The problem with deciduous trees and your lawn

Time to get out the rake!

Deciduous trees are fantastic during summer – they provide amazing shade and greenery to your backyard, but come the colder months they can become a nightmare, particularly for your lawn. These trees are the ones that, while green during the warmer months, start to drop their leaves as soon as the weather gets chilly. Not only does the tree itself look barren and stark while the weather is cold but the leaves. Leaves everywhere! This is particularly frustrating when the trees aren’t even in your yard but come from your neighbour’s property – no names of course. The problem for your lawn is that during the cooler temperatures most varieties of lawn go into a semi-hibernation period and grow very slowly. Although growing slowly your lawn still needs lots of sunlight in order to stay in optimum health. It’s imperative that leaves and grass clippings are picked up during winter to allow adequate sunlight to get to the lawn plants. If the lawn doesn’t receive enough sunlight it will struggle and then conditions will be perfect for weeds to come in and take over. By summer you’ll be left with a backyard full of weeds and then the amount of work required to get rid of them and bring your lawn back to health will take all the fun out of the temperature heating up. Come spring and summer you want to be able to get out and relax in your backyard so a bit of time spent now raking up and removing the leaves will be worth it soon enough. Although you are mowing less at this time of the year it is important to make some that you dispose of the lawn clippings and not allow them to stifle the lawn. While you’re out in the yard take a look around at your evergreen trees too – are they casting too much shade now the days are shorter? Maybe it’s also time for a trim to let some more sunlight fall on the lawn. Your lawn will show it’s appreciation when the growth period begins again. For more lawn care tips contact the team at Daleys Turf.

Content Source: http://daleysturf.com.au/the-problem-with-deciduous-trees-and-your-lawn/

I’m Terry Daley Director at Daleys Turf Brisbane, Australia. Daleys Turf is a family owned and operated turf farm which commenced operations in 1992.