Spring is the perfect time to tidy up your yard and get ready for a long summer full of gardening and spending time outdoors with friends and family. Your landscaping needs some tender loving care after a long winter and chilly spring, so break out your rake and set aside some time to tackle your spring maintenance checklist!
Clean Up After Winter
Take the time to clean up any branches, leaves, pinecones and dead stalks in your yard. Before you add some color and life back into your yard, you need to clean up everything that the winter killed off. Even if you did a good job of cleaning up leaves in the fall, you should rake your yard to control thatch build-up and remove any straggler leaves.
Prepare Your Flower Beds
If you have existing perennial beds, you should add compost or mulch around existing plants to fertilize them and lock in moisture. As you go, you should weed plants and remove dead stalks and leaves. If you utilize chemical fertilizers, use them sparingly and in strict accordance with the directions.
If you want to open up new planting beds, you should use a tiller to break new ground or create raised beds. If you aren’t sure where to start or how to accomplish the task, don’t hesitate to get help from JFC Grounds Maintenance. Now is also the time to install weed barriers like landscaping fabric.
Start Your Plantings
Spring is the ideal time for installing new trees and shrubs, along with planting new perennial flower borders. Start the planting process now, including adding seasonal color to your yard. Planning a vegetable or fruit garden? You should also start these plantings now, depending on the optimal growing conditions.
Prevent Pests
It’s almost always easier to address weeds before emergence, instead of after the fact. Landscape fabric, mulch and pre-emergent herbicides can all guard your landscape in different areas. Early spring is perfect for applying a pre-emergent herbicide on crabgrass and protecting against garden pests.
Aerate Your Lawn
If you didn’t aerate your lawn in September, April is your final chance to get the job done and enjoy a lush, beautiful lawn. Lawn aeration punches small holes in your lawn to loosen the soil and allow sunlight, nutrients and water to penetrate the roots. By aerating your lawn, grass seed will have a better chance of growing and your existing grass will grow deeper and stronger roots.
Why Should You Leave the Job to JFC Grounds Maintenance?
On top of taking care of bed preparation, edging and mulch installation, we can also tackle any other spring landscaping tasks you desire. Give us a call today at (410) 655-2887 to learn more about our planting, grounds maintenance and lawn care services.