Prepare your outdoor living for the Fall Season

Colorado does not give you a long, gentle autumn. We get a few gorgeous weeks, the aspens turn, and then one night it drops below freezing and stays there.

Across most of El Paso County the average first freeze lands in early October. If you are up in Monument, Black Forest or Larkspur, you are on the early end of that — sometimes late September.

That means the work you should be doing is happening right now, in August and September. Here is the list.

Deck: Six Things to Check

1. Clean it properly. Pine needles, aspen leaves and dirt trap moisture against the surface all winter. Clear the boards, and get the debris out from between them and along the ledger.
2. Look underneath. Grab a flashlight. You are looking for soft spots in framing, rust at fasteners and hangers, and anything loose. Fall is when small problems are cheap and spring is when they are not.
3. Check the ledger and flashing. Where the deck meets the house is the highest-risk spot on the whole structure. If flashing is missing or lifted, water gets into your wall.
4. Sort out drainage. Make sure water and snowmelt run away from the house and away from footings. Standing water plus freeze-thaw is how concrete and posts fail.
5. Seal wood before the cold hits. If you have a wood deck, you need dry weather and daytime temps in a workable range. Waiting until late October usually means waiting until spring. Composite and PVC decks skip this step entirely — one of many reasons homeowners keep switching.
6. Stow or cover the furniture. Cushions come inside. Loose items either come in or get strapped down, because our winter wind is no joke.

If you want the warm-weather version of this list, we also published 7 Tips to Get Your Deck Ready for Summer.

Landscape: The Fall Jobs That Actually Matter

Blow out your sprinklers. Do not skip this.

This is the single most expensive thing to get wrong. Water left in irrigation lines freezes, expands and cracks pipe, valves and backflow devices. A blowout is a small cost. A spring repair on a shattered manifold is not. Get it scheduled before the first hard freeze, not after.

Fall is the best planting season here — not spring

This surprises people. Cooler air, warmer soil and less heat stress mean trees, shrubs and perennials put down roots instead of fighting to stay alive. Plant in September and that root system spends the whole winter establishing, so the plant comes out of dormancy ahead of anything you put in next May.

The rest of the list

• Aerate and overseed. Our clay-heavy soil compacts badly. Fall aeration plus overseeding is what separates a decent lawn from a great one.
• One last deep watering. Dry winters kill more Colorado plants than cold does. Water deeply before you shut things down, and plan to hand-water evergreens during long dry stretches.
• Wrap young trees. Our intense winter sun on thin bark causes sunscald. Wrap trees that have been in the ground less than three or four years.
• A few inches around beds insulates roots against our freeze-thaw cycle, which heaves plants right out of the ground.
• Check paver joints. Top off polymeric sand where it has washed out. Open joints let water in, and water plus freeze is how a beautiful patio starts shifting.
• Cut back selectively. Trim perennials, but leave ornamental grasses standing — they look fantastic in the snow.

Why Fall Is the Smartest Time to Build

Here is something most homeowners figure out a year too late.

Everyone calls in April. Which means April is when schedules are jammed, material lead times stretch, and the deck you wanted for Memorial Day gets finished in July.

Sign in the fall and you get better crew availability, a real design process instead of a rushed one, and a finished space waiting for you when the weather turns. We build year-round in Colorado — frozen ground is a scheduling detail for us, not a stopping point.

Want More Than Two Seasons Out of Your Deck?

A deck you use in June and September only is a deck working at half capacity. The upgrades that genuinely extend the calendar:

• Motorized screens. Retractable screens on a covered deck or pergola block wind, cut glare and keep bugs out. Drop them and a covered patio becomes a comfortable room in November. This is the single biggest jump in usable days for the money.
• A cover overhead. A pergola or solid patio cover keeps snow, sun and rain off and makes everything else on this list work better.
• Overhead infrared or mounted heaters, sized and placed properly, buy you real months.
• A fire feature. A gas fire pit or fireplace is the reason people stay outside after dark in October.

Now Booking: 25% Off, First Five Homes

We are also launching windows and doors this month, and we are offering 25% off to the first five homes that sign — projects of $10,000 or more, contracts signed by September 15, 2026.

If you are already thinking about your exterior this fall, the timing works in your favor. Financing is available, and current promotions live on our Special Offers page.

Let’s Get It on the Calendar

We serve Colorado Springs, Monument, Larkspur, Castle Rock, Castle Pines and Parker — including Flying Horse, Cordera, Briargate, Black Forest and Falcon.

Call 719-370-3325 or request a quote. Whether it is a fall tune-up, a landscape refresh or a new deck for next season, now is the right time to start.