Friday, August 11, 2017

By John Voket While next spring's landscaping is likely far from your mind, August is actually a great time to plan for and equip yourself for September and October landscaping practices that will make a great and beauteous impact on your property come spring, according to the folks at Snow Creek Landscaping (snowcreekinc.com) down in Asheville, N.C.

The Snow Creek crew says by pressing pause now, property owners aren’t preparing their landscape to be the best it can be during the winter, spring, and next summer. In fact, they say it could all go to waste without proper late season TLC.

Massachusetts based Harvest suggests four key things anyone can do to prep their fall landscape for maximum spring splendor:

- Letting grass grow longer protects it from frost and makes it more resilient to lawn fungus and diseases, as well as invasion by voles, mice and other critters.
- Aerating the soil allows for water drainage and prevents it from becoming waterlogged from snow. After aerating (or even if you don’t aerate), Harvest says topdress the turf surface with a 1/4″ layer of compost, which will add nutrition and fortify grass roots.
- Seeding your lawn encourages the growth of turf roots during fall and winter. Splurge on high-quality seed products to ensure the lawn will be able to stand up to drought, disease and pests.
- Instead of bagging and dragging fall leaves to the curb, use a small patch of lawn to create a compost pile. If you have existing compost soil, mix it in with the leaves and turn all the materials well with a pitchfork.

Alternatively, you can place leaves onto the top of the garden between plants and on top of bare soil as a natural layer of mulch that will moderate soil temperatures.

Harvest says by doing this you are simply recycling a natural resource and enriching your soil for free - and it will save time and money and raking and bagging!

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