Fall Lawn Care in Nashville

It’s hard to believe that in a few weeks, kids will be back in school. Although it stays warm in Nashville and Middle Tennessee well into September, this is always a trigger to begin looking ahead to fall.

Aeration

If you aren’t currently using a lawn care provider, it’s likely you aren’t aerating your lawn. While it is possible to DIY grass aeration, few people are willing to take the time to do it. Each year around this time we stress the importance of aerating your lawn.

Some of the benefits include:

Loosening compacted soil: Compacted soil is a common issue due to foot traffic, children playing in the yard, or cars parking on the lawn. This compacted soil can lead to increased weeds and overall diminished turf health.
Improve drainage problems: Does water just sit on your lawn after a rain and not seep down into the lawn? This is a sign you need to aerate. Not only are your grass roots not benefiting from the moisture, the standing water can actually damage your turf on the top.
Allowing water, air, and nutrients a pathway: After aerating is the perfect time to overseed.

Related: Why DIY Aeration Isn’t Worth It

Over-seeding

Over-seeding can fix large or small bare spots in your lawn. Even if you don’t have bare spots, it can be beneficial to introduce a new type of grass to your lawn if it currently only has one. This strategic introduction can provide many benefits to your lawn beyond aesthetics.

Related: Why it’s Ideal to Aerate and Over-Seed Together

Keep grass greener

Combinations of grass seed can ensure greener grass in the winter, as you can have both warm and cool-season varieties in your lawn.

More drought-tolerant

Using a more drought resistant type of grass will benefit your turf during the hot summer months.

Thicker turf

Thicker turf certainly looks and feels better, but that’s not all. The most beneficial part of a thick turf is that it will crowd out weeds and make your lawn more disease resistant. A win-win situation!

Over-seeding after aeration makes for a winning combination. Your post-aeration lawn will welcome new seed into the perfect little nests (holes) allowing the seed to fall down and grow. Because you’ve introduced new grass seed, it will take the available water, oxygen, and nutrients from the openings and starve out the weed seeds that attempt to germinate.

At Pure Green, we perform both aeration and over-seeding in the same day for maximum success with your new lawn.

Continue to Water + Mow

Middle Tennessee lawn care can cycle through years of unpredictability. If this year is anything like previous years, we will continue to see warmth until well into the fall months. This means that you will need to maintain a regular watering and mowing schedule.

Watering

We stress this frequently: water less times, deeply. To promote deeper root growth, you’ll want to give your lawn a good soaking once or twice a week if it is not raining.

Mowing

Until the first hard frost, grass is continuing to grow. Our first hard frost of 2016 wasn’t until December! Remember you should be cutting no more than 1/3 off of the top of your grass with each cut. Longer grass blades encourage that deeper root growth which promotes healthier turf.