Winter in landscape maintenance is a crucial time to get things ready for the growing season again. Making sure you have regular visits in the winter is integral to a beautiful spring and a healthy landscape. Things that ensure your landscape is ready for spring:
Continued turf maintenance- Winter weeds emerging when winter temps rise for a few weeks in North Carolina is an issue. Landscapers spot spray weeds in turf that make their way through to ensure a a lush healthy lawn. Pre-emergent herbicide applications to prevent weeds as well as fertilization happen in the winter months that get turf ready for spring growth are important events that should not be missed.
Winter pruning- Removing dead, dying, and crossing branches on trees such as crepe myrtles is vital to tree health. Cutting back grasses and roses in the winter is ideal as well. While there are shrubs that should not be pruned in the winter due to buds setting right after blooming, many ever-green shrubs benefit from harder prunings when needed in the winter. Cutting back perennials is also a great horticultural practice and maintains the landscape.
Basic clean-up- picking up leaves, sticks, and pine cones in the winter keeps your landscape looking tidy and neat. Blowing off hard surfaces regularly will protect hardscaping from holding water and discoloration from debris.
Mulching and pine straw- adding mulch or pine straw each winter will help your landscape by adding organic material back into beds, weed suppression, and keeping moisture in the ground.
Winter is not a time for your landscape to hibernate but a season that demands thoughtful care and attention. Regular visits from landscapers, coupled with practices like continued turf maintenance, winter pruning, basic clean-up rituals, and mulching, create the perfect canvas for a breathtaking spring revival.