Tips for taking care of your lawn in the fall in West Texas – Standard-Times

Allison Watkins, Special to the San Angelo Standard-Times Published 6:00 a.m. CT Oct. 15, 2020 | Updated 12:56 p.m. CT Oct. 17, 2020

Texas A&M's AgriLife Extension Service offers several publications to help you establish and maintain a healthy lawns.(Photo: Texas A&M AgriLife)

Fall weather has come and gone several times; summer hasnt quite wanted to be done for the year. Its hard to know what to do in the yard with such changeable conditions! Now that we are getting closer to November, days are getting shorter and temperatures are not jumping up quite so high.

The first landscape task for fall is to modify watering. Homeowners with automatic irrigation systems should adjust the timers if they have not been changed for fall yet. While there have been plenty of hot days recently, landscapes are needing less water than during the extreme summer climate. The website WaterMyYard.org is a great tool to help know how long to run the irrigation system each week based on local weather.

There have been questions about a weedy grass popping up in yards KR bluestem is an invasive, aggressive perennial grass that pops up in late summer and has gone to seed this time of year. It thrives most in yards that are stressed, and not as much in healthy, vigorously growing yards. So the main recommendation for control is to mow frequently, fertilize properly and irrigate regularly through the growing season to allow the turfgrass to thrive and resist weed invasion. Pre-emergent will not provide good control since KR bluestem is a perennial plant. Keep an eye out and catch it early dig up clumps of the grass by hand before it gets out of control.

Later in the season when leaves start to fall, remember dont bag it and keep fallen leaves out of landfills. Leaves are a great source of organic matter and should be taken advantage of place in a compost pile, use as mulch in beds, or even simply mow over leaves in the grass to shred them up.

Now that its cooling down, its a great time to add some fresh bright color to the landscape with cool season annual color. Plant pansies, snapdragons, stock, dianthus, and ornamental kale for late fall and winter interest. When planting annual color, the biggest bang for the buck comes when planting in small groupings instead of spreading a few flowers out through a large bed. Plant several flowers close together in a few areas or pockets of a flower bed, or plant several close together in a container for the most color pop and impact.

Allison Watkins is the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent for horticulture in Tom Green County. Contact her at aewatkins@ag.tamu.edu.

Allison Watkins(Photo: San Angelo Standard-Times)

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Tips for taking care of your lawn in the fall in West Texas - Standard-Times