Winterizing your yard
Tristan Schmid, host, List-en Up!))

Schmid: Even though we’re still in the dog days of summer, it’s not too early to think about preparing your yard for winter. Whether you’re hiring lawn and garden professionals or tending to your yard yourself, we have some great tips to keep in mind so your plants will be ready for the next growing season.

Vicki Payne, an Angie’s List member in Charlotte, North Carolina, and also host of the PBS home and garden TV program “For Your Home,” says there are some key things to keep in mind when preparing your yard for the changing seasons.

Payne: Think about what you want your garden to look like next spring — that’s your first question. You want to take a look around, starting with things that are permanently in place like trees and shrubs and your lawn, and do a really good maintenance job with it, by cutting your grass nice and short, doing really good edging and removing weeds before they have a chance to plant their seeds so they won’t be coming up in the spring.

Schmid: If you have a produce garden, Payne says you can still grow certain vegetables this fall while preparing for winter.

Payne: A lot of the vegetables we plant in our garden, depending on where you are in the country, you can let them winter there for awhile: with potatoes and carrots, you have more of a winter crop in areas that are a bit milder than we do, say, in the north. Once the garden is totally through, remove the old plants, and if you have a compost spot and the plants are nice and healthy, you can recycle them into the compost pile.

Schmid: Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp is an Advanced Master Gardener, national director of the Garden Writers Association, and gardening consultant to Angie’s List Magazine. She says it’s the season to do two things: start a compost pile with fallen leaves, and plant certain veggies.

Meyers Sharp: Now is a good time to plant a fall crop of lettuce for instance. You can also do snow peas. Some garden centers will have starts of broccoli and Brussels sprouts you can grow. Until we have several freezes, they’ll continue to produce.

Schmid: If a greener lawn is your goal, Meyers Sharp has some pointers for you, too.

Meyers Sharp: For lawn, the most important thing to do is fertilize in September, then again in November. Those are the two key months. Everyone pushes to do fertilizing in spring; in reality it will grow then because it’s warming up and you don’t have to do much.

The other thing is this time of year is we have all these fallen leaves, and those can be bad for the lawn. Big leaves like sycamore or maple can smother the grass and kill it, so usually you want to not let those mat down and get those off the lawn. You can old fashion rake, or use a mulching mower and make a couple passes over the leaves and chop them into tiny bits which work as natural fertilizer. Lastly, aeration is always good in the fall. September’s usually the prime month, or in the South, in November. The goal there is to loosen the soil and aerate so water and other nutrients can work their way down to roots. It’s especially important in playground areas, so if you have a swing set or a lot of foot traffic on your lawn, it’s always good to do that.

Also, if you’ll be doing garden work later on, especially if it’s not going to get really cold, for another couple months, it pays to stock up on supplies from garden centers, because they’ll start moving mulch, compost, manures off the shelves to make way for holiday goods, so load up on what you think you’ll need for the season.

The last thing is when you’re all done for the season, it may seem odd, but take the time to sharpen your tools and clean them before you put them away. Take your lawn mower in to the shop for service. That way you’ll be ready to go first thing in spring.

Schmid: There’s a lot more your can do for your yard and garden throughout the year, so check out the highly rated professionals on Angie’s List for more help.

Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to list-en!