Winter Landscaping Tips

Whereas most landscaping tips focus on taking care of plants during the growing period, landscaping during the winter season is equally essential if you wish to have a healthy vibrant plants and a good looking lawn. With the onset of fall and cold climate, it is necessary to accomplish a couple of projects in order to keep your garden and landscaping protected throughout the dormant months. Try preparing grass, trees and shrubs now, and they would remain healthy during the spring season and would also render a neat and well-tended winter landscape.

Preparing your lawn
Although grass may appear to have stopped growing during the fall, its roots are essentially growing deeper in preparation for winter. Winter is the perfect time to apply fertilizer to your lawn as well as reseed it. Feeding the lawn much earlier during autumn would boost the roots before winter arrives. Moreover, a second feeding around late October would keep it strong throughout the freezing winter weather.

If there are some bare patches in your lawn, early autumn is the best time to reseed or sod. Adding sod offers you a great lawn that would be appealing when the hot weather returns. In order to create a new sod, you need to keep it wet for the first six days after it’s laid. After this period, it could be watered when necessary. Avoid laying sod in hot and dry weather as it may be quite hard for the root to grow.

Ensure the sod has various grasses that are native to your area. The sod shouldn’t appear dry and warm to a touch. It should be placed on a pallet for utmost two days. You can avoid uncertainties by purchasing sod from a reliable grower.

Pruning hedges and shrubs
Pruning is necessary for a healthy growth during spring. Pruning should be carried out elaborately when the leaves begin to turn, showing that the plant is quiescent. It’s advisable to prune spring-blooming shrubs right away after flowering and prune summer-blooming shrubs during the dormant season. If pruning is performed late during the growing season, it can lead to new growth that would be spoilt by frost.

When pruning, be careful to make an accurate cut at a small angle about a quarter inch from the branch. A professional gardener can be hired to perform this delicate task.
You may wrap some shrubs with burlap to protect them against damage by frost. If you’ve witnessed frost damage before, ensure you wrap the shrubs before temperature subsides. Spread a mulch layer around the plants base to offer protection during winter. You can wait till spring to apply fertilizer to trees and shrubs.

Preparing landscape fixtures
Winter landscapes include not only plant life but also other objects. Just like plants, these fixtures usually require special attention to withstand the cold. Patios and walkways may be affected by cold weather. Keeping them free from debris and water build up would reduce the probability of winter damage. On the other hand, get a professional pool cleaner to winterize your pool.