Blog Contributed by David West
While many people just assume that their yards simply go away and hibernate like the bears during the winter months, this is not necessarily the case. Although winter may be a time when weekly residential landscape maintenance work is reduced, it is nevertheless a good idea to get the yard in shape to ride out the harsh weather months and be ready to go again in the spring.
One of the most important residential landscape maintenance tasks to be accomplished before the harsh weather arrives is to drain and blow out the pipes in the sprinkler system. Burst pipes are never any fun to fix and it is always annoying to dig up your yard as the first act in Spring. Plus it can be quite costly to fix. There are some instances when insurance will not cover the damages if the outdoor spigots are not properly covered or secured for winter. Be sure to check in with your insurance agent so you understand the terms of your coverage.
Leaving your lawn extra-long and covered with leaves or other piles of stuff can lead to dead spots when the seasons finally turn. You need to rake and clean it during the fall and early winter.
In late winter, it’s time to give the yard a final mow. Make sure you administer a real crew cut and leave it clean and short. After you put away your mower, give your grass a final shot of root building fertilizer to get it through the late winter months. Fertilizers high in phosphorus and potassium help to build the micro and macro nutrients back into the soil that have been lost and stimulate root development, ensuring your grass has a solid foundation to “grow on” in the spring. Do not to administer a “greening” high nitrogen based fertilizer during this stage.
Before the ice comes to visit is also the time to do some residential landscape maintenance on the rockwork and concrete. Seal up any cracks or holes so that ice does not freeze inside them and further degrade your stone work.
Pick up any obstacles in the yard as well. Several inches of leaves do a good job of hiding that rake the kids left out in the back yard in the fall, but it will still hurt as much if you step on it inadvertently.
Where possible, bring barbecues and outdoor furniture inside for the winter. Weather damage to these items may not be instantly observable but it is cumulative and can significantly reduce the service life of your lawn furniture.
There are many residential landscape maintenance companies that offer winterization specials that will carry out the bulk of these duties for an extremely affordable price. Contact us to receive a no obligation estimate for residential landscape maintenance services that will get your yard prepped for winter.
David West is not only a manager on the landscape maintenance, installation and turf management team of Great Estates Landscaping, he is also an avid outdoorsman and enjoys spending as much time with his family as possible.