sometimes to be formed on the grasses’ individual blades. These are the key reasons we always suggest mowing to be included as part of the fall weather lawn care. When it comes to mowing, you need to be careful about how short the grass should be cut. Leaving it significantly long would result in an unkempt lawn while too short of a length might leave the lawn exposed to external elements affecting its growth negatively in the winter months. Though three inches is often considered as a benchmark, you should stick to the recommended length of the specific type of grass you’ve got.

Dethatch the Lawn

Thatch refers to the layer comprising both living and dead grass roots, stems, and shoots that can be found between the soil surface and the grass blades. While some amount of thatch benefits the soil by protecting it from extreme temperatures, too much of it may become a problem. You may start experiencing higher pest problems and diseases along with a reduced amount of nutrients reaching the grassroots and soil. You can easily find out whether or not the soil is having a thatch problem. Just try to poke a finger through to it and if it feels too difficult to do so, it’s probably the time to dethatch the lawn. Dethatching eliminates the thick layer of organic components making way for essential nutrients to the soil. If you’ve got cool season grasses, you should dethatch the lawn in early fall. And if there’re warm season grasses, early summer would be the ideal time. Though dethatching is an easy task, it requires a specialized dethatching rake for small lawns or a power rake handle large lawns. Therefore, it’s best to hire a top-notch lawn care service such as Kozeny’s Lawn Service to make the process a hassle-free one.

Fight Weed Growth

Whether you’re having cool season grass or warm season grass in your lawn, the fall weather is probably the best time to treat weeds. Fall treatments help you get rid of both perennial and annual weeds. Using chemical herbicides is the simplest and most effective method to accomplish this goal. To kill the weeds that will be growing already, consider using a post-emergent herbicide in the late fall. And if you want to take out the weeds that haven’t sprouted yet, application of a pre-emergent herbicide in the early fall would give you the best results. While herbicides usually work best around 500F temperature and above, you should talk to your local lawn care company if you aren’t sure of the proper timing.

Mulch the Lawn

When it comes to mulching, many people consider it as a task to be done in the springtime. However, the fact is mulch installation in the fall can offer a plethora of benefits in terms of preparing your lawn for the winter. First of all, you can control the amount of weeds, which can germinate in both fall and winter, by suppressing them using mulch. The mulch restricts the exposure of weeds to the sunlight. Secondly, sometimes freezing temperatures cause damage to your garden plants’ fibrous root systems that absorb essential nutrients. By performing mulch installation, you can provide these fibrous roots with an insulating cover during colder months. Organic mulches such as fallen leaves, pine needles, etc help in retaining moisture by restricting evaporation and blanketing the soil. You can ensure the plants get a healthy start in the spring by incorporating mulch installation in your fall weather lawn care.

Consider Overseeding

Overseeding is another crucial aspect of lawn care in the fall. It refers to the process of spreading new grass seeds over the established turfgrass. By overseeding in the fall, you not only can fill in the areas of your lawn that have been weakened or damaged during the summer but have the grassroots established before winter as well. Additionally, as the grasses age, they start to lose their vigor. Overseeding lets you fill in the thin, damaged areas while providing new plants within those matured plants which ultimately help you get a dense thick lawn. It’s important to apply the appropriate grass seeds and in the right amounts to make the maximum out of overseeding. You should also have some knowledge of the kind of the existing turfgrass so the newly applied grass doesn’t create a mismatch in the lawn. If you aren’t completely sure of it, hiring a leading lawn care company such as Kozeny’s Lawn Service would be a prudent decision. You should also note that if the soil is compacted, overseeding may not be of any use. That’s why core aeration is often combined with fall overseeding to offer favorable growing conditions to turfgrass seeds.

Apply Topdressing If Required

If the soil of your lawn doesn’t adequate amounts of nutrients, the grasses may have bare patches. In that case, we’d recommend opting for topdressing that can be performed alongside overseeding and core aeration. Topdressing refers to the technique of spreading a fine coating of composted manure above the lawn. It helps new seeds from overseeding obtain the essential nutrients. It not only helps in preventing future soil compaction but increases the nutrient levels of the lawn as well.

Clean the Lawn Thoroughly

During most of the year, your lawn experiences heavy foot traffic due to various activities. It isn’t uncommon to see toys of your kids or pieces of your lawn furniture on the turf. Consider having a thorough cleaning before the start of winter. By doing this, you can make it easier for you or the lawn care professionals to perform procedures later on. Additionally, during the winter months, objects on the lawn can adversely affect grass growth by creating patches of soil. It’s important to understand that thorough cleaning of a yard is a strenuous and time-consuming job and hence, should be left to a professional agency such as Kozeny’s Lawn Service. This task typically includes property cleanup/yard cleanup, yard work, pruning shrubs, brush removal, leaf removal, shrub trimming, among others. Performing all these requires specialized tools and professional expertise that can only be offered by a reputable lawn care service provider.

Continue Watering Your Lawn

Lawn watering may sound like a child’s play but it plays a crucial role in the fall weather lawn care routine. In fall, you may find the grasses aren’t growing quickly and the leaves are changing but that doesn’t mean you need to stop watering the lawn. Fall watering significantly helps your lawn to recuperate from the stress of the summer and get prepared for the upcoming winter. Watering also becomes necessary if you fertilize the lawn as it’d help the fertilizer to get dissolved into the ground.

Additional Lawn Care Tips

In fall weather, the plants on the lawn start to get crisp with the months getting colder. If your lawn has cool season grasses, you should start to take care of them now. You can conduct soil testing to see whether or not any fertilizer needs to be added to the lawn. One simple yet highly effective method is to add seeds and help them receive adequate sunlight by keeping the lawn free from leaves. It’ll help the grasses develop a strong root system that’s essential for having a healthy lawn.

Wrapping Up

We hope these tips have helped you obtain a clear understanding of how to take effective lawn care in the fall weather. In fact, proper care during this time may help you experience a significant improvement in the lawn within just a couple of weeks. At Kozeny’s Lawn Service, we’ve been helping homeowners to transform their lawns into something truly enviable by others. If you are planning to start your lawn care and need some expert help, get in touch with us today and our team of professionals will take it from there.