Winter has a way of making the yard messy. Storms knock down tree branches, leaving your yard and garden in disarray, and the crocuses and other bulbs that you planted the previous fall will only go so far in sprucing up your landscaping. When spring arrives, you’ll want a solid plan for projects that you should concentrate on, so that your yard looks beautiful in time to host parties and just be generally pleasant to come home to. Here are some of the top landscaping projects that you should put on your spring checklist.
1. Get Your Tools Ready
Start up your lawnmower, edger, and other equipment to make sure that all of your tools are running well. You might need to sharpen the blades on some of your equipment, and you should check your manuals to ensure that you’re following the recommended intervals for changing the oil. Also, if you have spades that are rusted or rakes with broken blades, think about investing in new ones.
2. Plan Your Annuals
If you like to plant annuals around the yard, it’s never too early to begin planning which plants and flowers will do best in certain areas. You’ll need to wait until the risk of frost has passed to actually plant, but getting a good idea of the budget that you plan on spending on annuals will help you as the time comes closer to planting season.
3. Treat Crabgrass and Quack Grass
If you had a problem with crabgrass or quack grass last year, you’ll want to take preventative measures to kill both of them before they even germinate. Pre-emergent crabgrass herbicides kill the root before the weed even shoots up. If you like to keep your lawn care free of chemicals, you can also pour boiling water on the areas where crabgrass is starting to emerge. Quack grass can be trickier because it has a deeper root system. If you have a problem with quack grass in a garden area, you might need to pull out your other plants so that you can spray an herbicide that kills everything. Then, later, you can plant your regular plants in the garden. When choosing your methods, it’s extremely important to determine whether you have crabgrass or quack grass because each type of weed will require a different method.
4. Raking and Picking Up Branches
You might be tempted to think that if you do an excellent job of cleaning up the yard before winter that you won’t need to walk around to clean up the yard again in spring. The reality is that winter storms will knock down branches and limbs from your trees and bushes. And if you have any trees that drop nuts or fruit, you might need to clean up some of those droppings, too. Making sure that you have everything up will help your grass grow in evenly, so spending the time picking up branches and fallen leaves throughout winter and early spring can potentially save you several hours a couple of months later.
5. Repair and Replace Broken Edging
Harsh winter storms can dislodge edging and wash away your mulch. Make sure that you plan a budget for replacing parts of your landscaping that didn’t survive through winter.
Spring is an exciting time of year because you get to see all of the plants in your yard come to life. It’s also the time to make sure that you’re ready to transition over to summer maintenance. Start planning your spring and summer lawn care to enjoy a beautiful yard over the next several months.
