Summer is extremely tough on plants. The heat, insects, weeds, water, etc. Autumn is an important season to help your lawn, trees, shrubs, & flowers recover, not only for the current season but to prepare it for next spring & summer, too.
Pro Care VP Kevin Allen shares tips with Ammie & Katie, co-hosts of Idaho-living. The segment can be viewed here:
Projects – fall is the ideal time to install a fire pit or plant a tree.
Trees/Shrubs – they’re likely shaggy coming out of summer. Cooler weather allows you to trim & prune your plants more aggressively if needed, to keep them better contained to their area in your yard. If you’re going to fertilize at all, fertilize in the fall. This is because plants use nutrients differently throughout the year. In the fall, plants are building roots. Strong roots makes plants more resistant to stress, diseases, & pests.
Lawn – just like with trees & shrubs, we focus on building strong roots. The trifecta of lawn service is: aerate, overseed, & fertilize.
Perennials/Annuals – most perennials will start to decline upon the first frost of the season. Let the above-ground tissue die back before cutting it off. This allows nutrients to return to the roots which gives your perennials the ability to jump out of the ground at the break of spring next year. Fall is also a great time to plant bulbs like tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, & crocus. Since those won’t emerge until next spring, consider planting stunning color combinations of mums, cabbage, kale, & pansies over the top. Most years, pansies also re-emerge in the spring offering a beautiful blanket of color beneath your emerging bulbs.
Sprinklers – if you’ve recently relocated to the Treasure Valley from a warmer climate, don’t forget to winterize your sprinkler system in October. While Pro Care only offers this service for its commercial clients, we’re happy to refer homeowners to companies who can assist. If you own or rent an air compressor, you may blow out the lines yourself. TIP – if you have rotor heads (those that rotate around as they spray), be sure not to run air through them for too long. They use water to lubricate their gears so if you blow every drop of water out of the lines & keep running the compressor, you risk damaging the gears.
So if you’re yard or landscape looks worse for the wear coming out of summer, invest some time & energy into it this fall. It’s a beautiful time of the year be in the garden!