Five Fall Landscape Projects

Fall is a great time for landscape projects for several reasons. First, landscape materials go on sale in the fall, as nurseries want to get rid of their inventory. This is especially true in areas that get cold in the winter and landscaping is essentially a seasonal occupation.

Fall is also a good time to do landscaping because it is a good time for planting just about anything. Plants go into a sort of dormant state during the winter, so planting something during the fall allows it to adjust to soil and other conditions, as well as store begin storing up water and nutrients to help it survive the warmer, dryer, summer months.

So if you've been considering doing some landscaping and have noticed prices on landscape materials beginning to drop, here's five projects to consider:

5) Fertilize your lawn. Grass is not the heartiest of plants. Even in areas with moderate temperatures grass needs a lot of care to survive. Fertilizing your lawn in the fall is sort of like providing it with a winter blanket. It gives the grass nutrients that it can store during the winter and use at the start of spring. All you need to do this is a bag of fertilizer and a spreader.

4) Aerate your lawn. This is simply punching holes in the grass. Doing this allows your grass to receive extra oxygen. While many people normally only do this in the spring, fall is an excellent time as well, as those holes will allow fertilizer and water to seep into the roots.

There are many ways to aerate your lawn, including walking around on it in spiky shoes, but the way to get this done thoroughly is to rent an aerator from a rental store. There are two types of aerators generally available, spike-type aerators that simply punch holes, and plug-type aerators that actually yank little plugs of grass and dirt out.

Either of these machines will do a good job, and which one you should use depends on how much work you are willing to put in. The spike-type aerators are the simpler of the two, requiring you simply to walk behind them like a lawnmower. The plug-type aerators will require the additional step of raking up and disposing of the plugs that it will leave behind on your lawn.

3) Rake and compost fallen leaves. When the leaves fall, most of us just rake them into a pile and send them out into the street, garbage bags, or lawn refuse bags. However, leaves are worthwhile compost material, either by themselves or added to other compost.

While leaves by themselves are not the greatest fertilizers, they do make for reasonable soil conditioners. If you really want a good fertilizer, though, you'll have to add other organic material to your leaves.

2) Plant a tree or shrub. As mentioned earlier, fall is a good time for planting almost anything (excluding garden plants and annuals). Depending on when you buy your plant, it may already have lost its foliage. Don't let that dissuade you! Planting in the fall will save you money and give your plant the best possible shot at thriving.

1) Build a greenhouse. Live somewhere cold but like the looks of plants that thrive in warmer areas? Here is your solution. With a greenhouse you can safely store those cold-sensitive plants during winter and then add them to your landscaping again in the spring.

This is a really cool and, in my opinion, very underused landscaping option. There is nothing as exciting as seeing a cactus or other warm-weather plant used in landscaping in a northern state. It obviously takes some work and planning to rotate your plant from the greenhouse to the yard each year, but it will give your landscaping a unique and exotic look that will draw a lot of approving stares.

If the kids have gone back to school and you're bored already, consider doing something with your landscaping. There are many ways to beautify your yard that require a minimum of time and effort.