Fall lawn care

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Before your lawn goes to bed trough the winter, you have to make sure it will make it trough the harsh months ahead. 
Firstly, do you know what type of lawn you have?
Does it contain cool season grasses (bent-grass, bluegrass, rye-grass) or warm season grasses (Centipede, Zoysia, Bahia, St. Augustine)?

But before you start taking care of your lawn you need to look up for the soil too.

If the lawn had enough water trough the summer haze, but it doesn't look right, there must be some soil issues. Check the pH of the soil. If it indicates acidity now it's a good time to apply lime. If it indicates alkalinity apply some sulfur or lawn sand.

Now is also a good time to apply winter fertilizers. These fertilizers have a higher amount of potassium and phosphorus that make cell walls strong, thus helping the grass to get trough the winter. Watch it! Winter fertilizers should be applied only on cool season grasses - September to November. Fertilization for warm season grasses should be done from July to September. Don't fertilize warm season grasses later than September because you'll interfere with the dormancy preparation processes.

Get read of broad leaf weeds by applying specific herbicide.

Rake leaves in order to prevent lawn diseases and allow air and light to get to the lawn.

If the soil is full of grass stems, roots, clippings, and debris (thatch) rake thoroughly your lawn to detach.

If you have a case of soil compaction rent use a spade to aerate the soil or rent an core aerator which will improve the drainage, encouraging also the development of microflora and microfauna.

If you have cool season grasses, you don't need to adjust the lawn mower height. Mow at your regular height and when the lawn stops growing, stop mowing.
If you have warm season grasses rise the mower height by half an inch.
Also if you have warm season grasses they will go to bed for the winter leaving behind a brown lawn. in this case you can overseed your lawn with annual (NOT PERENNIAL) winter ryegrass to have a green lawn during the winter. The annual ryegrass will die in the spring leaving room for the warm season grasses. Perennial ryegrass won't die in the spring competing with your other grasses for light, food and water.