Fall Lawn Tune-Up

Fall is the most important time of the year when it comes to caring for cool season lawns. The work you do now on your bluegrass or fescue lawns will really pay off later this fall and next spring.

Test Your Soil. A soil test will reveal serious nutrient imbalances and recommend whether you need to add lime or sulfur to adjust the pH. Your local cooperative extension can provide assistance in analyzing your soil for any deficiencies or will put you in touch with a private soil lab that can.

Control grubs. Late summer and fall can be the most active time for grubs. If you have seen those irregular brown spots or have found grubs, apply Bayer Advanced™ 24-Hour Grub Killer Plus Granules. Its highly effective formula offers overnight results against grubs.

Fertilize. Fall is the most important time to fertilize cool season lawns. Follow label instructions for amounts of fertilizer to apply and how to set your fertilizer spreader correctly.

Control weeds. Weeds compete with grasses for water and nutrients and make your lawn look lousy. A well-cared-for lawn will resist weed invasions, but if you’re having problems, use Bayer Advanced™ All-In-One Weed Killer for Lawns Ready-To-Use. It will kill all your broadleaf lawn weeds, including clover, dandelion, plantain, nutsedge and your grass weeds, such as crabgrass, at one time with one application. This one product kills over 200 lawn weeds now and will help minimize problems next spring. Bayer Advanced™ All-In-One Weed Killer for Lawns Ready-To-Use in the convenient, ready-to-use form contains SmartTrack® red dye, which shows you exactly which weeds you’ve already sprayed before it naturally fades away. To treat larger areas, purchase the concentrated formulation. Now you can control all your weeds in your lawn at one time – saving you money and time. Apply only when daytime temperatures will remain below 85 degrees.

Aerate. Aerating, which removes small cores of soil, is one of the best things you can do for your lawn. It improves water and nutrient penetration, increases the amount of air that reaches the roots and helps reduce thatch (a dense layer of organic matter that forms between the leaves and roots; if it gets over a 1/2-inch thick, it prevents air, water and nutrients from reaching the roots and the lawn begins to suffer). You can hire a lawn service to aerate your lawn, or rent a power aerator from a local rental yard and do it yourself. Once a year is usually often enough.

Plant. Fall is also the best time to plant cool season lawns from sod or seed, so start a new lawn or repair thin areas of your existing turf. You can also overseed warm season lawns with cool season grasses to keep them green all winter in southern areas.

Exciting New Perennials for Fall Planting

Fall is a great time to plant flowering perennials. They will be established before winter and ready for a great bloom next spring and summer. Here are a few new flowering perennials that caught our eye.

Dianthus gratianopoliatanus 'Feuerhexe' (also know a 'Firewitch') is the 2006 Perennial Plant of the Year. It bears an abundance of wonderfully clove-scented, purplish pink flowers above a tight mat of silvery gray foliage. The plant grows about 3 inches high and 6 to 8 inches wide. It grows best in full sun or light shade and is hardy to USDA zone 3. 'Feuerhexe' is an excellent edging, container. Plant or rock garden subject.

Echinacea 'Coneflowers' are now available in a wonderful range of new colors and flower forms. Look for 'Pixie Meadowbrite,' a dwarf form (1-1/2 ft. tall) with pink, nondrooping petals around a yellow center. 'Mango Meadowbrite' (2–3 ft. tall) bears light orange-yellow petals around orange-brown centers. 'Orange Meadowbrite' reaches a similar height and bears reddish orange flowers. In the Big Sky series (2–3 ft. tall) you'll find butter-yellow 'Sunrise,' bright orange 'Sunset,' and reddish-orange 'Sundown.' 'White Lustre' (2-1/2 ft. tall) and 'White Swan' (1-1/2–2 ft. tall) have white petals around orange-yellow cones. Coneflowers are tough plants that grow best in full sun and are hardy to USDA zone 4.

Carex 'Sedges' are grass-like plants that add beautiful texture to landscapes and containers. Newer ones include 'Ice Dance,' which grows 1–2 ft. high, with dark green leaves edged with white. C. oshimensis 'Evergold' is a similar height but has dark green leaves with a central, creamy white stripe that fades to yellow. C. phyllocephala 'Sparkler' is a showstopper that forms a 1–2 ft. clump; red stems are topped with bright green leaves, striped white. White fall flowers look like small candles, fading to brown as they dry. 'Sparkler' and 'Evergold' are hardy to USDA zone 7. 'Ice Dance' is hardy into zone 5. Sedges generally grow best in full sun or light shade but 'Evergold' grows best in shady areas.

Get your fall-planted perennials off to a great start by fertilizing with Bayer Advanced™ Triple Action All Purpose Plant Food Granules, which provides balanced nutrition for up to three months. To protect plants from insects, use Bayer Advanced™ Dual Action Rose & Flower Insect Killer Concentrate. It kills insects on contact and provides up to 30 days of systemic protection.

Preventing Insects from Invading Your Home

As the weather changes in fall, many outdoor insects, including multicolored Asian lady beetles (ladybugs), boxelder bugs, ants, cockroaches and spiders, decide they would rather be indoors. The rest create problems outside, just when the weather's perfect to be outside. Luckily, Bayer Advanced™ PowerForce® Multi-Insect Killer Concentrate can prevent the invasion and help reduce outdoor pests, now and next spring. Containing the proprietary active ingredient cyfluthrin, PowerForce kills bugs fast. What's more, PowerForce is available in several convenient formulations designed to meet any of your lawn and garden needs.

Here's how to use Bayer Advanced PowerForce to keep insect pests to a minimum outdoors and prevent them from coming indoors:

TREAT THE PERIMETER OF THE HOUSE. One of the best ways to keep insect pests like ants, cockroaches and spiders from entering the house is to create a protective barrier around the outside. Do so by applying Bayer Advanced™ PowerForce® Multi-Insect Killer Granules, also available in liquid form, around the foundation of your home as described on the label. Using the liquid form around windows and doors will further protect key entry points. One application lasts up to 30 days.

TREAT YOUR LAWN. Many insects, including ticks and fleas, thrive in your lawn. To protect yourself and your pets, apply Bayer Advanced™ PowerForce® Multi-Insect Killer Granules with your lawn fertilizer spreader, or use Bayer Advanced™ PowerForce® Multi-Insect Killer Ready-To-Spray with a hose-end sprayer (the convenient ready-to-spray bottle comes with its own sprayer). PowerForce also controls many lawn pests including armyworms, chinchbugs and sod webworms.

TREAT AROUND SHRUBS AND OTHER VEGETATION. Apply Bayer Advanced™ PowerForce® Multi-Insect Killer Granules around the base of shrubs and in nearby tall grass or weeds. This will help reduce mosquitoes, grasshoppers, flies and other insects that congregate in vegetation.

TREAT ANT MOUNDS. Bayer Advanced™ PowerForce® Carpenter Ant & Termite Killer Plus Concentrate kills the queen and the entire nest. To kill wood-destroying insects, apply Bayer Advanced™ PowerForce® Carpenter Ant & Termite Killer Plus Concentrate.

TREAT INDOORS. If intruders do make it indoors, use Bayer Advanced™ Home Pest Control Indoor/Outdoor Insect Killer Ready-To-Spray. One application lasts for up to 9 months. Always read the product label and follow all directions.