During the winter months, you may neglect your landscape. After all, if everything is dormant, what could you possibly do? While it may be tempting to hibernate inside until the warm temperatures and sunshine return, there are some landscape maintenance and lawn care tips you can use to improve your outdoor area and ensure everything looks amazing in the spring.
Clean Up Your Outside Area
One of the main parts of winter lawn care is keeping the lawn clear. If you have not raked the leaves off your lawn, removed debris, put toys away, and cleaned up other areas, now is the time to do this. If you leave leaves or other items on the lawn all winter, you may wind up killing the grass underneath. At the very least, this is going to prevent new growth.
Put Some Mulch Down
When you add a layer of mulch around the shrubs, trees, and plants in your yard, it will add winter protection to your landscape. This also helps to control things like water loss and erosion. Experts recommend approximately two inches of mulch, which will help maintain a more uniform temperature in the soil near your plants’ roots.
If there are not too many leaves on your lawn, you can use your lawnmower to mulch what is there, providing your grass with much-needed nutrients, as well.
Protect Any Young Trees in Your Yard
Do you have young trees in your yard? If so, make sure to protect them during the colder months of the year. You can do this by wrapping wire mesh around the tree’s base. This will help prevent animals from gnawing on the bark, which can damage or kill these trees.
Prune All Plants
During the later months of winter it is the perfect time to prune your plants. When you prune these plants, you have created a wound that must heal. If you prune right before new growth starts in spring, you will reduce your plant’s stress and make it easier to heal.
Keep Your Lawn “Off Limits”
You probably take steps to minimize the foot traffic on your lawn during the summer months when everything is still nice looking and green. However, when winter rolls around, it is easier to cut across the grass than to use a sidewalk.
Part of your winter lawn care should be to cut down on how many people walk across the lawn. If you cut a path across the grass in winter, it will have a more difficult time recovering in the spring. Make sure to keep your paths and sidewalks clear, so people are not tempted to walk on the grass.
Hire the Professionals for Help with Winter Lawn Care and Maintenance
When it comes to winter lawn care and maintenance, hiring professionals is one of the best things you can do. They can evaluate your lawn and figure out what needs to be done to ensure it is healthy throughout the year.
