5 Tips to Prepare Your Southern California Landscape for Fall

Fall is around the corner, but here in Southern California, cooler weather doesn't always arrive right away. September is a great time to prepare your landscape for changing temperatures, adjust watering habits, and get your yard ready for the months ahead.

Here are five simple ways to get started.

1. Refresh Your Mulch

After a long, hot summer, mulch may be thin, faded, or displaced. Adding a fresh layer helps retain soil moisture, regulate soil temperature, suppress weeds, and give planting beds a cleaner appearance.

Tip: Check the depth around your plants before adding more. You don't want mulch piled directly against trunks or plant stems.

2. Check Your Irrigation

As temperatures eventually cool and days become shorter, your landscape typically won't need the same irrigation schedule it needed during peak summer.

Inspect sprinklers and drip lines for leaks, clogged emitters, or damaged components, and gradually adjust watering as weather conditions change.

3. Improve Your Soil

Fall is a good opportunity to prepare planting beds for new plants. Compost and other appropriate soil amendments can improve soil structure, drainage, and moisture retention.

Healthy soil gives new plants a much better foundation for establishing strong roots.

4. Clean Up Your Landscape

Remove dead plants, weeds, fallen leaves, and other debris left behind from summer. This is also a good time to redefine landscape borders and replenish decorative rock or decomposed granite in areas that have become thin or uneven.

A little cleanup can make a major visual difference.

5. Start Planning Fall Projects

If you've been putting off a landscape project because of the summer heat, fall can offer more comfortable conditions for getting outside.

Consider projects such as:

• Creating a DG walkway

• Refreshing decorative rock

• Building new planting beds

• Adding mulch

• Improving drainage

• Preparing an outdoor seating or fire pit area

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Get Your Landscape Fall-Ready

Southern California may not experience dramatic seasonal changes, but fall is still an important transition period for your landscape. A little maintenance now can help your yard look better, use water more efficiently, and prepare plants for the cooler months ahead.

Need mulch, soil, compost, decorative rock, DG, sand, or other landscape materials? 

Visit SoCal Landscape Supply at 17520 Bridge St., Moreno Valley, CA 92555, or call (951) 538-3338. Our team can help you choose the right materials for your fall projects.