An essential part of home maintenance is landscaping. From keeping your lawn in pristine condition, to caring for your garden, there is a lot of routine time and effort that goes into making your property look beautiful throughout the year.
In this article, we’ll share with you some helpful seasonal tips and an overall to-do list for each season of the year. If you have questions, please contact our landscaping company today!
Basic Lawn Care Information
To start, let’s talk about basic lawn care, from mowing to waste removal.
- Mowing the lawn. Routine mowing is critical for keeping your lawn healthy and attractive. Throughout the spring, summer, and early fall, you should mow your lawn at least once a week, or depending on the rate of growth. When mowing your lawn, you should ensure you always utilize a sharp blade and adjust your mower height to the recommend level for your grass type.
- Trimming and pruning. Another important part of lawn and garden care is routine trimming of any overgrown branches and foliage. Make sure to trim your bushes, shrubs, and trees when you see overgrowth to promote their shape and overall healthy growth. Pruning may be necessary as well to improve your plant’s health. This may involve the careful removal of branches, buds, or even roots.
- Fertilization. To encourage healthy plant growth, you should add nutrients to their soil, especially when planting the flowers and plants initially.
- Weeding. Weeds spring up in gardens frequently and can overtake your plants quickly. Remember to weed your gardens often during the spring and summer months to maintain a healthy garden.
- Mulching. We recommend periodically mulching to help retain moisture and control the temperature of the soil.
- Pest control. There are many plant-safe options to remove pests such as insects or small rodents that can potentially overtake your garden, soil, plants, or landscape.
- Waste removal. Lastly, if your yard is starting to become littered with leaves, grass clippings, and debris, you should remove to help prevent pests and diseases from taking over your lawn and gardens.
To-Do List for Spring
The growing season is almost here, and it’s time to prepare your lawn and gardens! This is a busy time for landscapers. There are a few tasks you should add to your spring to-do list:
Charge and turn on irrigation. When turning on your irrigation, you should also take the time to check for any potential repairs. Also, check the irrigation controller batteries and set the correct date/time. Next, program the irrigation to prep for spring.
Clean your garden beds. Remove any leaves, branches, and debris that have accumulated over the winter in your gardens and landscape. Also, deep clean the artificial turf.
Turn on your water features. Springtime marks the time of year to turn on and clean your water features!
Aerate your lawn. Promote root growth and improve soil drainage by aerating your lawn.
Fertilize your lawn. Next, choose a fertilizer with a balanced blend of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to promote healthy growth and keep your grass looking green and fresh all summer long.
Plant new flowers and shrubs. One of the best parts of landscaping is choosing which flowers and plants you want to add to your yard for bright colors and vibrancy, to complement your hardscapes.
Start weeding. If you’re seeing weeds already, remove these right away so that they don’t start spreading throughout your garden.
Refresh organic mulch. Your organic mulch may include bark and wood chips, grass clippings, straw, garden compost, shredded leaves, and pine needles.
To-Do List for Summer
As late spring transitions into summertime, the plants and grass will be at their peak growing season. Here are some to-do items to ensure healthy growth and health of your plants:
Water your lawn and garden regularly. During the hot summer heat, you’ll want to daily water your plants to ensure they get sufficient water to survive and thrive. Also, adjust your irrigation schedules to accomodate for the hotter weather.
Mow your lawn regularly. You will need to regularly mow your lawn. Use a quality push mower or riding lawnmower to keep your lawn looking its best by mowing at least once a week and at the right height. Also, use a weed whacker to better reach the edges of your lawn.
Prune your bushes and hedge shrubs. Seeing overgrowth of your bushes and shrubs? You should remove any overgrown or damaged branches to promote healthy growth.
Clean up debris/garbage. Sometimes leaves, branches, and debris will accumulate in your gardens or lawn, or after a storm. Periodically clean these up to maintain your lawn.
Maintain your water features. Remember to check and clean your water features as needed.
Spray and remove weeds. Weeds will spring up throughout all summer. Weed as often as needed to prevent them growing out and choking out your plants.
Control pests. Lastly, regularly monitor your lawn and garden for signs of insect and small mammal pests and treat infestations as needed.
To-Do List for Fall
With the autumn chill and colorful leaves comes preparation for the winter months ahead. Here are some tasks to add to your fall to-do list:
Rake and dispose of leaves. Especially if you have lots of trees, you will need to regularly keep your lawn, gardens, and gutters free of leaves. Maintaining the amount of leaves will help prevent the development of mold and other diseases.
Plant bulbs. You should plant spring-blooming bulbs such as tulips and daffodils during the autumn.
Aerate your lawn. You should again aerate your lawn to help improve soil drainage and prepare your lawn for the winter.
Fertilize your lawn. Next, consider applying a fall fertilizer to promote root growth and prepare your lawn for the winter months ahead.
Do final lawn mowing/edging. Prepare your lawn for winter with final mowing and edging.
Control weeds. Lastly, while weed growth has slowed, make sure to remove any remaining weeds so that they don’t spread and become more difficult to manage in the spring.
Shut down irrigation systems and water features. During the fall, you should shut down all irrigation systems and water featues to winterize/get ready for freezing temperatures. Also, make final irrigation repairs.
To-Do List for Winter
While the winter months are a quieter time of the year, there are still a few upkeep tasks you can do to keep your landscape in top shape and prepared for the spring:
Make sure fall maintenance has been complete. You will still need to continue to clean up debris and leaves until the snow falls.
Clear snow and ice. Make sure to keep your driveway and walkways clear of snow and ice to prevent slips and falls.
Cover your plants. You should protect your plants using burlap or other materials to guard them from the harsh winter weather.
Prune your trees and shrubs. If you notice any damaged or dead branches on your trees or large bushes, you should prune or remove these to prevent possible damage during a severe winter storm.
Check for pests. Next, check your lawn and garden periodically for any signs of pests and treat infestations as needed.
Plan for spring. Lastly, use the cold winter months inside to plan for any landscaping projects you want to tackle in the spring.
Landscaping To-Do Lists: In Conclusion
No matter is you’re a seasoned gardener or a beginner new to landscaping, it is helpful to have a to-do list each season to ensure that your landscape stays looking great all year. Follow these basic lawn care tips and landscaping maintenance tasks and you’ll have a beautiful softscapes and hardscapes all year long!
Taking care of your outdoor space is a rewarding and enjoyable activity that can enhance the beauty and value of your home. If you ever have questions of how to care for your landscape or need tips, remember to talk with an expert at Fleming Group, LLC and we can provide some tips on how to keep your landscape design looking beautiful, no matter the season!
Contact Us
At Fleming Group, we’ve been providing landscape services for more than 30 years, with a careful eye for detail. We work with hardscape, softscape, water features, and woodworking elements to make your landscape look beautiful. Contact our team today!
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