When fall comes, with it comes its own set of lawn care chores to set you up for spring. These pro tips will help you have a healthy start to your spring lawn by best preparing it for the dormant winter season. A recent CNET survey found that 53% of US adults are cutting back on nonessential spending which might include taking on your own lawn care.
If you spent the summer neglecting the grass and mowing your lawn with reckless abandon, you can take action now to help your yard come to life next year. With some help from two experts at Lowe's and Scotts, we've rounded up four steps on how to kickstart your lawn post-winter.
1. Feed your lawn fertilizer
A fertilizer spreader is great for ensuring an even distribution across your lawn and is also helpful when spreading grass seed. Scotts fertilizer spreader distributing across a lawn.
Going to sleep for months without proper food would not bode well for anything, including your lawn. Ensuring it is properly nourished is vital to its health year-round, but especially in the fall and winter.
According to Matt Koch, the director of biotechnology, genetics and seed at Scotts, you want to apply two fall fertilizer feedings. Doing so can help strengthen the grass and repair the roots damaged by the summer heat.
Worm composting can generate great fertilizer for your garden and house plants. kaiooooooooooooo/Getty Images
It's also a great time to get rid of weeds before they go into hibernation. Applying a fertilizer like Scotts Turf Builder WinterGuard in early fall both feeds the lawn and kills weeds, so you're ahead of the game come spring.
After about six to eight weeks, Koch suggests applying another fertilizer designed to support your lawn during winter so it can store energy for spring growth. He recommends doing this two to three weeks before the first expected frost.
2. Repair damaged or bare spots
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