Top 10 LandscapEXPERTS Early Fall Clean-Up + Tasks

School buses and ripening crabapples add bright color to early fall. As temperatures begin to cool off and rains become a little more frequent, your Crabapple LandscapExperts Team will fine tune the landscapes of the properties you manage. 

Many tasks are seasonal and some are best done this time of year.  

Trim and deadhead summer annuals. We coax a last big effort from summer flower beds by  trimming back overgrown plants and deadheading spent blooms to keep them flowering. 

Select bedding annuals to plant in October forwinter color. Metro-Atlanta’s mild climate allows color 12 months a year. It is time for us to choose the hardy annuals and biennials like pansies and parsley that will keep your properties looking bright all winter.  

Apply post-emergent herbicide. We stop weeds that are already growing in their tracks with spot application of post-emergent herbicides to keep your lawns as smooth as silk.

Use time release fertilizer. Once temperatures have backed off, Bermuda and Zoysia turf grow better and survive cool winter temperatures once they have been “primed” with a slow-release fertilizer that lasts the last few months until cold weather. 

Apply lime to Fescue lawns. Metro-Atlanta area soils are often acidic in nature but most cultivated plants prefer a pH of near neutral. We don’t guess, we soil test, and apply lime that moves through the soil surface and into the root zone.

Prune shrubs. Crabapple LandscapExperts know when to finish the corrective pruning of shrubs without removing next spring’s blossoms.  

Plant or transplant trees and shrubs. “Fall is for Planting”. The months of September through December are the ideal time to plant woody ornamentals, because while the air temperatures are decreasing, soil temperatures are still warm from the summer, promoting root growth.

Accomplish general clean-up. Plants in raingardens or surrounding detention ponds can be trimmed and fallen sticks and debris are removed, keeping the properties you manage spotless!  

Edge walkways. After a summer of growth, typically walkways need to be spruced up and edged by our Certified maintenance crews.

Adjust mowing heights and keep lawns in trim. Lawns are kept in trim as Fescue begins its period of luxuriant growth, and Bermuda and Zoysia slow down.

To learn more about these and other tasks carried out by Crabapple LandscapEXPERTS, phone your rep or call 770-740-9739.