This four-part series covers lawn care tasks most suitable for each season of the year in Texas. Part three discusses autumn lawn care. In the fall, warm-season grass start to grow more slowly in preparation for winter dormancy. Before the grass goes dormant, your lawn will benefit from a few maintenance tasks to keep the grass healthy over winter.
Fungus and Disease
Fall is a good time to treat any turf diseases that you have noticed in your lawn. For example, if you have a Bermuda grass lawn that experienced spring dead spot, the most likely cause was a fungus that attacked grass roots the fall before. A fungicide in September will prevent the problem recurring next year.
Seeding and Mowing
A few warm-season grasses, particularly zoysia and centipede grass, can be grown from seed. If you need to replant areas of your lawn and want to use seed, early fall is the best time to plant new grass.
Some southern homeowners like to overseed their warm-season lawn with a cool-season grass to keep the lawn green over winter. The best seed for this is ryegrass, which germinates quickly and dies in the spring so it will not compete with your regular lawn grass. To overseed a lawn, begin planting about 4 – 6 weeks before the first killing frost date. Before overseeding, it is a good idea to apply compost to the lawn.
There are a few downsides to overseeding. The regular mowing season for Texas typically ends in November, but if the ryegrass grows well and the winter is mild, you will probably need to mow a few times over the winter. Until the ryegrass dies as the weather warms, it will compete with warm-season grasses coming out of dormancy, and may delay grass greening up in the spring. To combat this, the ryegrass will need to be mowed short in the spring until the permanent lawn begins to grow again.
Other Lawn Maintenance
Your grass will benefit from one last does of fertilizer before winter sets in. Extra nutrients applied in the early fall will help strengthen the grass before it goes dormant. After fertilizing, start reducing how often you water, if you irrigate your lawn. As the weather cools, the soil will hold water longer, and the warm-season grasses will need less water as their growth slows down.
Keep up with raking or, better yet, blowing leaves that fall from deciduous trees. Letting leaves stay on the lawn blocks light from reaching the grass, which can stress the lawn and affect how well the grass overwinters.
Completing a few lawn care tasks in the fall can help keep your Texas lawn healthy into the next year. Treating lawn issues, seeding bare spots, applying one last fertilizer treatment, and reducing water to the lawn will all help strengthen the lawn for overwinter. If a green lawn is important to you all year round, fall is also the time to think about overseeding with ryegrass for winter color. Planning to complete these tasks in the fall will help keep your grass healthy all year long.
