Introduction
The winter season is almost over and with the snow melting, the spring season is knocking on the door. That means it’s time to get busy with the garden, lawn, and hardscaping. If you need to add a walkway or other such structures, you can search for “paving companies near me” and hire the right professionals for the job. Let’s check out a few tips for spring landscaping:
Tips & Tricks
- Know about your frost zone – Even if your buddies down in the south have tomato plants already growing out of the ground, it doesn’t mean you should do the same up in the cold north. Instead, you need to stick to your frost zone. Every year the Farmer’s Almanac publishes final frost dates for all regions across the US. Check out this resource to figure out when you should start planting.
Before the final frost date, most types of grass, trees, and perennials remain dormant. Their dormancy also determines how much fertilizer, water, and disturbance they can tolerate. Apart from that, most flowering plants, veggies, herbs, and new plants shouldn’t be planted before the final frost date to avoid damage.
- Clear debris – When the final patch of snow melts away, you should get busy and check out how much damage your yard took during the winter. Check out your flower beds and remove winter mulch to allow the temperature of the ground to rise up and melt any underlying snow. Clear away remaining leaves and sticks from your yard as well.
When you start raking the lawn, be gentle for the first few passes. You don’t want to disturb and damage the weak grass if it’s still dormant. After a few passes of the rake, if the grass isn’t green, you need to be gentle for the following few days till the grass enters its active spring growth phase.
- Assess lawn damage – If you have planted the right kind of cool-season grass on your property it should be able to take quite a beating during the harsh winter season. However, there may be some damage. For instance, your turf may be attacked by snow mold, a fungus that grows under thick snow. If that’s the case with your lawn, you can treat it with a lawn fungicide during the early spring.
- Early spring lawn care – Once your lawn has thawed fully you should start planning about fertilizers and reseeding. Slowly start rewatering your lawn before the weather transitions. Allow the grass to deepen its roots and come out of dormancy before you start blasting it with a water hose. It’s also the perfect time for taking out the Kubota Mower and other landscaping tools. Clean them up, check out their oil and gas levels and resharpen blades if necessary.
- Check out your trees – The winter season makes your trees go through a lot of abuse. The branches and limbs have to withstand extreme pressure if they accumulate a lot of snow. Call in a local arborist and let them diagnose the tree for rot, instability, disease, and pests. Even if you want to prune by yourself, the local arborist can offer you valuable advice on a safe and proper trimming approach. Avoid trimming flowering trees that want to keep their buds.
- Plant one tree – To change your spring landscape, start by planting just one tree. Plating one isn’t a tiring or challenging task and it’s one of the best things you can do for your spring landscape booth in the short and long term. While you need to care for the tree throughout the initial years, it’s basically maintenance-free for the most part of the year after it gets established. Choose your tree carefully so that it adds interest to your landscape. If you’re confused about it, you can go with a Japanese maple, it’s always a safe option.
- Add color with mulch – Mulch is an easy, inexpensive, and beneficial way of adding a lot of texture and color to your yard. If you have a green lawn, choose dark brown coffee-bean colored mulch to add striking contrast. Cover the surrounding areas of a few trees with the mulch layer and make the boundary with stones.
Combined with the grass patch, this adds numerous levels. If coffee brown isn’t your preference, you can get mulch made from other types of wood shavings that range from red and gold to black and cedar tones. If you don’t want to add the regular wood shavings and sawdust, you can go the unique route with pinecones. Apart from adding unique color and pleasant scent, they also break away from the flatness of the lawn.
- Add edging – Inspect your garden beds and walkways. Your lawn may be threatening close to them and morph into the walkway and garden beds very soon. You can prevent that and maintain the distinct layers and textures of your landscape by adding some unique edging. There’s no need for cutting or pruning. Define a walkway with stones, pebbles, bricks, or something else.
You can even define a walkway with organic personal items. People have defined their walkways with wine bottles and hockey sticks in the past. If you want your edging to be alive, you can add low-maintenance ground covers like vinca, lily of the valley, and more.
- Add a focal point – Allow your hobbies and passions to add texture and color to your spring landscape. Try adding a focal point with things that bring back pleasant memories. It may be an old toy truck, bicycle, wagon, or something else. You can also fill up the wagon or truck with potted plants or turn them into a mini herb garden.
Conclusion
You need to use a lot of elbow grease to make your spring landscape look beautiful. From lawn care and maintenance to adding new features to your landscape. If you need a walkway or patio, you can search for “paving companies near me” and hire reputed professionals for the job.
