Top Ten Autumn Yard Tips

Autumn is the perfect time to get out and prep your lawn and garden for the winter months so you will an amazingly healthy yard in the spring. Here are a few autumn tips to get you started:

Leave your leaf blower in the garage and bust out a rake to rake up all those leaves. This is not only good exercise for you, but it’s better for the environment. Plus your lawn will love all that sunshine and air that it wouldn’t get when suffocated under a wet blanket of leaves.

Clean up your flower garden by removing all the spent flowers and vines. Watch for leaves that are diseased or infested and dispose of them separately (in the trash) so they don’t propagate throughout your garden next year.

Add your collected leaves, twigs, grass clippings, flowers, and chopped brush to your compost bin. Don’t have one yet? Composting101.com gives you step-by-step instructions, tips, and answers for all your composting questions.

Opt for an organic mulch to enrich your garden’s soil, retain moisture, protect your plants’ roots, and prevent soil erosion. You can use wood chips, bark, sawdust, lawn clippings, straw, or your compost collection. The key here is to make sure you are using dry materials because wet lawn clippings or leaves, for example, will clump together and block the much-needed air and sunlight.

Help your lawn make it through the cold and blustery months by winterizing it with fertilizer. Fertilizers help the lawn store vital nutrients that help root development and results in a fuller growth in the spring. Terracycle has a natural lawn fertilizer made from worm poop (sounds gross but works great).

Take some time to consider your spring flower garden. Who doesn’t like tulips, daffodils, and irises? It’s best to plant bulbs in late September so they will root well before the ground freezes.

Place some all-natural bird feeders out for our feathered friends. Tie a string on a pinecone, slather the pine cone with peanut butter then roll it in birdseed. Hang from a nearby branch and watch the birds flock to their feast.

Once all of the leaves have fallen off your trees you can prune the diseased, infested, dead, or broken limbs. Be sure to prune those branches that are too close to your house or the neighbor’s property.

Clean and sharpen your gardening tools so they will last for years to come and will work great in the spring.

Get outside and enjoy the crisp weather and the changing leaves before winter is here and you’re stuck inside.