Creating the Perfect Maintenance Plan for Your Property
Spring is approaching fast and your property’s landscape is going to come alive before you know it and need care. Here are some crucial tips tasks you should have in your maintenance plan. Follow up with our blog to get an even more in depth look at each task as the season progresses!
Spring Clean Ups
This is the start of it all. Spring clean ups are a time to clean up your property from the winter months and prepare the landscape for the growing season. Our crews spend time picking up any debris on the property, raking through the beds to remove any top layer of uncomposted mulch to prepare for a new layer, prune any deadwood out of shrubs, dethatch lawns, and edge beds. All of these tasks are important and have a role in the ongoing maintenance of your landscape in the months to follow.
Mulching
Mulching should come soon after the spring clean up. You want to spread 1-2” of nutrient rich compost of pine bark mulch in your beds to give your soil some needed nutrients, help the soil retain moisture, and suppress any future weeds. Make sure you are not putting it on too thick, especially around the roots of plants, and each year you should remove as much of the old mulch as possible.
Lawn Care
If you’re on a proper lawn care schedule your lawn should be the happiest in the spring. Old seed and new seed from the last fall should be thriving in the cooler temperatures and higher amount of rainfall. It is important to dethatch your lawn in the spring to make sure water and other nutrients can get through any old dead grass and into the soil. Once that is done you can mow your lawn on the shorter side (2-3”) and start your fertilization plan with pre-emergents and pest and insect controls. Once the summer hits you should make sure it is getting the proper amount of water (1”/week) and make sure to cut it higher to avoid burnout (3-4”). In the fall you want to make sure you are aerating your lawn and overseeding with enough time for the seed to germinate.
Shrub Care
Shrubs can get out of control fast and you should know how and when to prune them. Depending on the shrubs on your property we would set you up on a pruning schedule anywhere from 1-12 prunes a year. Fertilization is a good habit to get into in the spring and the fall. Make sure you are regularly looking at your shrubs for any insects or diseases. We always advise adding in some shrub protection in the fall to protect from the winter weather.
Bed Maintenance
Pulling weeds in your garden beds as soon as they germinate and root will stop the spread and further germination of the weed throughout your bed. Weeds can spread quickly throughout your beds and into your grass if they are not properly taken care of. Once the weeds are gone, adding annuals to your beds gives them some nice color.
Fall Clean Ups
Setting up your landscape for success the following year all starts in the fall. In terms of lawn maintenance, you want to stay on top of the leaves that fall on your lawn. If they fall and get matted down and start composting, they could kill the seed underneath. Alternatively, leaves in your garden beds are healthy and allow the soil to absorb nutrients from composting. Fall is the best time of the year to overseed your lawn. The cooler temperatures will allow the seed to germinate, then the seed will go dormant, and come back in the spring to the same cooler temperatures and rainfall and have another season to grow before the heat of the summer hits.
Stay tuned for more detailed information as the season progresses about how to properly manage your landscape. Make sure that your maintenance contract for this year contains all of the basic maintenance tasks above to ensure your landscape is being properly cared for.