Fall Lawn Care Schedule For PPLM Lawns
As we mentioned in one of our recent aeration and seeding videos, it has become less and less practical in the lawn care and landscape maintenance world to force a set calendar schedule for the seasonal flow of services and fertilizer applications. We saw more than ever this year the unpredictable and extreme impact a changing climate and its weather can have on Virginia lawns. This November, Picture Perfect Lawn Maintenance changes gears with both our fertilization and mowing divisions, getting lawns settled in for fall and prepared for winter with our Fall Lawn Care Schedule.
For Picture Perfect Lawn Maintenance’s Fall Lawn Care Schedule and fertilization crew, the first week of November has us wrapping up the last couple of aeration and seeding services before shutting the aerators down until next year. While some larger companies will continue providing aeration and seeding services through Thanksgiving and even into December, PPLM always tries to complete most aeration and seeding work by the end of October and discontinue the service entirely before mid-November. By this point in the season, temperatures are too unpredictable, and the first true frosts of the end of fall will occur before any seed laid down has a chance to germinate and develop enough to withstand such extreme cold.
Coming off of aeration and seeding, Picture Perfect Lawn Maintenance’s fertilization crew will be turning our attention toward our Fall Lawn Care Schedule which will be round five of our fertilization program. This program is designed with nutritional balance in mind, combining seven unique applications into a year-round program that provides an array of organically based nutrients to your lawn at times of the year when they’re most needed. Round five, also known as our rejuvenator application, utilizes a strong amount of compost to hold water and build soils into the ground that are rich in minerals and nutrients. Building a strong lawn now will help fortify it against extreme winter temperatures, help it stay resistant to disease, maximize its ability to absorb nutrients, and set it up for great success in the spring.
One of the key ingredients in this round of fertilizer is nitrogen, which has a quick, positive effect on the color and health of your lawn’s grass blades. Nitrogen helps the new grass from your recent seeding grow properly and lets the whole lawn repair any damage it sustained from summer stress or the high rates of fungus and disease we experienced this year. In addition, nitrogen has a direct impact on how green your lawn is. After round five from Picture Perfect Lawn Maintenance, your lawn should be visibly greener during the nicest part of fall. However, too much nitrogen can increase the risk of disease in your lawn. PPLM always balances nitrogen conservatively in our fertilization program and uses it in moderation to preserve the health of the lawns that we maintain.
Missing from the rejuvenator application in Picture Perfect Lawn Maintenance’s fertilization program is weed control. Unless this round is being applied to a property that did not have any kind of seeding done this fall, PPLM refrains from applying weed control due to the higher risk of unintentional damage it can do to fragile baby grass. It is PPLM’s focus to build a revitalized lawn this time of year. Most lawns are experiencing a degree of late season weed breakthrough after the aeration service disturbed so much soil and brought dormant weed seeds to the surface. Even though PPLM uses a completely weed-free fescue seed for our aeration and seeding services, preexisting weed seeds in the soil will always be a factor in an open environment like all Virginia lawns. Generally, PPLM recommends a lawn be mowed 3-4 times post seeding before being exposed to weed control products. By the end of November, Picture Perfect Lawn Maintenance generally tries to have round five of our Fall Lawn Care Schedule fertilization program completed and be moving on to round six, which is our winterizer application and the soonest that we begin building weed control back into our fertilization program.
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