Yard maintenance is a year round task for homeowners, and preparing for the winter is not an exception. It is essential that you get your yard in order for winter so that you prevent damage from happening.
Winterizing your yard also helps to ensure that the lands are healthy and ready to go to work for you in the spring. These steps below will help you get through the winterizing process in no time at all.
It is best that you winterize your backyard during the fall months. Not as soon as Fall starts, however, it should be done when the grass has stopped growing and especially before the freezing temperatures start. Waiting too late could result in damaged shrubs, trees, and grass.
Clean Your Yard
You don’t want to wait until bad weather arrives to start cleaning up your yard. Once the summer season is over you need to cover or store all of your lawn furniture to protect it from damage. Be sure to do a thorough raking of the yard to ensure you’ve removed all debris from the yard. Anything that can’t be stored should at least be mounted down so that it does not blow away during windy winter nights.
Prepping Your Lawn
You can prep your lawn for winter in just four simple steps. The first thing you want to do is reseed any areas on your lawn that are bare. Next you will need to apply specialized fertilizer on the lawn (winterizing fertilizer). This should happen between the middle and end of the Fall season.
Once all grass growth has stopped, you can rake your lawn to get rid of all the leaves that have fallen. Last but not least you will need to cut your grass until about 1″ and then bag all leftover debris.
Prepping Your Trees
This will break the rule of waiting until mid Fall to begin winterizing. You should stop watering your trees towards the middle of summer through early fall so that the trees can harden. In the mid fall you should begin watering your trees with about 1″ of water weekly. Repeat this until the ground starts to freeze. During this time you also want to prune your trees, remove deadwood and branches.
At the end of the fall season you will need to spread a decent layer of mulch around the trees, however, be sure to leave room between the tree trunk and the start of the mulch so that you can discourage unwanted pests from trying to nest there. Last thing to do for your trees is to wrap them in burlap and apply a winter tree fertilizer.
Prepping Your Shrubs
Towards the middle of fall your annuals will begin to die off and turn brown. This is when you should clean all flower beds and planters. Trim all of your hedge and bush growth and be sure to remove any dead branches.
Winterizing your home is going to be challenging, however, when you see your yard next spring you’ll be glad you put forth the effort.
