Once the cooler weather hits, you may think you are done with all your landscape design duties. You have spent months watering, pruning, and weeding to keep your yard looking vibrant and beautiful. Did you know that winter soil care can help your efforts once the warm weather returns?
Knowing how to prep your landscape for winter will help your investment thrive. In addition to raking leaves, you can preserve and prepare your lush landscape design for the spring. Whether you decide to tackle this project as a DIY job, or you are looking to hire professionals, the steps below will help you know where to start.
For Superior Spring Landscape Design Follow These Tips
Let the Soil Rest
It’s not a good idea to till or cultivate your soil in the fall. Let the soil rest and prepare for your spring planting.
Providing a ground cover or planting a cover crop is ok, as long as you refrain from disturbing the soil in its entirety. You will have richer soil when the weather warms and your plants will thank you.
Use Winter Mulch
Winter mulch is much different from mulch you may lay in the spring. Winter mulch is often made up of leaves. It can, however, really be any mulching material such as grass clippings or pine needles.
The purpose of using winter mulch is to protect your ground and plants from the harsh winter weather. This method can be as easy as raking your leaves over a bed while completing your fall clean up tasks.
Compost
Now is the time to enjoy the compost you have prepared all summer! Laying a cover of compost over your soil (without tilling or cultivating) provides an extra layer of protection and nutrients for your winter landscape design.
To further enhance this method, cover the compost with a sheet, blanket, or tarp. Doing so will help regulate moisture and further protect your ground from the harshness of winter.
Leave Winter Weeds Alone
Winter weeds are a different variety and do not spread invasively as summer weeds tend to. These weeds are heartier, and often smaller than other weeds and can provide an important protection in some of your flower beds.
With the freezing and thawing of the ground and falling and melting of snow, winter weeds can help prevent soil erosion in beds, particularly those that are not perfectly flat.
Tolerating these weeds will ultimately help your beds when spring comes. At that time, just pull the weeds and dispose of them.
Call Us for a Complimentary Landscape Design Consultation
Does all of this sound like more work than you want to handle? Call Hittle today to schedule your landscape design maintenance appointment.
Our experts have been preparing landscapes for Indiana winters for over four decades and we’d love to help you do the same.
We will look at your individual landscape design and determine how your space will be better preserved for the winter months ensuring that, once spring comes, your landscape is as lush and beautiful as it has ever been.