It’s hard to believe that March is already here, and warm weather and spring are surely close behind! Welcoming the season of rebirth and renewal often involves the ancient ritual of spring cleaning. Some of us love it, some of us would rather skip to summer, but your landscape will benefit from your efforts. There is a lot to get ready for come spring, so here is our checklist for spring landscaping maintenance to help you get started:
Tackling the Plant Beds:
Begin by removing all debris from the previous year. This lowers the chance for disease and insects to become a problem. It also makes a yard look nicer and lived in. Finally, new growth can come up with less interference. Clearing out plant debris also makes mulching easier, and the finished job looks smoother and cleaner. Edging beds before you mulch them defines bed spaces more clearly and helps keep the new mulch where it belongs. A good edge also helps to prevent grass from creeping into your landscape beds. See our mulch blog for more mulching tips.
Lawn Care:
If you want that Edward Scissor Hands-level perfect suburban home look, it is a good idea to mow consistently and apply pesticides and herbicides. Start to mow regularly when the weather becomes (and stays) warm as mowing when it’s below freezing can damage the grass. For lawn chemicals, be sure to consult or hire a professional. Applying chemicals incorrectly can lead to many issues (besides killing your lawn!). Incorrect application practices can lead to you spraying chemicals where they should not go and harming other plants and animals. You can even accidentally leak chemicals into our sewer and water systems, and it doesn’t take a genius to know that is very bad news.
Planting, Planting, Planting:
Spring is the prime time to plant almost whatever your heart desires. You can take advantage of the spring rains to do your watering, and the moist earth is easier to work with! The sun is also not as intense as in summer, so new plants won’t be scorched. Starting early in spring is the key to getting the choice pick of plants from nurseries. Stores can quickly run out of stock, especially unusual plants, during the start of the warmer summer months. Variety is the key to bringing a true feeling of rebirth to your landscaping. Bulbs, wildflowers, ornamental onions, trees and hostas provide their own unique foliage to create a diverse spring landscape. See our blogs about spring bulbs and spring planting for more information.
Fertilizing and Feed:
It is definitely a good idea to fertilize in the spring. Plants have just woken up from a few months of sleep and are as hungry as a teenager. They are looking to grow, stretching out and searching for nutrients more at this time of year than any other! It’s just like with kids; feed them when they are growing! Generally, a generic 14-14-14 fertilizer will do fine, but some plants do require different fertilizers.
Spring Pruning:
Soon, those tiny buds on our trees and shrubs will start to burst into flowers. Pruning can make some plants bloom earlier, though not every plant will benefit from an early blooming period. Some plants like to bloom on new wood, some on old wood, and there are other factors that determine pruning practices. A landscape professional should be contacted about when to prune flowering shrubs or trees. See our pruning blog for more pruning tips.
Cleaning up a landscape to make way for spring can be a big task. We’d be happy to help! Send us an email or give us a call at (317) 997-4803.
Eagleson Landscape Company provides landscape maintenance services in the Greater Indianapolis area, including Carmel, Zionsville, Westfield, Fishers and Geist.
