How-to Keep Up Your Landscaping During the Winter Months
With the icy winter weather that the coming months are bringing, you likely are wondering what upkeep your landscaping will need. Believe it or not, winter still requires a fair bit of lawn and garden care to help prepare them for the upcoming growing season.
Garden Maintenance During the Winter
Despite the freezing weather that winter brings, there are a few key landscaping must-dos you should handle during the winter to help your garden and lawn along. Keep reading for six ways to keep up with your landscape during winter.
1. Keep Trees, Hedges, and Shrubs Trimmed
Dormant months during the coldest times of the years are the best for trimming and pruning perennial plants like peonies, liriope, hostas, daisies, and more. Don’t hesitate to prune your hedges and shrubs as well as deciduous and evergreen trees.
When pruning trees, inspect each tree for decayed or falling branches. To remove these parts of your trees effectively and safely, it’s best to contact a tree removal service. This will ensure that any damaged parts of the tree are removed before heavy snow and high winds turn them into falling hazards.
2. Remove Falling Leaves ASAP
While the falling leaves of Autumn are undoubtedly beautiful, they do add another task to your landscaping routine. If you keep leaves or other debris on your lawn longer than one or two days, sunlight won’t be able to reach the grass underneath which will make your lawn less healthy. To prevent your lawn from turning into a patchy stretch of the dead and brown grass, make it a point to regularly rake and remove leaves.
3. Plant Your Spring Bulbs
As the weather gets colder, it will be the perfect time to start preparing to plant your spring bulbs. Start by clearing any debris or leaves from the planting beds. Then, start redefining the planting beds’ edges by hard edging, finishing with a line trimming to leave the planters as crisp and clean as possible.
Once the beds are ready, you can start planting your spring bulbs. Ideally, you’ll want to plant the bulbs in an elevated and well-draining planting bed.
4. Winterize Water Systems
This tip is for homeowners that live in cold weather areas. During the winter, it is likely that pipes will freeze or burst as the temperature drops. To prevent this from happening, water spigots should be turned off, then covered. Similarly, homeowners should move organic chemicals into storage to prevent them from freezing.
Homeowners that live in warmer climates should keep this tip in mind in the event that the weather goes below freezing. While they may have never experienced this sort of weather before, if pipes are left with the water running, the consequences of bursting pipes will be the same.
5. Take Care of Tools During the Winter
Certain tools will no longer be needed as the coldest months set in. Be sure to empty the gasoline out of the lawn mower after your final mow of the year. All other tools like hoes, spades, pruners, and shovels should be sharpened and their handles rubbed down with linseed oil.
6. Fertilize Your Lawn
While winter’s cold weather brings growing grass to a halt, that doesn’t mean homeowners should forget about their grass. Take care of your lawn‘s health by fertilizing it throughout these colder months. Properly fertilized grass will remain healthy and ready to start growing again when the warmer weather begins.
Though landscaping during the winter months will differ from your usual routine, these steps are still as important for the health of your garden and lawn. Use these six tips to help with landscaping as the weather gets colder.
