As winter approaches, it is important to take some time to prepare your landscaping before the snow arrives and several months of bitter cold weather. If you take the time to do do these tasks now, you will avoid having to deal with bigger problems later on. In this blog post, we will discuss five tips that will help you get your landscaping ready for winter!
Continue Watering Your Plants
One of the most important things you can do for your landscaping in the fall is to continue watering your plants. Many homeowners stop watering their plants in the fall, generally once their irrigation system is winterized, but this can actually be detrimental to their health. It’s critical they receive adequate moisture to help them stay hydrated and continue expanding their roots until the ground freezes and they go dormant.
Add Mulch to Your Landscaping
Adding mulch to your landscape beds is another great way to prepare for winter. Mulch helps protect plants by insulating the soil and regulating the temperatures while retaining moisture in the soil. This is very important if the weather was dry during the warm and dry during the fall months and there’s not much snowfall throughout the winter.
Check Your Gutters
Your gutters are important for keeping your landscaping healthy in the winter. If your gutters are clogged, water will not be able to flow properly and will likely damage your landscaping. Be sure to check your gutters regularly and clean them out as needed.
Remove Leaves
Fallen leaves can cause a lot of problems for landscape and hardscape surfaces. They can starve your grass and plants of sunlight, provide a conducive environment for diseases and fungi to spread and leave unsightly stains on your patio, walkway or driveway. If you have large trees in your yard that drop a lot of leaves, it is important to remove the leaves from your landscape and outdoor living areas to your lawn with a leaf blower at least 2-4 times per month. Once the leaves are moved into your grass areas, using a technique called “mulching” is a great time saver. This involves using your lawn mower with a mulching kit that uses mower blades to chop up leaves into a fine dust (when dry), and the leaf dust can be left on your yard as long as it’s not completely covering the grass from getting sunlight. Mulched leaves will eventually decompose in to the soil and provide your lawn with free fertilizer.
Make Sure Your Yard Properly Drains Before Snow Arrives
One of the most important things you can do for your landscaping in the fall is to make sure your yard properly drains before snow arrives. If your yard does not drain properly and a lot of snow falls during the winter, once spring arrives and it melts, you may have issues with standing water in your yard, or water seeping into your basement or other problems. There are a few things you can do to improve drainage in your yard such as installing a French drain, re-grading or building a dry creek bed. Be sure to take care of this task before the ground freezes.
If you’re in need of a landscape renovation, functional hardscape such as a retaining wall, or outdoor living space before winter arrives (or any time of year), contact the experts at Peters’ Patio & Landscape today.
