10 Tips to Prepare Your Property for Spring

Spring is here, and sunny days are (finally) ahead! Those first “50 and sunny” days are a welcome sight after a long Upstate, NY winter. As the snow melts and the days grow longer, you may be noticing that your property needs some serious post-winter TLC. March is a great time to get outside and assess what needs maintenance or repair. To help get you started, we’ve created a short list of tips that will help you plan your spring clean-up.

Time to get to work!

Keep Your Property Looking It’s Best:

Whether your property is a business park or HOA, spring is an important time of the year to make a strong impression on your customers or residents.

Ready to clean up your landscape for Spring? Here are ten tips to get you started:

1. First, Clear out the debris. Just like most building projects begin with demolition, so it is with your landscaping. After the storms during our long winter, yards tend to accumulate a lot of debris, such as broken branches, fallen leaves, and even wind-blown trash. Once the winter rains subside, it’s time to clear things out so that you can get to creating the beautiful yard you have in mind. And, while you’re at it, also clean anything accumulating on your roof and even in your gutters. This is also the time to cast an eye on the terrain. If it has gotten bumps and lumps, you want to go after them. Fix them now so that when things grow back, you will have the contours you want. It’s rake and shovel and roller work, kind of hard, but will pay dividends come Summer.

2. Aeration and Nutrients.

After that winter, all the snow, slush, and rain, your lawn may have actually gotten compacted and the soil is now too hard. As a professional landscape maintenance company, we often recommend to our clients and friends that they consider aerating the ground to help break things up and then spread compost on the lawn soil so that there are sufficient nutrients present to promote healthy growth. If you’re not sure, you can always have the soil tested by a plant soils lab so that you know precisely what nutrients or minerals might need to be added. Soils analysis can often more than pay for itself in very short order.

3. Rake out dead grass. Speaking of the lawn, get out the rake! After you pick up any of the debris, you’ll want to rake up the finer bits of dead materials. While some things can decompose and be good for the lawn, larger twigs will not—at least for many seasons. Time to get rid of them—or put them into your compost bin. That would be the most excellent place for them for the time being, and then use them on your lawn or in your garden in a future season. That said, realize that over-raking can actually be harmful to your lawn. Do a good job; just don’t be overly exuberant!

4. Check on your irrigation system

An extremely important task to tackle early is a check on your irrigation system, particularly if your area experienced freezing temperatures, which it more than likely has. Hopefully, you drained the lines during the winter, preventing damage to them from trapped water expanding into ice. Next year, let’s remember that! Now, check for leaks, broken sprinkler heads, malfunctioning clocks, and timers, or adjustment spray patterns.

5. What a lovely time to think about fertilizing. Spring is the perfect time and weather to get your initial fertilization done for your lawn and garden. If you have had your soils analyzed earlier, the lab may have provided a soil analysis, recommending exactly what should be added to help amend your soil for top growth potential. If you didn’t go that route, you can always default to the general remedies of commercial toppings and fertilizers recommended by your local garden center or big box retailer. Something is still better than doing nothing at all, but then again, don’t over-fertilize either. Follow the directions on the bag.

6.. Repair snow plow damage.

This will be an excellent time to repair your lawn from snow plow damage. This is very common here in Rochester, NY. If you’ve had your driveway plowed over the winter, then there’s a good chance that the edge of your grass is pretty rough. Luckily for our snow maintenance clients, we include lawn repairs in our service contract. But if you’re trying to DIY, we recommend installing sod. The other option is to rake out the damaged area and put down fresh topsoil and seed accordingly.

7..Laying Mulch

Mulching is still going to at least be desired, and may even be required, depending upon your area and the makeup of your lawn, plantings, and gardens. The great thing about mulch is that it does a multitude of good things that will all help to make your life easier. For instance, once you put down a layer of it on the ground or around your trees, or in your gardens, you can count on it to keep the soil cooler, retain water (which also saves on the water bill!), and it even helps to keep the weeds under control. 

8. Power wash (or soft wash—depending upon the surface to be cleaned) the exterior of your home. Remove any dirt or grime or other nasty things or buildup which may have accumulated. This can include the beginnings of mold and mildew, particularly in areas that do not get much-or any—sunlight. You might not need to wash the exterior every year, but you should take a look at it now and then—because you’ll know.

9. Right after the power washing comes the time to do some painting or staining or window washing, and repairing damaged fences or roofs, or decks. Some of these things are structural and can not be put off any longer as ‘deferred maintenance’. Deal with them.

10. And lest we forget, do not neglect to check for pest problems. Spring is THAT time when critters like ants or termites, and actual critters—rodents and such—begin to make an appearance. They will want to reclaim your property and make it theirs, so you do have to show them who’s boss. Seriously, keep an eye out, all spring and summer long, and try to stay ahead of them. 

3 Extra Spring Clean-Up Tips From the Pros:

We ran these ten tips past our own landscape professionals to get their input. Be advised that, while these ten require varying amounts of energy, most are suitable for DIY work. PLUS…our pros offered the following three tips, which you might well defer to a professional company. However, they do require both energy and skill. Not sure? Give us a quick call at (585) 750-1616. Happy to help. Now, let’s have a look:

Edging Flower Beds.

For a crisp look and easier mowing, pros often create a fresh, new spade edge for your landscape beds. Whether combined with mulching or just added to neaten your existing landscape, edging completes the look. And if a spade edge is not what you're looking for, we can install more permanent edging materials, such as decorative curbing or paving.

Shrub and Hedge Trimming.

Is your landscape having a bad hair day? A good pro can tame those shaggy shrubs and overgrown hedges into shape with trimming by an experienced tech. Whether you prefer a formal look or a more natural one, this effect can help to make your landscaping ‘pop’. Sometimes, however, those shrubs are in need of rejuvenation, but our crew can help get them back to their original beauty.

Identify Problem Trees.

Just as with shrub and hedge trimming, some of your trees may be past their prime. It’s ‘the circle of life’! The tricky part is realizing that there might be many, many different indicators of tree health. Don’t just guess. Helping a tree is a serious business. We recommend contacting a professional to handle this for obvious reasons, your safety among them!

There’s good news and bad news with this article. The good news is that we’ve only named ten major areas to work on. Truth is, there are more. And while many of these ten areas are tasks that you can tackle yourself, the bad news is that there is serious work involved. At PropertyCare we are happy to help out with some or all of these landscape chores mentioned.

Many people realize that there is a difference between the pure joy of pruning a couple of rose bushes and the sheer effort of managing the landscaping of your entire property. If you need the assistance of a pro, please get in touch with us!

We’re here to help you, with as much or as little as you may need: one-time only, or a full-care landscape maintenance program. We are as close as your phone (585) 750-1616 or your email office@careforyourproperty.com.