Lawn care after warm and dry September: When to seed, fertilize, aerate

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - In a normal year, fall is the time to get your hands dirty: fertilizing, aerating, and re-seeding, to make sure your lawn looks its best next spring. 

But this fall has been anything but normal.

What we know

 September 2024 now has a spot in the record books as the warmest and driest in Minnesota history; and lawns around the state are understandably stressed out.

"Historic drought and higher temperatures in September of this year really puts us into an area that we’re not very familiar with," University of Minnesota Turf Extension educator Jon Trappe said. "We’re kind of moving into uncharted territory for recommendations."

Lawns reestablish their root systems in the fall. However, September’s dry spell has all but stalled the growth of many lawns this fall.

What can be done?

Because of that, Trappe says to avoid using weed killers, fertilizer or aerating right now. And put off re-seeding until November.

"Our recommendations are really to wait on some of those practices, because we don’t want to stress out the lawn even further going into a later fall," Trappe finished.