Fall Lawn Care Tips with Your ATV
In This Article:
Fall Lawn Care Tips / Helpful ATV Accessories
Feed Your Lawn in the Fall
Seed Your Lawn in the Fall
Use Your ATV with a Lawn Fertilizer Spreader or Grass Seeder
Repair Your Lawn’s Bare Spots
Should You Eliminate Lawn Thatch in the Fall?
Should You Aerate Your Lawn in the Fall?
Don’t Put Your Lawn Mower Away Yet!
Rake Those Leaves
Control Those Weeds and those Pests
At Treadworld, We’ve Got the Replacement Tires For Your ATV and All Your Lawn Care Equipment!
Fall Lawn Care Tips / Helpful ATV Accessories
Considering that the coming of cooler fall temperatures brings a state of relative dormancy to your lawn, you might not think fall is the perfect time to forget about lawn care . Actually, it’s a critical time—at least if a beautiful, pristine lawn is on your list of priorities. Taking the time to maintain your lawn before the coming snow and/or colder weather is the best way to stave off possible lawn damage, and give your lawn a head start, so it will flourish, when spring comes around. The cooler, humid temps actually can help grassroots develop stronger than they do during summer months, so taking advantage of this late season time can pay big dividends next year. That’s why the tire experts at Treadworld have put together some tips for getting your yard in the best shape possible before cold weather sets in, plus—because we know your time is money—we’ve also added some pointers for putting your ATV to work with so you can make short work of your fall lawn care and fall lawn maintenance tasks.
Using a fall fertilizer for grass is important to a plush lawn in the spring because the moisture that comes with the season enhances absorption of the fertilizer, while supplying energy and nutrients that support vigorous root growth that builds the stamina your grass needs to hold up during chilly winter months. Many lawn and garden experts will tell you that fall is the most important time to fertilize. A rule of thumb is to fertilize around six weeks before the first frost of the season. And if you’re going to aerate (see below), fertilize soon after to get maximum absorption into the soil. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium can all prove beneficial for aiding in root growth, disease protection, drought tolerance, of course, cold resistance.
Late season seeding is another essential to making your lawn thick and beautiful in the spring. Fall conditions are great for germinating grass seed, especially cool-season grass seeds. Your focus should be on getting seed as much contact with the soil as possible to assist with germination—which would seem to call for a slit seeder that cuts slits into the soil, rather than a broadcast seeder. But because slit seeders are notorious for tearing up your yard, a better solution is using a grass seed spreader, a drop spreader or a broadcast spreader, then following up with some gentle raking to get optimal penetration. A side benefit to the dense lawn you’re working toward is that it tends to protect against the proliferation of weeds.
Use Your ATV with a Lawn Fertilizer Spreader or Grass Seeder
Put your ATV to work with ATV accessories. If you have a bigger yard, an ATV fertilizer spreader and/or seed spreader attachment will help you distribute your fertilizer and grass seed easier and faster. You have the option of choosing an accessory that mounts on your ATV, or you can get a pull-behind model. Both can provide quick, easy distribution of fertilizer and seed. With many models of fertilizer spreaders and seed spreaders to choose from, you can select the style, capacity and the rate at which the lawn food is distributed.
Beyond adding seed to thicken up your lawn, the fall season leading to colder weather is also an ideal time for repairing bald spots and high traffic areas in your yard. Before seeding, prepare the soil with a rake, then water after, to promote quick germination. If you’re looking for quicker results, consider patching your lawn with thick, dense and weed-free sod.
Should You Eliminate Lawn Thatch in the Fall?
You probably know that thatch is the layer of dead grass, old roots and debris of nature that hangs out between the soil and your grass, soaking up water and waiting to decompose. Using a lawn dethatcher can thin out thatch, allowing your grass to get more water and sunlight. When you’re considering using a dethatcher in the fall, timing is important. You want to be sure to leave enough time for your lawn to recover before it hits the seasonal dormancy caused by lower temperatures and snow. The best time for dethatching, or similarly using a power rake on your lawn, is from late August through early October. Again, if you use a pull-behind dethatcher connected to your ATV, you’ll be able to save time and effort. Thinning out this old organic matter helps your lawn breathe again and encourages new growth.
Should You Aerate Your Lawn in the Fall?
Aerating your lawn creates tiny holes (spike aerator), or removes small plugs of soil (core aerator or plus aerator) from the soil. This is a good thing because it provides more room for grass roots to grow, and helps alleviate soil compaction to water, sunlight, oxygen and nutrients to reach the grass roots more easily below the surface, helping those roots to dig deeper into the soil, and better preparing them for the coming winter. There are a wide variety of pull-behind aerators you can easily attach to your ATV. But as with dethatching your yard, you want to pay attention to the timing so that your lawn will have enough time to recover from use of a lawn aerator before the temperatures drop.
Don’t Put Your Lawn Mower Away Yet!
The grass in your yard will continue to grow up until the first hard frost, so you want to continue to mow your yard until then. Keep cutting it to your normal height, until near the very end of the mowing season, then cut it shorter—1-1/2 to 2 inches high—to allow more sunlight to reach the crown of the grass blades, and help minimize the chance of snow mold. Once again, the versatility of your ATV can be a plus by saving you money on a riding lawn mower, by reducing the time it takes to trim a big lawn, and by making short work of thick, tall vegetation, with the right ATV attachments.
You’re going to want to address the leaves in your yard. Left unattended, fallen leaves can suffocate your lawn grasses, blocking out sunlight, and causing soggy, decaying grass in the spring—while at the same time putting out a “welcome sign” for disease and fungi. You can mow and mulch small quantities of leaves, but you should rake, bag or compost larger quantities. A pull-behind lawn sweeper attached to your ATV can also be used, as can a pull-behind mulcher, though you may find mulchers to be on the spendier side.
Control Those Weeds and Those Pests
The cooler fall months are also an ideal time for controlling perennial broadleaf weeds such as white clover, wild violets, dandelions and plantain by applying a herbicide, and will pay dividends when the spring growing season begins. Additionally, if you notice any kind of lawn pest problem during your fall yard maintenance, take care of it before the first hard frost because the problem will be intensified with the coming of spring. Keep a lookout for grubs, chinch bugs, army worms, cutworms, sod webworms, billbugs, leatherjackets, ants and mole crickets. You can apply an insecticide as needed. Once again, you can employ your ATV equipped with an ATV sprayer to make short work of the job. The ATV attachment that you need may differ based on the type of weed or pest control you are pursuing.
At Treadworld, We’ve Got the Replacement Tires For Your ATV and All Your Lawn Care Equipment!
You can count on us here at Treadworld to provide you with the dependable, high performance Master ATV Tires and RubberMaster Lawn Care Tires you want. ATV tires, lawn and garden tires, mower tires for every variety of mower and riding mower, dethatcher tires, aerator tires, seeder tires, lawn sweeper tires—whatever you’re looking for you’ll find right here, in a wide variety of styles and sizes. All of our tires offer the finest in top quality, long-lasting, never-let-you-down reliability, manufactured with strict tolerances from top rubber compounds, triple-tested for quality before being X-rayed to be sure they’re perfect, then covered by our Ultimate Advantage Warranty. Don’t hesitate to contact our tire experts via live chat or email with any questions or for help finding the perfect lawn and garden tires—or the perfect ATV tires, UTV tires, trailer tires, and many others—from our large selection.
