Fall Yard Maintenance Tips to Save Time and Money Next Spring

From Everything Finance

Fall Yard Maintenance Tips to Save Time and Money Next Spring is a post originally published on: Everything Finance – Everything Finance – Its all about Money!

When it comes to owning a house, the yard maintenance can be one of the most time consuming things. At least, I know it has been for us, no matter which house we have lived in. We continually get a lot of compliments on our yard, which is awesome! However, most people have no idea just how much time and money it costs to keep this yard up. But we have found some tricks to make it easier and more cost effective for us overall. And a big part of that has to do with what we do in the Fall to make our spring less painful. So, we wanted to give you our best Fall yard maintenance tips to potentially help you save time and money next Spring on your yard!

Lawn Care

A big part of our Fall yard maintenance is the lawn, since it takes up most of our yard. And during the in-season, it requires constant upkeep, which I am not a huge fan of. However, there are a couple of tips we have found to help make our lawn bounce right back in the Spring that doesn’t take much work in the Fall.

Mowing

First and foremost is to keep mowing the lawn until the first frost sets in. Usually, we stop a few weeks before that happens though. The reason for us is because we keep our grass cut shorter than the recommended 2 1/2″ – 3″ height because it rains so darn much where we live. By cutting it shorter during the in-season, we can get away with only cutting it every two weeks instead of every week, which I happen to be a huge fan of!

Even though we don’t have a gas lawnmower anymore, it still costs money every time we mow the lawn. We switched to a battery-operated Greenworks lawnmower this year and have loved it! But, we have to charge the 60-volt battery every time we want to mow the lawn. And the electricity needed to charge the battery costs money.

No matter how you normally cut your lawn, you want your lawn to be at the ideal height when the first frost sets in. This ensures that the grass will come back as soon as Spring hits and you won’t have patchy areas. The correct height ensures this because if it is too long you risk mold and fungi, but if it is too short you risk the root system being damaged.

Plus, with continued mowing, it can help with the other issue that can be a real problem for your lawn: leaves. With the Fall comes falling leaves for any of us that have trees in or near our yard. And if these leaves aren’t blown or mowed and mulched up, then they can cause the grass underneath them to die during the winter.

Leaves

Therefore, the other big fall yard maintenance tip for your lawn is to rake, blow or mulch up the leaves that fall in your yard. We prefer to blow our leaves daily because we have a pool and want to keep them out of there. So any leaves that are still on the grass when we mow the lawn then get mulched up. And mulched up leaves create fantastic fertilizer for your grass because they create a nutrient-dense soil with which the grass can grow in. This means your lawn will come back faster and greener in the Spring. Bonus!

Proper Covering

And speaking of the lawn, having proper covering for certain areas is a must. We just learned this trick last year and are so glad that we did! Since we board dogs regularly (A LOT OF DOGS!), when the Fall comes they can tear up the yard. So this trick is important for anybody who either:

• has animals
• boards animals
• has areas in the yard that are constantly susceptible to run-off

If you fall into any of these categories, then you should consider getting hay bales to help out. Spread the hay over any areas of your yard that are already showing signs of the grass not coming back. By putting hay on top of these areas, it will protect the area from further damage. But, it will also ensure that the grass will come back next year by protecting the roots. And if you are adding grass seed this Fall, you will want to spread hay on top of those areas also. The hay will help keep the grass seeds from being eaten and give them a chance to fully take root.

On a similar note, if you have any flower beds or young trees that you don’t want weeds to come back in, then pine straw is the answer for you. Spread the pine straw around cleaned out beds and around the base of young trees. This helps them stay hydrated, but also keep the weeds from coming back in the Spring.

We tried that trick last year for the first time in some of our flower beds at the front of our house and it worked beautifully!

Trimming Trees and Bushes

One of my least favorite things to do during the in-season is to keep having to trim the trees and bushes. Since we live in a very green area, they just continue to grow like wildfire here. Which is great, because they look beautiful! But, taking care of the trees and bushes can be extremely time-consuming.

So, one of my best Fall yard maintenance tips is to trim back your trees and bushes now to save yourself a headache in the Spring. If you trim them back further now, they will blossom nicely in the Spring. And they won’t require any maintenance until closer to the end of the season.

Plus, we use the trimmed limbs in our fire pit to roast marshmallows or hot dogs with the family.  We just use what we have at our disposal, so we don’t have to purchase any logs to burn. And this ends up saving us money!

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Overall, there are some great things you can do this Fall in your yard to prepare for Spring. And by implementing some of these tips, you can save yourself a lot of time and some money in the Spring.

Make sure your lawn is at the proper 2 1/2″ – 3″ height when the first frost hits. Either rake up all of your leaves or mulch them when you mow. Put down hay in areas where the grass needs protecting. Spread pine straw in areas where you don’t want the weeds to grow back next year. And last, but not least, trim back all of your trees and bushes.

If you can even do just one or two of these Fall yard maintenance tips, it will really help you start out next Spring with an edge up!

What are some of your favorite Fall yard maintenance tips that help save you time and money in the Spring?

Fall Yard Maintenance Tips to Save Time and Money Next Spring is a post originally published on: Everything Finance – Everything Finance – Its all about Money!

This post was published on Everything Finance