Some homeowners loathe the fall season because of the work that comes with cleaning up the yard. However, the fall is a beautiful season where you can enjoy the refreshing outdoors under mild weather conditions.
With the availability of more cleanup efficient methods, taking care of your yard will not be a nightmare again. Also, groundskeepers and specialists could help ease the process, especially in the junk removal that comes with the cleanup process. Here are more tips on how to make your fall yard work easy:
1. Get the Right Tools
The first step to making the yard cleanup as seamless as possible is by getting yourself the right tools for the job. From rakes and leaf blowers to lawnmowers and weed whackers, there are a lot of tools that will help make this process easier.
However, a lot of accidents can happen when you’re planning to do it for yourself. Therefore, ensure that you adhere to all the safety tips required to make the cleanup good and keep you and your family safe. There’s plenty of information and recommendations online on the right tools to use to get the work done and how to do it safely.
2. Cleanup the Leaves
At first, when the leaves drop, they are so beautiful to look at, but a constant pile-up makes it bad for your grass. This is because they trap moisture underneath and block the sun from getting to the lawn. Raking an accumulated amount of leaves in your yard can be a daunting task. However, to simplify the process, use a blower to pile the leaves then rake them onto a tarp. After that, drag the tarp to the pit or wherever you want them.
3. Remove the Weeds
Weeds are great opportunists and can quickly kill your grass if they are not taken care of appropriately. Use a spade and remove the weeds, but be careful not to damage the grass. You can also use your hands to pluck some of them from the roots. Also, ensure that you reseed the spot where you plucked the weed to prevent new weeds from sprouting up from the bare site.
If you have many weeds in your yard, plucking them can be time-wasting and tedious. Therefore, you can consider mulching to save you the horror of removing weeds from your garden soon. Don’t use any weed killer to remove the weeds.
4. Mow that Grass
Now that you’ve raked off the leaves from your lawn, the next step would be to cut short that grass. The most common tool for doing this job is a lawnmower. However, due to the low temperatures, the first thing to do is set the blades to their lowest setting so that your lawn can still access the little sunlight available and help your grass dry faster in the warmer seasons. This also gives you the chance to grow the right kind of grass for your yard.
It’s almost impossible to lawn your grass twice a week, but mowing it once a week should keep it perfect. Don’t cut the grass too short, and always maintain a height of at least 3 inches from the ground. Cutting deep into the ground can kill your lawn, and reviving it will be quite hard.
Also, change the pattern you use to mow every week to prevent your grass from lying in one direction and cut the grass when it’s dry. Once you cut the grass, use a mulching blade to help you bag the clippings.
5. Clean the Gutters
With the accumulation of leaves in the fall season, the gutters may easily get blocked, damaging the roof. Again, for safety purposes, you can get a plumber to do the work for you because climbing up a ladder can be quite dangerous, especially if you’re carrying a leaf blower. However, with the current technologies, you can purchase a leaf blower which you can operate while standing on the ground. Buy the extra attachment gadgets that you can add to your blower to help you do that.
6. Prune the Plants
Pruning encourages the growth of healthier plants in your yard; therefore, it’s necessary to do it from time to time. If your plants are not well maintained, it may lead to permanent damage, and they won’t have the thick and full appearance they ought to have. Also, this helps them not to overgrow in the cold seasons and will help them bloom even more in the upcoming warmer season. Use a well-sharpened pruning saw to eliminate the heavy branches and cut them downwards. The reason for this is to avoid cutting into the collar.
7. Do a Flower Bed Cleanup
The fall season is perfect for cleaning up your flower bed and remove and replace the dead plants and flowers. These dead flowers only add unattractiveness that you don’t need for your yard, so you must pluck out the dead flower heads. Doing this helps them blossom better in the next season, and it also tames the aggressive flowers from overshadowing the rest of them. The cleanup process for these is usually straightforward, and you only need a small pair of scissors to do it.
You can throw the deadheads into a small bag to dispose of them later. However, you can use your hands to pluck them off in some cases if the stems are not that hard. While plucking out the flower heads, ensure that you pluck out the whole flower head, not just the dead petals, and also be careful not to pluck out the new buds.
8. Clean The Sidewalk and Driveway
After doing cleanup to your yard, you may notice staining to your sidewalks. Most of these sidewalks are made from concrete. A pressure washer and a stain-removing degreaser will come in handy to remove all the spots and leave the concrete super clean. To prevent leaving marks on the concrete from the pressure washer, get a universal one that doesn’t have a spraying cleaner nozzle.
With these guidelines, cleaning up your yard this season should be the least stressful thing to handle. Every yard is different, so do good scrutiny and determine the appropriate tools and do the maintenance it requires. If you do this, your yard will never look the same again.
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