It goes without saying that summer is here. But there is nothing wrong with preparing your home garden early for winter. You may want to do a lot of things so you can enjoy winters sitting by a bonfire or space heater, watching football, or having a party with some grilled dishes. Take your days off for landscape maintenance and follow these steps –
Clean up the mess
It is one of the biggest things to do, not just in winter but in other seasons too. Rake the leaves off the lawn and get rid of any tools and debris.
Shred some mulch
It is good to add some mulch across the trees, plants, and shrubs for some more water protection to your landscape and to control loss of water and erosion. But it is also vital to remove around 2” of mulch to keep an ideal temperature in the soil around the roots of these plants. You can use a lawnmower to give a nice nutrient source if there are not so many leaves.
Prune the plants
Late winter is ideal to do that. You basically open a wound that should heal when pruning plants. Prune just before they grow in spring to reduce pressure on the plants and help them to heal themselves.
Take care of young trees.
Protect young trees by wrapping wire across the base to keep roaming herbivores at bay during winter.
Minimize access to the lawn
During the summer, you might want to reduce foot traffic, especially when the lawn is green. But one can easily cut through the grass instead of using the sidewalk when winter arrives. You may not want people to walk through the grass. If you walk across the grass, the lawn will take more time in spring to recover. So, keep the pathways/sidewalks clear, so people won’t walk through the grass and park on the lawn.
Remove snow
If there is any branch that is vulnerable to heavy loads of snow, according to you, tie them well. Brush the snow off the low branches instead of shaking limbs as it can break the branches. Damages can easily make things worse. Remove the limbs that may break in ice storms or heavy snow.
Don’t overdo with rock salt.
You might be using products to melt ice quickly in your lawn like rock salt. But it can damage trees and plants as it pulls the water off the roots. Remove the salt by flushing off the soil and don’t pile salted snow on the lawn. You can use calcium chloride-based deicers, which don’t cause much harm.
In the end, you can also seek professional lawn care and guidance regarding mulching, soil enrichment, watering service, plant care, and seasonal decoration.