From the changing colored leaves to the cooling temperatures, fall is the perfect season to take advantage of your outdoor entertainment area and enjoy your landscape. However, now that the fall season is upon us, don’t make these 3 common fall mistakes!
1. Overwatering can cause brown patch fungus.
Many homeowners exprienced drought stress in their lawns over the heat of summer, and to combat that raised their irrigation run times. However, now that the temperatures are dropping in the evening, this can cause light brown rings to pop up in your lawn (photo) called Brown Patch Fungus. When our evenings become cool while our days are relatively warm, the grass never quite dries out making perfect conditions for fungus to develop. Left untreated the areas will spread throughout the lawn.
What to do to avoid or treat brown patch? First, water in the morning so the lawn has a chance to dry quickly. Cut back on watering shady areas as much as possible, instead of 30 minutes per week, try 10 or 15 minutes in those areas. Second, call our office for a fungicide application which will stop it from spreading and further damaging your lawn.
2. Allowing poor drainage to remain unaddressed
Many Gainesville lawns have poor drainage that heavy summer rains create minor issues with, but nothing that causes actual damage. Unfortunatley, with the end of summer and beginning of fall comes hurricane season (as Matthew brews off the coast) and that can bring extreme amounts of rain in short periods of time causing flood damage to homes with poor drainage. Installtion of french drains, downspout extensions, pop-up emitters, and other Gainesville drainage solutions allows water to be transported quickly away from the home to avoid flood damage and water sitting against the home's foundation. These poor drainage concerns also cause lawn and landscape issues as roots are unable to dry out and are more prone to disease and lawn pests.
3. Not Fertilizing the Lawn
Many homeowners see the fall as the wind-down toward dormant season for Gainesville lawns, and don't see a need to fertilize. That couldn't be farther from the truth! With soil temperatures not reaching low numbers until late December or January, your lawn is able to develop quite a healthy root system in October if it's encouraged to do so. The added root system will help protect from frost damage through winter and provide a faster bounce-back in spring. Just make sure to get a fertilizer with high potassium and limited nitrogen to protect from fungus damage.
If you're able to avoid these 3 common mistakes this fall, your Gainesville landscape should be much more appealing and enjoyable. Enjoy the (slightly) cooler weather!