Your complete guide to autumn lawn care

This article was updated in September 2024 to provide the most recent guidance.

Autumn is a season of transition. In the landscaping and lawn care community, it’s a time for recovering from the heat of summer, making the necessary preparations for winter, and, of course, dealing with fallen leaves.

Your schedule may not be as jam-packed as it was in July, but as you will undoubtedly know, autumn is still a busy period for professional landscapers.

Measure up your own autumn lawn care itinerary to that of other landscape professionals, as we run through the typical schedule for the season, including a look into ideal timings and the best tools for the job.

Autumn across Europe

Temperate climates, as in Northern Europe, require a different approach to Mediterranean climates in autumn. If you’re in Southern Italy, scarifying, aerating and top dressing a lawn in autumn may seem counterproductive – it’s a task for spring. In Scotland, these tasks are perfect for autumn.

As we cover the typical autumn lawn care tasks for a professional landscaper, we will identify which jobs are relevant to different climates across Europe.

Autumn lawn care guide

Though it begins to slow, autumn is still a time of growth for grass. The season marks the last chance in a calendar year to treat the grass before winter. It’s a critical period for repairing the damage over the summer, giving a lawn its best chance to thrive the following spring.

Autumn lawn care treatments range according to the type of grass, soil and climate you are in; while landscapers across Europe will conduct lawn treatments as part of their itinerary, they will all be slightly different according to location and preference.

From maintaining lawn edges to fixing holes created over summer due to drought, there are several steps you can take in autumn to make sure your clients' lawns are thriving next year.

Leaf clearance

No autumn itinerary is complete without a mention of fallen leaves. Leaf clearance is one of those arduous tasks that becomes an endless cycle at this time of year. Though the exact timing fluctuates, when autumn leaves begin to fall, it’s a job that requires constant clean-up.

There’s nothing you can do to avoid this task – you know you will need to clear away leaves in the autumn, that much is obvious. But are you currently implementing the most efficient way to do so?

At a basic level, a spring tine rake can suffice. For anything larger than a small garden, however, this is back-breaking work that would take days to complete; as we all know, by the time you’ve finished one area and moved to the next, a fresh layer of leaves will have settled on the ground. A leafblower is a great tool that can make your life easier, but still requires more physical labour than other options.

For those dealing with larger spaces, a lawn tractor makes clearing leaves effortless: simply attach a leaf sweeper to the back and you can clear away leaves without breaking a sweat. It’s an investment for a landscaper that can quickly pay dividends, as the versatility of lawn tractors makes them a great choice for all seasons: whether you’re sweeping leaves, clearing snow or spreading fertiliser.

To avoid having to do the work of removing leaves altogether, you can incorporate fallen leaves into the lawn treatment itself. Mulching leaves is an excellent way to solve two tasks in one sweep – you can clear the leaves while adding a layer of organic material that acts as a fertiliser.

Mulching can be performed with walk-behind and ride-on mowers, so it’s a great option for lawns of all shapes and sizes – to learn more about mulching and its benefits, read our article here, endorsed by experienced professional landscaper, Paul Griffin. 

Gradually begin to mow at normal pre-summer heights

A sure sign autumn is setting in is feeling the need to adjust your mowing height settings. We keep grass levels higher in the summer to protect them from the impact of intense heat, but when temperatures start to cool, this is of course lowered. Ideally, you will never need to cut more than a quarter of the total height of the plant at once; as we all know, cutting too much can be harmful.

For a healthy lawn in autumn, you may only need to mow every few weeks, depending on growing conditions.

A reliable ride-on mower is one of a landscape gardener’s essential pieces of equipment; ensuring the blades are sharp and the engine is maintaining a healthy pace will help you achieve a cleaner cut. For a mower that can maintain cutting speeds through tough turf and variable conditions, look for Kawasaki EFI engine: these powerful engines provide an effortless mowing experience even through long grass and over uneven terrain, ensuring they always deliver the cleanest cuts.

Autumn lawn feed

Is autumn lawn feed necessary?

