energy and food to be ready to flourish come spring. If you can nourish your lawns with fertilizer before everything goes dormant, you will find that the landscaping looks better throughout the winter and that spring starts up much nicer. All you need to do is make sure your landscaper knows you want a winterizing fertilizer applied in late September or October after aeration is completed. If you have moss issues, your landscaper should be able to recommend a high iron fertilizer to use to help kick the moss out.
As a result of the many winter holidays, most people entertain more guests during the winter than any other time. For this reason, the aesthetics of winter landscaping should not be ignored. Planter bed maintenance is one area that can provide relatively cheap and easy appeal, not to mention making it much less of a mess to clean up in the spring. This cleanup would ideally happen late fall after the leaves have fallen and would consist of clearing debris, pruning the bushes, weeding, and placing mulch to insulate the roots through freezing temperatures.
What I consider to be chief among these fall landscaping tips is to be aware of crane flies. Often called “mosquito-eaters” or
“mosquito hawks”, these insects neither eat nor are related to mosquitos, but will destroy the lawns over the winter and early spring. The adult crane flies are harmless, however they will lay eggs right in your immaculately maintained lawns. The larvae will then use your grass roots as their meals while they grow over the winter. Make sure that you ask your landscaper to treat for crane flies in late fall, ideally November, after they have finished laying the eggs so that you don’t start the spring season off with an expensive-to-fix, very dead lawn. There is no great way to test for crane flies other than visually inspecting the sod where you suspect there is crane fly activity. For this reason, and because they are easily spread from neighboring lawns and wooded areas, it is best practice to regularly treat for them in November regardless of visible activity.
In short, before you get sucked in to the budgeting season this fall, remember to communicate with your communities that debris clearing, aerating, fertilizing, planter bed cleanup, and crane fly treatments are all really efficient and effective things to do to ensure a beautiful winter and a smooth spring.
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