It’s easy in warm spring to roll up our sleeves and get out rakes, aerators, spreaders and mowers. After all, we can celebrate putting away snow shovels and snow blower! However, although spring lawn care is important, a good fall lawn care program ensures that we’ll have a lawn to tend when spring rolls around!

I could have started my fall lawn care with a final mowing. However, grass seemed to quit growing… so I quit mowing. Silly me! A final mowing, lowering my mower blade about ½ inch would have helped me to easily implement rest of my plan and prepared my lawn to face perils of winter.

Before I knew it, my fall lawn care plan got soaked and blew away during a windy-rainy autumn. Top-dressing my lawn would have been a pain. The grass was too long for even finely ground compost to reach soil and I just couldn’t see myself shivering in chilly autumn as I used flat side of my garden rake to spread an eighth inch of it over my wet yard.

The giant spruces and firs are most effective as windscreens; spreading evergreen shrubs are widely used not only because of their attractiveness but also because they can be shaped and trimmed and do well in shade (such as for foundation planting).

Pine is most commonly known of evergreens. White pine is noted for its long, soft, light silvery-green needles and rapid attainment of its 60- to 80-foot maturity. Red pine, as well as white pine, is splendid for backgrounds and windbreaks. Ponderosa pine, a broad, compact tree, is used for protection and ornamental screens.

Austrian pine (black pine) with its rich, green color and spreading branches has great favor in Midwest. Globe mugho pine is a small, rounded tree for ornamental planting.

Norway Spruce is probably most widely planted windbreak evergreen. Quick growing and. hardy, it has short needles of dark green; is a compact, pyramidal shape. Black Hills spruce grows toy 40 feet in time, is hardy and drought-resistant. A slow grower, it can remain in close quarters for many years.

White spruce has short, thick, light blue-green needles; it matures at 60 to 70 feet and is good for landscaping and screens. Colorado blue spruce is a good specimen tree and hardy, too, but it suffers in heat and drought. Of cedars, red cedar is a fine ornamental evergreen for hedges and windbreaks. It withstands dry weather and thick green foliage has a bronze in winter.

Douglas fir is best fir for windbreaks and screening. Hardy, healthy, drought-resisting, it grows quickly and compactly, and its lofty pyramid makes a good lawn specimen. Balsam fir, Christmas tree, is noted for its fragrance and lustrous foliage. White fir, a specimen, has an attractive silvery color.