Four Things to Do to Your Lawn Before the Ground Freezes
The mower goes in the shed. The bag of fertilizer stays in the garage. The dandelions get a pass until spring.
Then April shows up and so do the same dandelions, in the same spots, in a lawn that greens up thin and stays that way through June.
What you do between now and freeze-up is what your lawn looks like next May.
Fall Lawn Care in Nebraska: The Short List
- Fall fertilizer. 18-18-18, watered in.
- Broadleaf weed killer. The only stretch of the year it kills the root.
- Lime. Any month, but fall works best. Soil test first.
- Mole control. While they are still working near the surface.
Here is why each one matters and what to put down.
When Should You Fertilize Your Lawn in the Fall?
Any time before the ground freezes, and if you only feed the lawn once a year, make it this one.
In spring, grass puts everything into blades. You feed it, it grows fast, you mow it more. That is the whole return.
In fall it flips. Top growth slows down and the plant pushes everything into roots instead.
So feeding now does not buy you green grass this month. It buys root depth, and root depth is what decides whether the lawn holds through next July or goes brown by the Fourth.
What to use: 18-18-18 covers most yards.
Water it in, or put it down ahead of a rain or snow. Dry granules sitting on top of the grass are not doing anything for you.
When Is the Best Time to Kill Dandelions?
Fall, and it is not close. Spray them now and they do not come back.
Look at what a dandelion is doing right now. Winter is coming, so it is pulling food down out of its leaves and packing it into the root to live on until spring.
Spray it while that is happening and it carries the weed killer down there with the food. The root dies. That plant is done.
Spray the same dandelion in April and everything is moving the other direction, up into new growth. The leaves brown out, you think you got it, and three weeks later it is back full size. The root never took a hit.
What it handles: dandelion, clover, plantain, ground ivy, creeping charlie, thistle. The ones that keep coming back.
What to use: Q4 Plus or Trimec if you are spot spraying. Weed and Feed if you would rather cover the fertilizer and the weeds in one pass.
Spray while the weeds are still green and growing. Once they shut down for winter they stop pulling anything to the root, and the weed killer has nothing to ride down.
If you seeded this fall, keep these off the new grass until you have mowed it three or four times.
Does Your Lawn Need Lime?
Only a soil test answers that, and you can spread lime any month of the year. Fall is when it pays.
Lime works slowly, three to six months to move your pH. Put it down now and the freezing and thawing all winter works it into the soil, so it is already doing its job by the time you need it in spring. Spread it in April and you are waiting until fall for the benefit.
Here is why pH matters more than people think. Get it far enough off and the fertilizer you are spreading cannot get into the plant. You can feed a lawn correctly all year, watch it stay thin, and never find out the problem was never the fertilizer.
Get the test done first. Labs run soil tests, not us. Your county Extension office can tell you where to send a sample and how to pull one.
Bring us the results. We will tell you how much lime your yard needs, or that you can skip it and put the money somewhere else.
How Do You Get Rid of Moles?
Go after them while they are still working near the surface. Once the ground freezes they drop deep and you cannot reach them.
Raised tunnels running across the yard mean moles, and fall is their busiest stretch.
They are not eating your grass. Moles are after grubs and worms, and the damage is from tunneling. That is why killing grubs helps in some yards and does nothing in others.
Which product depends on how much yard you are covering. Mole Max granules push them off a large area. Moletox II goes into an active run you can find. A mole trap is the surest on a single tunnel you can watch.
What Can You Still Do After the Ground Freezes?
Seed bare spots. That is about it, and it works better than it sounds.
Frost seeding means spreading seed once the ground has gone cold for good. It sits there all winter, the freezing and thawing works it into the soil, and it comes up on its own in spring with no watering and no weeds competing with it. We will run through how that works next month.
Come See Us
We are at 2001 Riverside Boulevard in Norfolk. Open 7:30 to 5:00 Monday through Friday, and 7:30 to noon on Saturdays.
Tell us what your yard did this year and we will put the right bag in your truck and tell you what you can skip.
Call 402-844-3304 or get in touch here for more information or to get connected with a dealer near you.
Seeded this fall and wondering what comes next? Start with fall lawn seeding in Nebraska.