When spring comes, do you feel overwhelmed by all of the landscaping maintenance work that you suddenly have to do? There is a way around this situation. If you take the time in the fall to tackle these three key landscaping tasks, you'll find you have much less to do in the spring.

Apply a Pre-Emergent Weed Killer

When spring comes and weeds start popping up left and right, you might find yourself busy with weeding and applying weed killers. An easier approach is to spread a good layer of a pre-emergent weed killer over your lawn and garden beds in the fall. Pre-emergent weed killers work by preventing the weeds from growing in the first place. They'll linger in the soil until spring, helping to ensure the weeds don't out-compete your grass and garden plants. This also means there will be more resources left for the grass and other plants, so they'll come in stronger and require less maintenance as the season goes on.

Aerate Your Lawn

Aerating a lawn basically means poking a bunch of holes in the soil. You can buy a rolling aerator at a home and garden store and roll it over your entire lawn in the fall. This will help ensure that when spring comes, the water is better able to penetrate the soil and reach the roots of your plants. You won't have to water as often, and you should have fewer issues with standing water, too.

Add More Mulch

In the fall, homeowners tend to notice that their mulch is dwindling, but they figure they'll just add more in the spring. But actually, applying another layer of mulch in the fall will do you a lot of good. The mulch will help keep the soil warm and moist, which means your plants should have an easier time germinating healthily in the springtime. Some of the mulch will break down over winter, adding nutrients to the soil so you don't have to fertilize your plants as soon in the spring. Plus, when the snow melts, your garden beds will immediately look better since they recently had a fresh layer of mulch added. You might just need to scatter another inch or two on top in the spring.

Fall is actually a great time to focus on landscape maintenance. A few simple tasks performed in the fall can make life easier when spring comes.