Your Fall Landscaping Checklist

The summer always flies by too fast, especially here in Washington and North Idaho. But, it happened, fall is here. 

While all of us garden lovers and landscape enthusiasts may be sad, fall is actually the prime time for prepping your yard for the next growing season. 

The temperature is cooling, and the moisture is encouraging strong root development beneath your soil. Now is the time to protect your plants’ health and remove dead branches, spent stems, and heavy leaf covers. Read on for Circle M’s fall landscaping checklist.

Aerate the Lawn

A great time to aerate compressed soil is when rain falls on your grass. This allows water and nutrients to reach the roots.

Feed Your Grass

In the early fall, grass is recovering from summer. September is the best time to fertilize your lawn in the fall, but if you haven’t done it already, it’s not too late, we’ve had an unusually warm October this year! Until the ground gets down to about 40 degrees, grass roots keep growing, so now is the time to feed your lawn. 

Plant New Shrubs

Planting shrubs in the early fall can actually give your plants a head start at establishing roots while the soil is moist and cool. As a simple guide on planting shrubs: Dig a hole, at least twice the size of the root ball, and put the shrub in the hole (be sure to keep the root ball above ground level); fill in with Circle M’s Premium Topsoil; add water to settle soil; then add more soil to the top of the root ball (don’t pack the soil down with your foot); mulch.

Shop Dirt & Topsoil

Are You Ready To Lively Up Your Garden?

Trim Dead Limbs

If branches are lifeless, they could break down under winter snow and wind, and become a hazard to you and your home. Protecting small ornamental trees from further damage can be easily accomplished by cutting cracked, loose, and diseased limbs close to the trunk. Note: you’ll want to leave the exposed wounds to heal.

Cut Back Perennials

Spring beds that are maintained are healthier; the more snails and slugs and tired annuals you remove, the healthier your garden area will be. If your perennial foliage is spent, trim it down to the ground; this will send more energy to the roots, for next season.

Mulch Young Plants

If you have a new bed, give it a layer of mulch or wood chips when you start to notice a light frost, but before the ground freezes. We recommend our Medium Fine Red Fir, or our Fresh Red Bark Fines, as finer wood bark mulches are better for garden beds as they decompose faster. For best results, you can till decomposed layers of organic mulch into the soil, and then apply a fresh 2- to 4-inch layer to keep your new plants nice and warm, and to mitigate erosion.