Seasonal Free Tips

7 tips on Fall Cleanup Rake up leaves as they fall. The more often you rake your leaves, the less time it takes to pick them up. If leaves sit on your lawn longer than seven days, much-needed oxygen is blocked for the grass below. Cut the grass to 2.5 inch high during the fall season-this ensures that your lawn will not be matted down in the spring. Aerate and fertilize your lawn. You should fertilize your lawn each season, but Fall is the best time to do once a year fertilizing. UFLEXXTM Stabilized Nitrogen Fertilizer from Proven Brands is the best way to treat your lawn. Step four in the lawn care system is the Fall Fertilizer/New Lawn Starter which promotes vigorous growth of new grass in spring and encourages root development, winter hardiness and disease resistance in fall. Clear window wells and gutters of debris. This will prevent any water from leaking into your home. Check your house for any areas that need to be re-sealed. Re-sealing proves to lower heating and cooling costs by insulating your home. Common areas needing sealing include door stoops, the area around windows and doors, faucets, and sinks. Fall is probably the busiest time in the garden. Your garden beds have to be cleaned up and prepared for next year's crops. The more work you do in the fall the less you have to do in spring. All debris must be composted or garbaged-utilize leaves, hay, or straw. Build up your compost piles in the usual way, cover them and let them do their job as they will until spring. If you add leaves to the compost heap, run them through the lawn mower first and sprinkle earth lightly between other materials. When you have cleaned your beds, dig in a good quantity of finished compost. Add a little bone meal and kelp (for minerals). If you dig beds to comfortable spade depth, you don't need to do much in the spring. Cover the beds lightly with chopped leaves, hay, or straw, which will rot down over winter and can be dug into the earth for organic matter in early spring. Clean tools and oil them to prevent rust before safely putting them away for the season.