5 Fall Landscaping Tasks For A Healthy Yard
The last buzz of landscaping care activity occurs in the fall. Taking the time to do all of these necessary tasks will help ensure your landscaping returns to full beauty as soon as spring arrives.
1. Plant Cleanup
As fall arrives, the summer annuals and perennials in your flower beds begin to die back. Leaving the dead foliage in the yard can be unsightly, and it may also provide a safe harbor for unwanted pests and disease organisms to overwinter in the yard. A landscaping service can remove old annuals and cut back perennials. They will then remove the debris so it doesn't become a nuisance in the yard.
2. Leaf Removal
Leaves are one of the more cumbersome issues of fall, especially if your property has a lot of deciduous trees. Dead leaves left on the lawn over winter can suffocate out grass or lead to issues with lawn mold. It looks better and keeps the lawn healthier to rake them up. A lawn service can keep on top of your fall leaves, and either haul them away for disposal or put them in a dedicated compost pile on your property.
3. Winter Mulching
A fresh, thick layer of mulch in fall benefits plants in several ways over winter. The mulch provides some insulation, which protects the dormant roots of perennial landscaping plants. It also smothers out weeds so they don't invade when your garden plants are dormant. Further, mulch can help retain soil moisture, which means evergreens won't dry out over the cold months.
4. Dormancy Prep
Fall is the time to prepare the lawn for winter dormancy. Your landscaping service may recommend performing a soil test for nutrient deficiencies and applying a final fall fertilizer to address them. If the soil because compacted over the summer, then aeration and overseeding may be a needed fall task.
5. Plant Protection
Some plants require additional protection for winter, and the best time to provide this protection is in late fall after the plants enter their most dormant period. Certain evergreens, for example, survive winter better if they are wrapped in burlap to protect against windburn. Young saplings or trees with thin bark may require trunk wrapping to protect them from sunscald damage that can crack the trunks on sunny but cold days. Your landscape service can help you determine which plants need added protection.
Contact a landscaping service if you have further questions on how to prepare your landscaping for fall.