The key to having a healthy lawn year-round is regular lawn maintenance. Did you know, however, that seasonal cleanups—especially a fall cleaning—are just as critical for your lawn’s health?
Here are seven fantastic reasons professional fall yard cleanups benefit your lawn in the southern Rhode Island area.
- Allows your lawn to breathe and photosynthesize
A thick layer of leaves on the lawn may seem harmless, but it can cause damage, making it hard for your grass to get through the cold winter months. This soggy weighted blanket has the potential to smother the grass underneath by blocking the sunlight and inhibiting air circulation.
Grass needs chemical energy from sunlight to drive photosynthesis, which results in glucose. They need oxygen to turn that glucose into energy for metabolic processes.
If your grass can’t photosynthesize or convert the sugar into energy, it will die.
- Keeps your lawn healthy
Leaves and other debris left on your grass through the winter create a perfect environment for many turfgrass diseases. These materials hold onto moisture from rain, snow, and dew and limit airflow through the grass. This wet, stagnant environment is a petri dish for fungi and bacteria.
Once temperatures start warming in the spring, these diseases (especially snow mold, brown patch, and red thread) wreak havoc on your lawn. Plus, if you walk through the layer of moldy leaves, you can kick spores into the air!Â
Removing leaves eliminates the perfect environment and minimizes spring disease problems.
- Hinders the spread of fungi and other diseases
Many fungi and diseases can affect your lawn, the trees in your landscape, and even ornamental and garden plants. Unfortunately, many of these fungi hang out through the winter in fallen leaves and other debris.
When spring rolls around, the fungi become active and begin producing spores. Splashing rain and wind carry these spores back onto trees and other plants.
Professional fall yard cleanup that picks up leaves and other debris up in the fall eliminates the principal place these fungi overwinter, hindering the disease(s) come spring.
- Deters rodents, insects, and other hazardous pests
A thick layer of leaves and debris poses problems for your lawn’s health and serves as a habitat for potentially dangerous pests through the winter.
It’s nothing that we like to think about, but the truth is leaves and debris are a perfect protective layer for pests such as snakes, fire ants, and spiders. When you, your partner, kids, or your pet walk around and stir up the leaves, they can come in direct contact with them and risk getting bitten.
A thick covering is also an excellent habitat for rodents like voles and mice. These pesky critters can feed on the roots and grass crowns, causing significant damage to the turf and ground, but what’s stopping them from coming into the house if they’re in the yard?
Removing leaves, debris, and sticks keeps these pests from taking up residence in your yard and keeps everyone in your house safer.
- Allows grass to grow in the spring
Leaf clutter can be heavy, especially after taking on moisture from rain and snow through the winter. If thick enough, this weighty layer can crush your grass and even break blades off of the plant’s crown, preventing new growth from springing forth when the temperature starts warming.
- Your yard looks good
There’s no denying that people like having a lush, manicured lawn because it looks nice. You feel a sense of pride when you pull into the driveway or look out your kitchen window into the backyard.
Cleaning the leaves off the lawn and picking up debris gives you the same feeling through the fall and even winter, depending upon snowfall amounts. Your yard will look beautiful, even if it isn’t bright green.
- Makes your life easier
Just because this is the last benefit on our list doesn’t mean it’s the least important. For some homeowners, hiring someone else to do the work is the best benefit of all.
Not only does hiring a professional fall yard cleanup free up your time to do the things you love, but completing the work in the fall means when spring rolls around and the snow melts, you don’t have a lengthy to-do list looming over your head. You’ll already be prepared for the warm weather and can focus on growing healthy grass instead of doing damage control.
Interested in a Professional Fall Yard Cleanup?
855-RILAWNS offers fall cleanup services that cover all leaves, branches, sticks, and other debris accumulated in your yard through the season. We’ll even cut perennial beds back and mow the grass one final time. A professional fall yard cleanup is a fantastic way to prepare your lawn and yard for winter!
If you are interested in hiring us for fall cleanup services, contact us here to get a quote or connect with us through our Facebook page.
The service area of our skilled RI Landscapers includes South Kingstown, Narragansett, Charlestown, Exeter, North Kingstown, Warwick, West Warwick, Jamestown, Richmond, Providence, East Providence, South Kingstown, and East Greenwich.
