Although the summer growing season is winding down and the temperatures have begun to cool off, your lawn still needs some regular care and specific maintenance tasks in order to keep it healthy and protected over the winter. Before you store away your lawnmower and hang up your rake, take some time to handle these fall schedule lawn care projects. Here are some recommendations to help you take care of your lawn during fall to prepare it for winter dormancy.

Continue Maintenance Care

As soon as the cool weather blows in, it may be tempting to consider your lawn's care completed for the year and spend more time inside. However, this is not true because fall care to your lawn is essential because it builds up your lawn's health and gives it the protection it needs to make it through a dormancy until spring. 

Be sure you don't shut off your lawn's sprinklers until there is a hard freeze, usually into October or November, depending on your local climate and where you live. Continue watering your lawn to provide it with at least an inch of water each week. The temperatures in fall are usually cooler, but your lawn will still need moisture to stay alive. If you have heavy rainstorms, adjust your sprinklers appropriately, especially if your area is experiencing drought conditions. 

Your lawn will continue to grow into the fall until it freezes, so it is going to need to be mowed on a less frequent schedule. Instead of mowing every week to ten days, look at mowing when its growth requires you to trim off its excess length. Let the clippings fall into the lawn to replenish its nutrients. Watch the weather for when temperatures fall permanently so you can mow your lawn a bit shorter for its last season mowing. This will help prevent your lawn from growing mold and disease over the winter.

Repair Summer Damage

Fall is a great time to repair any damage to your lawn that occurred during the heat of summer and drought but that did not have a chance to regrow. Some areas of your lawn may have died off from heat stress or foot traffic and are showing up as bare patches. You can repair these now as fall is a great time to apply grass seed to your lawn. 

Rake out the bare patches of lawn with a garden rake to loosen the soil, then sprinkle it over with some loose grass seed. You can also arrange for a local landscaping service to apply a power seed treatment or patch with new sod.