5 Healing Lawn Care Tasks to Revive and Repair Grass After Summer Heat – Get these Fixes Done Before September Ends

This heatwave summer has wreaked havoc on our lawns but grass is an incredibly resilient plant, especially if you give it a helping hand with some essential fall lawn care. Late September and October bring a short window of warm soil and regular rain that are conducive to strong grass growth, but you’ll need to set your lawn up to make the most of it. Spend a few hours this weekend tending to your grass with this essential September lawn care, and you’ll be richly rewarded with lush green grass next spring.

Don't bother, and your lawn will suffer. You see, after the stress of a hot, dry summer, a neglected lawn goes into the winter weakened. Dead drought-striken blades clog the grass that’s still alive, creating moist conditions that invite fungal problems as fall progresses. Plummeting temperatures and compacted soil then means roots sit in cold, soggy soil through the winter, further compounding the damage.

Do these five easy tasks however, and you’ll help prevent all those issues as well as create optimum conditions for fallgrass growth, allowing plants to recover and strengthen before winter arrives. Ready? Let’s get your lawn sorted for the lushest, plushest grass next spring!

1. Banish Weeds

Thankfully, this summer has been hard for weeds, too, so their roots won’t have too tight a hold in your lawn. And if you hate weeding your lawn, I'll wager you're not using the right tools. There’s no point trying to remove persistent perennial weeds like dandelions and thistles with a standard weed puller: you’ll simply snap off the top mop of leaves and leave the long tap root in the ground, and the plant will grow back even stronger.

To tackle that pesky tap root, you need a weed puller with serrated claws to grip it, such as Fiskars Triple Claw Stand-Up Weeder, available from Walmart, which does the job without you even kneeling down. A two-pronged hand weeder like Fiskars Ergo Weeder, available from Walmart, is also designed for removing perennial weeds, or use a Hori Hori knife like this from Amazon to extract that long root once and for all.

This isn’t just a matter of aesthetics, as weeds rob grass of valuable space, water and soil nutrients. Weeding is an especially important part of autumn lawn care as many weeds carry on growing after cold weather has halted grass growth, further increasing their hold.

2. Rake to Remove Dead Grass

Your next task to help your lawn recover from summer is to get rid of dead grass and moss that’s taking up valuable room that could be full of lush new blades. As well as making space for new grass growth, raking this unwanted plant material out will improve air circulation, which will in turn help to avoid any fungal issues. It also allows water to soak into the soil more easily, and the process is known as scarifying or dethatching.

You’ll need a spring-tine rake, and a design with strong, closely-spaced tines such as the Kobalt Steel Rake from Lowe’s will rake up leaves effectively as well as scarify your lawn. Rake the lawn all over, and preferably repeat in a different direction, and you’ll pull up all the dead grass and moss (thatch), which can be put onto your compost heap. Don’t be alarmed by how much thatch is pulled out, especially after this year's El Nino summer, or that you can now see the soil – that’s a good sign, and you’ll see why in a moment.

If you’ve got a sizable lawn, then an electric dethatcher that you push along as you would a lawnmower is a good investment and you can pick up a basic model from under $60, such as this Senix Scarifier with Collection Bag from Walmart.

3. Spike the Soil to Improve Structure

What would happen to your precious borders if you walked all over them? And what would happen to your plants? Well, your lawn has just had a long summer of being trampled on, so the soil is likely compacted and the grass roots will be struggling to get enough air and water. Aerating the soil is going to sort that, and it’ll improve drainage, too, for fewer puddles of standing water on your lawn through fall and winter.

To aerate your lawn, you can use a regular garden fork to create holes to allow water and air to grass roots, pushing the tines into the soil at 6-inch intervals. A rolling lawn aerator with metal spikes on a roller such as this Aerator Roller from Walmart speeds up the process.

If you’ve got any problem patches that get waterlogged in winter, or clay soil that doesn’t drain well, you can take aerating up a notch to improve the drainage long-term. You’ll need a lawn aerator tool with hollow tines such as the Landzie Plug Aerator, available from Lowe’s. This punches slightly bigger holes, removing plugs of soil at the same time.

Fill all the holes you’ve created with a mix of two parts washed concrete sand such as Yard Elements Premium Concrete Sand from The Home Depot, and one part garden topsoil, such as Kellogg Garden Organics Soil, also from The Home Depot. Use the back of a flat rake or a stiff yard broom to brush the mix into the holes. It should flow easily into the holes and not create a layer smothering the grass – if it does, you’re applying too much.

You don’t need to aerate your lawn every year. Aerate the entire lawn well this year and you can wait another three years before repeating the process, or simply aerate the parts that are most heavily used or get waterlogged each year.

4. Overseed for Thicker Grass if Needs Be

If all your scarifying has made the area look bare, or there are patches of grass that haven’t made it through summer, early fall is the perfect time to overseed your lawn. Warm ground plus rain will mean fast, even germination.

Make sure you buy grass seed that’s tailored to your zone, and it’s a smart move to choose a mixed blend that grows well in both sun and shade when overseeding. That way, you’ll move towards a uniform look across your lawn. Scotts Turf Building Sun & Shade Mix 16lb, available from Lowe’s, contains enough to overseed a typical US garden of 6,400 square feet. Whatever you do, don’t mistake fast-growing grass for fast-germinating grass because, while you’ll get quick results with both, you’ll be mowing your lawn more often for years to come if you buy the former.

By scarifying, you’ve already exposed and scratched the surface of any soil where there's room for new grass plants to take root, but go over any particularly bare patches again with a rake. Sow the seed according to the instructions, using a rake or broom to ensure the seed is in full contact with the soil. Grass germinates best when the air temperature sits between 60°F and 80°F and unless it rains, you’ll need to water twice a day for three weeks or until grass grows 2 inches tall.

5. Boost Root Growth with the Right Fertilizer

There’s no need to fertilize a lawn in fall every year but if the grass looks like it needs a boost, warm late September days are the ideal time. In fall, it’s vial to pick a tailored autumn lawn feed that’s high in phosphorous and potassium to encourage root growth for long-term strength, rather than a more general-purpose lawn fertilizer with high levels of nitrogen that boosts leafy growth above ground. Choose a product without moss or weed killer such as Scotts Tuft Builder WinterGuard Fall Lawn Food, available from Amazon.

Apply as directed by the instructions but if you overseeded, check the fine print on that packaging too. Many grass seeds include a lawn fertilizer, in which case you should apply the dedicated fall food more sparingly. There’s no need to water in a fall feed unless it doesn’t rain within a couple of days.

And you’re done! Your lawn can now spend the next few weeks growing – and most grass species will continue to grow until temperatures drop consistently below 40°F-50°F, which in most zones will be around early November. This gives your lawn plenty of time to recover from the rigors of this heatwave summer and strengthen its roots, ready for lush growth next spring.