Warm season grasses such as Bermuda grass, St. Augustine grass, Zoysia and Buffalo grass grow and look best during the summer. During the winter, they turn brown and appear dead. To maintain a green winter lawn, these warm season grasses are frequently over-seeded with annual or perennial rye grass late September or through October. The rye grass looks great for the winter, choked out by the warm season grass in the spring.

Cool season grasses include Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and the fescues. These grasses perform and look best as the weather cools.

Both warm and cool season grasses have their pros and cons. It is the homeowners’ responsibility to select the grass which best meets their needs.

Fall is the best time to renovate and spruce up the cool season grass lawn. The first step is to dethatch the lawn. This should be done at least every two years. Dethatching can be done manually with a dethatching rake or a dethatching mower, which can be rented. Some landscaping companies can be hired to perform the dethatching. Don’t try to manually dethatch a large lawn unless you are in exceptionally good physical condition! Thatch is the accumulation of roots, stems and leaves that builds up from grass and lies between the soil surface and grass blades. As it thickens, it impedes the downward passage of water, increases soil compaction and harbors harmful insects. The dethatched material should be gathered and discarded.

After dethatching or on a yearly basis, the lawn should be aerated. Again, this can be done manually or by machine. The aerator must be a hollow-tined device which removes a core of soil. Under no circumstances should a solid spike device or spiked shoes be used to aerate a lawn. Such devices actually increase soil compaction. The soil cores can be raked up for a neater appearance. Some gardeners will scatter sand on the lawn to fill the holes.

If there are bare spots in the lawn after these treatments, they should be seeded with the appropriate lawn seed. The reseeded areas should be treated as a newly seeded lawn.

Finally, the lawn should be fertilized with Master Nursery Fall and Winter Feed. This fertilizer contains 6.8% Nitrate Nitrogen which lawn grasses can use immediately and will give the lawns the fastest green possible. Regular lawn fertilizers have their nitrogen changed to nitrates by the soil bacteria which work slowly in cool weather. Cool season lawns should be fertilized every month or two in the winter.

If you have a warm season grass lawn, you would follow the same procedures outlined above but in March. If you have overseeded the warm season lawn, the Master Nursery Fall and Winter Feed fertilizer should be used as outlined. If the lawn is not overseeded, no fertilizer is necessary until spring.

Ornamental cabbage and kale are plants grown not for their blossoms but for their colorful and decorative foliage. They develop large rosettes of gray-green foliage richly variegated with cream, white, pink, rose, rose-red and purple. Ornamental kale leaves are frilly-edged and sometimes deeply lobed. Those of ornamental cabbage usually are ruffled but don’t form a tight head.

Identified by a number of names, such as floral kale, decorative kale, ornamental-leaved kale, flowering kale, and flowering cabbage, ornamental cabbage and kale belong to the Brassica oleracea acephala group.

The plants have unlimited use in the landscape. They are attractive in borders or can be used very effectively grouped in plantings of three, five, or more plants. They are good plants to use in containers for the deck or patio and for window boxes. They are especially good to use to replace warm season annuals for a fall or early winter display.

Ornamental cabbage and kale usually grow about eight to eighteen inches high and twelve inches or more across. For best displays, plants should be set about twelve to fifteen inches apart.

Unlike most annuals and perennials, cabbage and kale improve in appearance after a frost or two. Leaf color usually intensifies after a light fall frost. They are usually attractive in the garden until Thanksgiving or later. Hint – when the plants smell like cooked cabbage, it is time to pull them out!
Some gardeners pot up the plants in late fall for use as indoor flowering plants for the fall and Thanksgiving holiday season. The single leaves or whole heads are excellent also to use in artistic designs. A whole head makes quite a statement in a foliage design class at a flower show.

Both ornamental cabbage and kale are edible. The leaves can be eaten cooked or raw. The leaves are especially nice as a garnish. Frost and cool weather enhance the flavor like the color. Some authorities state the roots of the plant are dangerous and should not be eaten. The same pests that plague broccoli, cabbage and other related vegetables attack both plants. If pesticides are used and leaves are to be eaten, be sure to pay close attention to the label.

Cabbage worms, cutworms, aphids, and slugs also like these plants. Treat with pesticides as you would any other member of the cabbage family. Inspect regularly for pests. During cold weather there is virtually no insect problems.

If you want color and textural interest in your garden in fall and early winter, try planting ornamental cabbage and kale. It is not too late to get ornamental kale or cabbage for potted plants for an added touch to your deck or patio or fall holiday indoors designs this autumn!