Don’t Hibernate On Cleaning Up Your Landscape!

What’s the big deal about landscape cleanups? 

Let us not beat around the bush – we all know that first impressions matter! One of the first things visitors will notice about your home is how your lawn/landscape looks as they pull up. If you’re not taking the time to make sure your lawn is clean and clear of excess debris, your landscape will look dirty and cluttered. That’s an aesthetic no one wants to have as part of their home and can ruin that first impression you may have worked hard to achieve. 

Aside from the looks aspect, if you let your lawn stay dirty and cluttered, it can do a large number to the health of your lawn as a whole! Letting debris and furniture sit in your lawn for an extended time can really affect its growth and lead to various lawn disease forms. You could end up with stunted grass growth, brown patches across the lawn, and other worse diseases brought on by mildew that can quickly spread! Lawn jobs such as these are essential this time of year as the cold and moisture set in, making it a number one priority for your lawn maintenance routine. 

What are the top tasks to complete as part of winter cleanups? 

Contrary to what you may have thought before, there is such a thing as winter weeds – and yes, they can still be just as damaging to your lawn as those that grow during spring and summer! In addition, they are very cold-tolerant, meaning they need to be eliminated as soon as you see them before they have time to continue spreading. Of course, hand-pulling these types of weeds can be the best way to go about getting rid of them, but you do still have options if that isn’t realistic to your lawn size or timing. 

The most common part of landscape cleanups is the removal of any excess debris that may be scattered all across your lawn. Being the more obvious problem, leaves should be raked up and removed consistently to ensure the lawn is clear throughout the season. This job also goes for other debris like tree branches or limbs that have fallen to the ground below. Furniture is another item that folks don’t usually think about as part of winter’s “lawn clutter”! However, too much furniture sitting on your lawn during the winter can trap moisture beneath it and cause uneven pressure on the ground below. 

Certain types of plants (and even grasses) have times they should be pruned throughout the winter. Waiting too long to prune these can cause problems for the whole plant in the long run. However, it can be a bit hard to tell how often and where to prune, so it’s crucial to do plenty of research first. Winter is also the perfect setting for specific animals coming to forage for things such as food and places to sleep, so finding ways to deal with them properly is going to be a priority, too. Fencing, repellants, and other preparations can be made to help out problems like these! 

What are some lawn mistakes to always avoid during the winter? 

In every single season, the year brings, there are plenty of do’s and don’ts to keep track of so you don’t cause any accidental damage to your lawn. Winter is no different, and there are some prominent don’ts to make sure you’re keeping in mind. For example, in many areas of the south, a big no-no people often mistakenly make is fertilizing too early. As a result, the grass is lying dormant, meaning the nutrients you’re laying down won’t all be immediately soaked up by that grass. In cases like this, you’re mostly feeding those wintertime weeds and not the actual grass itself! It can also cause the grass to focus more on shoot growth which sacrifices root growth. 

One of the most forgotten rules for wintertime and your lawn is keeping foot traffic down to a minimum! It’s tempting to go outside for a bit, to simply enjoy the cold weather around you, or you may even have dogs you have to let out. However, too much walking around on your dormant lawn can harm the grass on a cellular level. The tiny bits of ice that reside between the cells can pierce the cell walls with too much pressure being put on them. This pressure problem also goes hand-in-hand with not leaving anything on your lawn if it doesn’t need to be there – anything heavy can cause significant problems for you to deal with later in the spring. 

One of the most significant ways you can do more harm than good is to aerate your lawn during these cold months of the year. When to start aerating your lawn is dependent primarily on the types of grass you have growing in your area; winter is the worst time of year to aerate for any one of those types. The ground will be frozen, or nearly frozen, and trying to put holes into the ground while this is the case makes it even colder beneath the surface. This temperature drop can cause the roots to succumb to damage from the harsh temperatures and won’t do any good to get them growing again. Making sure you’re not trying to do too much at once to your lawn during the winter and you’re not making these mistakes will keep your lawn in great shape! 

What can lawn professionals do for me?

It’s easy to keep with the mindset that you can “do it all” when taking care of your home and lawn. In many ways, that’s not entirely untrue – there’s plenty good you can do for your landscape yourself. There is also, however, plenty you can do wrong to harm your landscape. Knowing the balance and your limitations is very important to the health and vitality of your lawn. 

Enlisting the help from local professionals such as Perfection Lawn and Landscape isn’t something to be ashamed of – you’re getting help from people who do this for a living and can tell you just what your lawn needs! They can also tell you what to do in the future to keep it in the best shape possible, so you don’t make any of the above mistakes again. So let them help bring your yard to perfection!