Any lawn care enthusiast worth his salt knows how important it is to keep a healthy lawn every season of the year. However, if you’re new to the game, you may not yet realize the importance of seasonal care when your lawn and garden appear dormant.
If you are on the fence about the task of fall cleanup, then it’s time to learn why this is valuable use of your time. Throughout the summer and spring, the plants blossom, and your gardens flourish. As the fall begins, the leaves of the most seasonal plant’s leaves fall and, the debris gets accumulated in the soil.
These seasonal change demands a lawn cleanup, just as people clean their homes when they realize that the winter is coming or at the beginning of spring. In the fall season, weeds and pests can attack the yard, and lawn cleanup is one such measure to eradicate the infestations in your garden.
Growth
Cleaning up the lawns in the fall can promote growth in plants. Debris gathered due to falling leaves forms a bed of detritus on the plants.
These layers can block the passages in the aerated soil and prevent sunlight penetration in the soil. The debris can also obstruct the water from reaching the roots.
The leaf remnants often circle the plants, forming a boundary around them. Hence there is no room for sunlight, water, and nutrients to reach plants and nourish themselves.
Once the debris is removed, plants can resume growing without obstacles. The good news is, you can mow over smaller debris such as twigs and dead leaves, leaving behind a fine layer of nutrient-rich organic material. You can also gather the debris to mulch specific areas, such as a flower bed.
Weed Prevention
Seasonal cleanup is a free and effective way to get rid of weeds. When you thoroughly tidy up your lawns, you can more easily notice the growing weed alongside shrubs and within your flower garden. Eradicating weeds from these areas is a critical component of fall cleanup.
Pulling out the weeds is quite effective, so long as you use tools that allow you to remove the entire root. Using effective herbicides is another effective remedy. However, be sure you only spot-treat, as many herbicides will kill almost any plant they touch- not just the weeds.
Once the weeds are removed, the plants are no longer in competition for water and nutrients within the soil. Looking for additional education about invasive plants? Check out Common Weeds Found in North Texas.
Pest Removal
Excessive debris in your yard can give rise to pest colonies. Pests like wasps, spiders, mites, and ticks just love an opportunity to settle in to a deep pile of organic material such as a pile of leaves. In fact, rare occasions, these conditions can even give rise to snakes settling into your yard!
If you’re facing an ongoing issue with lawn pests despite keeping your yard clean, learn about the Best Home Pest Control Products according to our experts at JC’s.
The scrapes and junk in the lawn can serve as lodgings for bugs, mold, and algae- especially as the matter gets damp from rain and begins to decompose. Cleaning can help free your yard of pests that can not only harm your plants but your family as well.
Following are the basics for yard cleanup:
Shoveling
Shoveling can help you pick up the larger litter and debris in your yard. Take a shovel of appropriate size and start picking up the junk. This is sometimes a more helpful tool than a rake when it comes to especially large piles of leaves.
Once you have collected all the waste, you can choose to redistribute it for mulching if it isn’t already infested and/or beginning to rot. Bear in mind that you always want to leave weeds out of mulching, in order to avoid spreading their seeds throughout your yard.
If the debris you’ve shoveled up has weeds, bugs, rot, or excessive moisture, best to go ahead and throw it in the garbage.
Pruning
Pruning the dead and rotting leaves from a shrub can provide a platform of growth to the healthy branches. Dead or dying leaves and stems can monopolize and waste the nutrients that healthier parts of the plant would otherwise make good use of.
Additionally, removing a diseased portion of the plant will stop the further spread of infection. For larger pruning jobs, check out our Bush and Tree Trimming service page.
Conclusion
The fall lawn decontamination is an arduous task essential for the maintenance of the lawn. So, spare yourself from the laborious cleanup and contact JC’s Landscaping. They can analyze your yard and provide the required cleanup.