Fertilising the lawn in autumn helps it to recover from summer, and shields it from some of the damage of winter. In Mediterranean climates in particular, where scarifying and top dressing will often wait for spring, feeding the lawn is one of the most important tasks in autumn. You will want to hit that sweet spot between the heat of summer and the sudden drop in temperatures; monitoring soil temperatures regularly ensures you are able to treat the lawn at the perfect time.

A lawn feed spreader helps provide even coverage; it's a useful attachment available for many ride-on mowers. If they need convincing, you can remind your clients of the importance of lawn fertiliser for general lawn care, as it protects and nourishes the plant and promotes grass growth.

What is the difference between autumn and spring lawn feed?

Autumn feeds are usually higher in potassium and phosphorus with lower nitrogen levels. Potassium helps in root development and overall hardiness, while phosphorus supports strong root growth; perfect for helping the grass withstand winter stresses, such as cold, frost, and disease.

Weeding

Where lawn growth starts to slow, many weeds are only kicking into gear. Treating the lawn vigorously for weeds is just as important in autumn as it was in summer – as landscapers know all too well, if left ignored, weeds will quickly swamp a lawn and make your life immensely more difficult.

Repairs and fixing bare patches

It’s a great time of year to work on lawn repairs, closing up any bare patches that have appeared over the summer, breaking up the soil and spreading grass seed or simply laying a new lawn. In a similar vein, uneven ground across the whole lawn can be easily levelled in early autumn.

Test the soil

While some experienced landscapers will feel that they are able to judge the needs of a lawn without testing it, others swear by the process. Analysing the pH of the soil, its moisture content, nutrients and any contaminants helps us to provide exactly what the lawn needs, taking guesswork out of the equation.

Testing the soil in autumn gives you a headstart on the spring rush, and allows you to squeeze in an autumn lawn treatment that will ensure the grass is primed for spring.

Mediterranean vs temperate climates

In a Mediterranean climate, autumn landscaping isn’t quite so lawn-focused. There are still jobs that need to be done on grass, but the lion’s share of the work occurs in spring. Autumn is a season for planting, pruning and debris-clearing, with lawn maintenance leaning towards general rather than specialised.

In temperate climates, however, you will often find that some heavy-duty lawncare takes place, including:

Scarifying

Scarifying is very location dependent; some landscapers will swear by the process in the autumn, others insist it’s best in spring or early summer, when the grass has strong growth. Neither are necessarily wrong – as mentioned earlier, a lawn in Scotland will need a very different approach to a lawn in Southern Italy.

The rejuvenating process of removing thatch and dead moss and grass allows nutrients to reach the lawn below it, and is an especially important procedure for areas that regularly deal with moss and heavy thatch. Late August or early September is the best time to remove moss and thatch for autumn scarification, as the patches created by the process are less likely to grant opportunities for weeds to spread, and the soil is still viable for growing seeds.

Aeration

Putting small holes into the lawn, i.e. aeration, is vital in providing the lawn space to breathe, and gives it that extra bit of drainage in time for winter. It improves the soil structure and increases air circulation, which leads to healthier grass roots and a more robust lawn.

Top dressing

To round out your scarifying and aeration process on the lawn, landscapers typically finish with top dressing. Testing the soil is the best way to figure out the exact top dressing material best suited to your lawn.

Compost is often used as top dressing, and can help revive struggling lawns; encourage your clients to keep a compost heap by explaining the benefits it will have on their lawn.

Ready for autumn?

Our climates are different, but many landscapers in Europe have virtually the same schedules when September rolls around. Besides the need for scarifying, aeration and top dressing in northern Europe, autumn lawn care itineraries on the continent follow the same leaf-clearing pattern.

One thing all landscapers in Europe certainly have in common is the need for high-quality, reliable equipment. Ensuring you have the best tools for the job at hand goes a long way in making your life easier, and your business successful. Whether it’s autumn, spring or summer, having equipment you can rely on is a guarantee to sail through your busy schedule.