Look to future: Prep lawns, along with vegetable and flower beds, for spring splendor
With one extreme weather event in 2024 following the next, accompanied by the delightful heat wave we’ve endured, it is understandable to want to put additional garden efforts on the back burner. And yet, the maintenance season persists. What’s more, with winter looming and fall gardening tasks just around the corner, now is the time to begin optimizing landscape conditions for next year.
At the top of the to-do list is fall overseeding of cool-season lawns. With September days still warm and mild, this month often has the best conditions for cool-season grasses like bluegrass, fescue and ryegrass to be established. Doing so gives them enough time to establish and survive the winter.
Ensure seed-to-soil contact takes place when spreading grass seed. To protect your investment, lightly comb soil over it with a leaf rake after spreading. Watering the seed after will help with binding it to the soil. Be sure to keep adequate soil moisture on the seedlings as they grow. Watering a newly planted lawn frequently and lightly is the most beneficial for grass during its early development.
On hot days, a new lawn may need to be watered as many as three times a day, keeping the soil consistently moist but not soggy. Cooler times require less water, sometimes spaced out every few days.
Keep an eye on soil fertility for all your gardens. Use a soil test to know precisely what pH and nutrient levels your plants are working with, and which ones need amending. Fall is also the best time to make soil amendments in your vegetable garden to give the nutrients a chance to “settle” over the winter. So view this time as a chance to tackle annual soil amending in one fell swoop. Rather than just testing the lawn, test the vegetable garden and landscapes.
Autumn is also when landscape plants may be given some “extra” water to help boost carbohydrate storage in their roots before they go dormant. Be sure the entire soil profile within their “drip line” is saturated: two feet down and half the plant’s width in all directions. Slow, infrequent watering will be more beneficial to your plants now than quick and frequent. A hose set to a soaking trickle will give plants the right amount of time needed to absorb the water that’s being supplied. Use a soil probe to ensure water is penetrating the ground deep enough.
And don’t forget about mulch. As I harp on frequently, mulch will help cool the soil, retain soil moisture and add much-needed organic matter to the soil. These benefits will be beneficial as gardens prepare themselves for winter. These few key fall tasks are just the beginning of a long list of autumn projects, but they are also some of the more important ones to help start your spring gardens off on the right foot.
Anthony Reardon is a horticulture agent with Kansas State University Research and Extension. Need help? Contact the Johnson County Extension gardening hotline at 913-715-7050 or email garden.help@jocogov.org.
