Fall Lawn care


Are you considering planting a new lawn or just filling in your existing one? You might have noticed some insect, heat, and fungal damage from the summer, leaving brown patches in your yard. Fall is the perfect time to seed and fill these sections because the soil is warm and nights are getting cooler, leaving a nice coating of morning dew.

important TIPS

  • Test Your pH: One of the most important things to start with is to grab a soil tester and figure out what the pH of your soil is. The ideal pH is somewhere between 6.2 and 7.2. This will result in optimal conditions to maintain a beautiful, deep green, and lush lawn.
  • Apply Lime (For Low pH): If your soil pH is below 6.2, apply lime. Low soil pH prevents plants from absorbing nutrients efficiently. The result is weak, thin grass with bare spots and weeds. How low the pH will determine how much lime you’ll need.
  • Address Lawn Stress: Whether you’re dealing with grubs, fungus, weeds, or other problems, it’s a good idea to figure out the cause of your lawn stress and take the necessary steps to remedy it. You don’t want to head into winter with unhealthy grass since that will affect it come spring!
  • Overseed: Filling in bare or brown spots in the lawn will help keep out weeds and improve the overall look. Break up the ground a bit and rake on some quality topsoil before spreading your grass seed. Be sure to take note of light and growth requirements before picking out a seed mix!
  • Fertilize: A fertilizer can aid in summer recovery and help new seed grow faster and establish strong roots.
  • Water: Grass seed needs to stay moist every day. Morning is the best time to water, but the afternoon is acceptable too (Do not water in the evening!). New seed does not need to be watered long, 30 minutes is usually sufficient. However, you may need to water both in the morning and afternoon. The sunnier the spot is, the more water it needs. Areas along driveways, walkways, curbs, and slopes tend to dry out quicker.

Product recommendations

Weed, Fungus, and Grub Control:

Fertilizer for Summer Recovery – Apply around Labor Day:

For Seed Starting:

Premium Grass Seed Mixes

Want to make your neighbors green with envy when they spot your beautiful, lush lawn? Our Van Wilgen’s Premium Grass Seed comes in nine unique blends meant to cover any type of lawn condition. VW Grass Seed is sourced locally and made sure it is from the top 1% of all grass seed and custom blended for Connecticut lawns.

Full sun to part shade

This is a great all-around mix that has a little bit of everything so it blends extremely well with existing grass. Get the best of all the different types of grass. It’s like diversifying your stock right?

Sun and shade

Tolerates salt and drought. We get a lot of questions about what lives along the ocean and SURVIVES, so we blended this mix to be specially formulated to handle salt spray and drying out from the wind. Once established, this will take the abuse of the shoreline.

Sun to part shade

Can handle wear and tear, Fescue’s are tough as nails. This blend will bounce back after heavy traffic with no problem! Known again to be tough and very cold-tolerant as well.

Full sun to part shade

Best suited for the summer heat! Once established this blend will require the least amount of water and the least amount of fertilizer to function and look good.

Sun to part sun

Rye grass is always the quickest to germinate so it is great to get a lawn up and going the fastest… especially if winter is knocking at the door. Our blend is all Perennial Rye, not to be confused with Annual Rye, which is MUCH less expensive and will germinate quickly but does not give you a long-term solution for a lawn.

Full, full sun

Golfer’s delight! The sod we carry is 100% KBG. KBG does require a lot of sun and more water than any other type of grass. Take a long time to germinate, sometimes over 14 days! Be patient.

Can handle light shade

Can tolerate as little as 3-5 hours of sun.

Deep Shade

Perfect where nothing else grows. Have that tough spot in the shade that won’t grow grass? Try our under-the-tree mix… specially blended with only the toughest shade-tolerant grass there is.

Sun to Part Shade

You’ll only need to mow the lawn a few times per year with this new mix! Excellent eco-lawn option and extremely low maintenance.