Getting your landscape ready for the warmer months is a great activity that can be enjoyed alone or with the entire family.
The care you put into your lawn and gardens during the spring and summer will determine the health and vigor of your yard for the months — and years — to come. Whether it’s overgrown weeds, invasive plants or buckled patio stones, all sorts of issues can crop up as time goes on.
The best way to protect your landscape investment is to maintain it through regular upkeep. So we asked our property care crews for some of their basic landscape maintenance tips.
Here’s what they came up with!
Six basic ways to maintain your landscape
Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or not, these basic tips will either help you maintain your landscape yourself — or give you some insight into how our team does it.
1. Get out your gardening gloves.
Garden care is one of the pillars of landscape maintenance, and depending on the plants in yours, it might be a little tricky.
Our suggestion is to get to know what you have in your gardens. Find out the names of all of the flowers and shrubs and then look up how to best care for them.
Beyond that, stay on top of weeding, especially early on in the year. Once weeds get too big, they can be a real nuisance to handle. For more in-depth gardening tips, take a look at our free Spring Lawn & Garden Care Guide.
2. Keep your lawn and gardens hydrated.
If you’re planting anything new, be sure to water the plants daily until established. As for the best time to water? Early morning is always best, as it prevents water from evaporating and gives the roots more time to absorb moisture.
A garden hose will do the job, but we recommend investing in a smart irrigation system, which gives your lawn and gardens the optimal amount of water. Plus you can program them with your smartphone!
If you have more questions about watering, these tips from the Saving Water Partnership are really helpful.
3. Mow the lawn weekly.
Mowing your lawn is one of the most basic maintenance tasks there is. But there are a couple of things to note when you’re doing it.
Adjust your mower height before you mow. A good rule of thumb is to cut to 2.5 inches, but it can vary depending on the time of year and the type of grass you have. In the summer, the best time to mow is early morning (between 8 and 10 am), followed by early evening (4 to 6 pm).
If you’d rather not do the mowing yourself, consider investing in an Automower.
4. Fertilize the lawn from spring to fall.
A late spring (late May to early June) fertilizer application with a 32-0-6 slow-release fertilizer is best. Keep fertilizing every 6–8 weeks as the nutrients in the soil will deplete as the grass grows and is cut. Typically, you’d feed your lawn once in early spring, once in late spring, once in late summer and finally in the fall, just before the frost arrives.
Keeping up with fertilization encourages a thick, healthy lawn and crowds out weeds naturally. For more thorough steps on how to care for your lawn, see our free Spring Lawn & Garden Care Guide.
5. Control weeds with pine straw and mulch.
Mulch can make caring for your garden a lot easier. Applying pine straw and/or mulch to your gardens keeps the soil warm, prevents weed growth and helps plants retain moisture so you can water less.
Generally, mid- to late spring is the best time to add mulch, as the soil is starting to warm up from the cold of winter.
6. Prune trees and shrubs in the fall.
Every couple of years, prune in the fall or in the early winter, allowing the tree to recover before the summer heat comes around. Pruning in spring, when the sap is flowing from the roots to the trunk and branches, robs the tree of essential nutrients.
Certain trees, such as crape myrtles, require a very specific type of pruning to grow well — or no pruning at all! If you’re not sure how to best prune your tree, read our blog post on basic tree care.
A fresh approach to caring for your property
If maintaining your yard feels like an overwhelming task — or you’d just like a little help — the team at Plants Creative is here for you. From specialized garden care to solar-charged electric equipment and robotic mowing, our team offers a fresh approach to keeping your property looking awesome.
You can choose from three full-service packages or our Garden Gloves package. The Garden Gloves package is most popular among homeowners who can maintain their properties themselves but want to leave garden care to the professionals.
If you’d like to know a bit more about the process behind our property care services… watch the video below!
We hope that you can put the tips in this post into practice this spring, summer and fall — and keep your turf, gardens and trees looking their absolute best.
