Why your lawn and landscape need spring yard clean up

When somebody mentions “spring cleaning,” they are usually referring to cleaning up the inside of their home to get rid of any leftover winter dirt and debris, and to freshen up the interiors to get ready for the warmer months. While this is a great way to refresh your home and mental well-being, many people neglect their lawn maintenance until the summer. The spring is actually the best time to take care of your lawn and landscape because the weather is cooler and there is a higher chance of rain, allowing you to grow new flowers and vegetation.

If you are ready to enhance your outdoor space, put down the duster and check out the following steps that you need to follow to ensure your landscape pops!

Start By Cleaning Up Your Yard

After a long winter, your yard could have accumulated a lot of debris, leaves, sticks, and animal droppings, just to name a few. This step isn’t that fun for anybody, but it is necessary to make sure your landscape can bloom properly. Break out your gardening gloves and have a few yard bags at hand before you start to clean up your yard.

During the winter months, loose pieces of garbage or recycling can fly around then get buried by the snow if there happens to be a storm that night. If you aren’t aware that your lawn is littered with garbage during the winter, you will see an unwanted surprise when all of the snow melts. Before you cut the grass for the first time in the spring, do a thorough search of your lawn and clean up any garbage that you find.

After you have cleaned all of the garbage from your lawn, the next step is to rake your lawn. If you didn’t get the chance to rake up the leaves that fell in the autumn before the first snowfall, your lawn could be subject to snow mould, which is a fungal disease that can affect your grass. Rake up the leftover leaves so your grass can “breathe” again and start the new season off on the right foot. Even if you did get rid of the leaves in the autumn, raking your grass during the spring can help control dead grass areas.

If you have an existing garden, you will want to clean up that area as well. Make sure you remove any leaves, sticks, and dead flowers.

Cleaning up your lawn isn’t enjoyable, but you can make it fun by visualizing how it will look when all of your landscaping projects are done! After everything is clean and you are happy with your designs, the next step is to prepare your flower beds.

Fertilizing and Preparing Your Flower Beds

If you already have an existing flower bed that you used effectively last year, the best way to reuse it is by adding new compost to help fertilize your flowers. You should also remove any weeds now before they grow higher in the summer. Another added benefit of using compost in your flower bed is that it is a natural fertilizer that won’t harm your plants.

If you do have to use a chemical fertilizer, make sure you always follow the instructions properly because they could end up burning or killing your plants. The best fertilizers for flower beds are the ones labelled “weed and feed,” which contain a herbicide that prevents crabgrass and other types of weeds.

If you are interested in building your own flower bed, there are a few options that you can pursue, including 1) convert a grassy area by covering it with dirt and compost, 2) using a tiller to dig a flower bed, or 3) building a raised bed.

Option #2 is usually the most popular option to choose as it’s easier to maintain the bed in future years and it’s easier to control weeds. After you have dug out the bed, you should be able to spot weeds and remove them before they sprout above ground. Before laying your dirt and mulch, you can add landscape fabric and then cover it with mulch. This further stops weeds from making their way to the surface. However, if you intend to grow vegetables in the new bed, using landscape fabric can make it difficult for the vegetables to grow and dig up.

Planting Flowers

Now that everything is prepared and ready to go, you can start planting your favourite flowers that will bring a lot of colour to your landscape. The best time to plant trees, shrubs and perennials is early spring.

If you need any help with designing or implementing new landscape elements, contact the experts at Cedar Grounds. They have been providing high-quality landscape and property maintenance services in the Mississauga area since 1981 and strive on creating fantasy yards for all of their customers.