Discover helpful tips and things to be aware of while tending to your garden or yard this season.
Lawns
If you haven't tested your soil for three to four years, the fall is a great time to do it. Likely the most pressing duty now is to keep leaves from packing and smothering grass.
Many people mow the leaves, effectively chopping them up where they'll sift into the canopy. To do this you may need to mow them several times; try blowing the leaves such that you mow over them again and again. This will work better when the leaves are dry, but it generates a fair amount of dust, so take care if sensitive to it. If collecting whole leaves, consider storing them for use as mulch in a vegetable garden. Chopped leaves are wonderful mulch for a wider range of applications, but they tend to degrade quicker.
This is also a good time to recondition your lawn mower; store the mower with clean oil and empty fuel tank. If you don't like mechanical work, service shops may run some type of winter special, and may be willing to pick your mower up. If you have a company mow your lawn, this is a good time to review the agreement, and consider if you were happy with their service. Consider seeking alternative bids during this down time.
I am frequently called or visited by individuals disgruntled with their lawn service company. I always caution them by saying "consider how much time it takes to maintain a high quality lawn; you get out of it what you put in with time and money." A good way to assess the time and effort needed for a lawn is to review University of Missouri's publication "Cool-Season Grasses: Lawn Maintenance Calendar" or the companion publication on zoysia grass lawns. Do you have the time and energy to do all those advised practices?
Fruits
We've had mild winters for the last three years, but our temperature ups and downs can still cause problems.
I had an interesting case this past winter where in the spring three plants all had dieback, Asian persimmon (Sanjo), which is an Arkansas grape cultivar (Hope) and mimosa tree. Our state viticulture specialist helped me attribute the damage to the quick and extreme cold spell just before Christmas. It seems more "southern adapted" plants don't go into dormancy as easily, and thus these hadn't by then. The dieback wasn't apparent until well into April, and while all have recovered, their late growth was kind of rank.