I assume you’re looking at your yard, just like I’m looking at mine and wondering “do I really need to rake up these leaves, or will they be fine?” If you’re asking this question and wondering if you could free up your weekends from some yard cleanup, keep reading for your best practice this year. 

There are two main factors that contribute to making this decision. The first one is how many leaves are covering your lawn and the second is whether your trees had any foliar fungal diseases this year. 

Leaf Coverage
If your lawn has about 20% leaf coverage, you’re good to go! At this level, the leaves can still move around with the wind, break down naturally, and add nutrients to the soil. You’ll know it’s around 20% if you can clearly see most of the grass peeking through the leaves.

At 50% coverage, it’s still okay, but this is the point where we suggest a mow to mulch the leaves. Chopping them up will help them decompose faster, enriching the soil as organic matter. 

Once you go over 50% leaf coverage, it’s best to remove the excess until you’re back under that 50% threshold. Too many leaves can create a cozy winter haven for voles and suffocate your lawn, stunting its spring growth and potentially making it struggle to thrive all summer.

Leaving a manageable layer of leaves on the lawn is an easy way to return nutrients to the soil and encourage a healthier lawn. Just keep an eye on the coverage to avoid issues and enjoy a greener, stronger lawn!

Disease Management
The second factor that will aid in the decision is whether your trees had a foliar fungal disease. If your aspen trees were affected by Marssonina Leaf Spot, you’ll want to remove the leaves immediately so the disease doesn’t spread to your other trees or neighboring properties. Any other foliar fungal diseases need to be treated the same way. 

Evergreen trees don’t require as much concern, unless they have/had the fungal disease, needle cast. Be sure to pick up the needles immediately to prevent continued spread. 

If your trees suffer from any of these fungal diseases, give us a call and we can do a diagnosis and put together a treatment plan. If you’re not sure, we’ll have a consulting arborist come out and do a property walkthrough.

Getting Rid of Yard Waste
If you would rather pick up your leaves and dispose of them, I’ve listed a couple options for the local towns to utilize when getting rid of yard waste. Please see below: 

Bozeman
If you live in the city of Bozeman, they offer a leaf pickup service for certain areas of town on certain days. Click on the link for a full visual of the map and when your neighborhood is scheduled for leaf pickup. 

Second, the Bozeman Convenience Site is accepting compost material such as “grass, leaves, straw, manure, garden remains, plant trimmings, branches less than 1/4″ diameter, etc.” Their rate is $15/ton.  

Livingston
The city of Livingston is hosting their Leaf Collection Day on Nov 7th – all of your material needs to be out by 5:00 AM.

Belgrade
Everything can be directed to the Bozeman Convenience Site or the Logan Landfill. 

Once all your leaves have fallen and you’re only looking at about 20% coverage on your lawn, you’re good to go, find something much more fun to do on the weekend! 50% or so, just give it a quick mow to mulch up the leaves and over 50%, it looks like you’re going to be picking up leaves or call one of the awesome Lawn Maintenance companies in town to see if they offer a fall cleanup service and let them do it for you!

Let’s be honest, our 2023 summer season felt short. We had very inconsistent weather patterns that made taking care of the lawn this year a bit challenging and confusing, but we all managed!

Moving into September, you might be asking yourself, “how can I prepare my lawn for fall and winter?” 

The way I think of this is to look ahead and start working backward. Think back to this spring and what some of the challenges were: 

1. Vole damage
2. Lawn fungus
3. Drought stress
4. Quick germination of weeds
5. Irrigation system turn-on

We would prefer to manage the damage of these items for next year, so let’s talk about what we can do now to prevent this. 

Finish Your Lawn Applications Strong

Trust us, we have a five-application program for good reasons. Weeds germinate at different times during the year. Your fourth application of weed and feed is focused on getting rid of the weeds during the last germination period so that they aren’t able to establish a root system that will come back in the next year. The fifth application, and the one our customers cancel most often, is truly the best application you can receive all year. I have personally talked to customers who haven’t been on all five steps and as soon as they add the fifth step, they see a huge improvement of their lawn in the following spring and throughout the year. It just puts you that much further ahead and allows you to tackle the challenge of weeds quickly germinating in the spring.

Stick with the program – you may not be using your lawn anymore, but the best thing you can do for it is provide the right nutrients so it can start off on the right root (😜) next year.  

Overseeding

This is the best action to take care of sparse or bare patches in your lawn or to introduce new varieties of turf that are disease-resistant. 

You’re welcome to overseed your lawn in the spring or fall. Our favorite time is in the fall and what we will encourage you to do as well. This is considered “dormant seeding” which means we don’t expect to see any new growth this year, but while the soil is warming in the spring, the seeds are starting to germinate. This gives you more weeks of a growing period before the weeds start to compete with the new grass growth and there’s no need for soil preparation while the ground is cold and soggy. 

We recommend seeding around mid-October, right around the time that we put down our fifth application of granular fertilizer. You can buy seed anywhere, but two places we recommend to purchase seed locally are Cashman’s and AG Depot in Bozeman. Ideally, you would use a bluegrass mix, they even make some that are more drought-tolerant – just ask a helpful representative. 

Vole Damage Control

In the spring of 2023, the vole damage was horrible for both the lawns and trees. Unfortunately, there’s not many great ways to manage voles, but there is some prep that you can do on your lawn to attempt to mitigate the population. 

Once we get close to Halloween give your lawn one last short mowing. This is the ONLY time we recommend mowing short (very important otherwise you’ll damage your lawn), set your mower to one of the lowest settings and do one last trim, be sure to bag and discard the clippings. Voles seek out properties that will provide a lot of cover: aka thick and luscious lawns. By doing a short mow, this removes their protection and will hopefully ward off a vole population. Check out our blog How Do I Get Rid of Voles, for additional preventative practices.  

Sprinkler Winterizations

Prepare your irrigation system for next spring. Sprinkler blowouts clear the water in your irrigation lines to be sure that the pipes don’t freeze and break over the winter. We provide this service to in-town city water systems in Bozeman and Belgrade and our no-contact method makes this one of our customers’ favorite services. All we ask you to do is turn off your water in the crawlspace and have everything ready for us for your scheduled date. You don’t have to be home and interrupt your work day and we don’t have to track our muddy boots into your house. Our team will come and clear the lines and follow up with a text letting you know that the service has been completed. 

Call or text our team today if you need to get scheduled for a sprinkler blowout this winter! Contact Us

While you’re putting the lawn furniture away this fall, take some time to consider doing these extra favors for your property, next year it will thank you!

P.S. – The holidays will be here before you know it! Speaking of, have you heard? Yard Guard has a Holiday Lighting service! If you’re tired of hanging your Christmas lights in the cold, give us a call and we’ll give you a custom quote for your home!