Spring Checklist

As the snow is melting, and the beautiful crocus's are blooming, you look in your back yard and perhaps you do not like what you see. Your beds are littered with leaves, your grass is far from green; the lawn in a mess. This is one of those things that comes with spring. The mess from the winter needs to be taken care of, but you don't know where to start. Here is a simple checklist that you can refer to as a general guide for spring landscape cleaning.

1. Cleaning up your landscape is probably the most important thing to do in the spring. There is typically a pretty big mess from the winter, especially if you have a lot of trees. Cleaning out your beds and your lawn is a pretty simple task, and it really should be done to keep your landscape looking good.

2. After you have cleaned your beds, removed all the leaves and weeds, mulching is a great option for keeping things tidy. Mulch has a great aesthetic property, and is also very useful for keeping moisture in the ground and keeping weeds down. You may not need to do this every year, but you should at least assess the situation on a yearly basis.

3. Your lawn may need some additional attention, as it may be brown or dying from the winter. You may consider some lawn treatment or fertilizer, but if you are planning on planting grass this season, be careful what you put down. It will probably also be beneficial to get your lawn aerated and dethatched. Aeration will help provide the roots with nutrients and oxygen, while dethatching helps clear the dead grass from your lawn. Both of these are healthy for you lawn, and should be done if not on a yearly basis, on a regular basis. Overseeding is also a good way to strengthen your grass.

4. It is important for whoever is mowing your lawn to mow it higher than usual. In New England, most grasses should not be cut lower than 2 1/2 inches in the spring. This allows the grass to grow and get healthy.

5. Over the winter months, your shrubs will not grow that much, but come spring, they will probably need to be trimmed. This is an important task that typically makes the entire area look better just from a few simple cuts with some snippers. Having orderly bushes is really important for a pristine landscape.

There you have it, a list of things that should be considered for spring cleanup. This short list is very doable and the net result will be a generally cleaner landscape.

Tyler Kaiser
T. J. Landscaping Inc.