Here are seven landscaping tips for winter.
7 Winter Landscaping Tips
Below are seven tips to best take care of your landscaping needs during this time.
1) Get to mulchin’!
One of the best things to do for your home is to spread mulch. While it’s not the most exciting job, it makes a world of difference. Mulch helps against the freezing and thawing of your soil that isn’t good for your plants.
Straw or shredded bark is the most efficient mulch to use. When you’re looking back on “mulching day” in the future, you will be glad you took the time to do it.
2) Save your tender plants
Some plants are not designed to withstand the winter weather, and that’s okay. Plants like dahlias and cannas do not thrive in our level of cold - which, for Asheville, is a hardiness level of 6b (but varies throughout the outlying areas).
For the winter months, you will want to find a warm place to store these in your home until the temperatures rebound in the spring.
If you protect these plants, you will be able to use them again in the springtime. Dahlias need to be taken up two weeks after their first hard frost. Cannas need to be taken out of the cold after the first hard frost, but do so before the ground freezes!
This will keep you from having to repurchase the plants later next year.
3) Continue watering
Hold onto that spring feeling the best you can, and don’t stop watering your plants. Just like you wouldn’t deprive yourself of water, a universal essential for life, you should make water available for your plants all year long.
If the ground freezes and the roots can’t intake water from the ground, your watering routine can save the day. What kills most plants is that their water storage becomes depleted. By watering on a consistent basis, your plants have a greater chance of survival.
4) Protect the younger trees
Newly planted trees are vulnerable to all the winter weather that is thrown their way, not to mention the animals seeking warm shelter for their own survival. You can wrap these thinner trees to cover and protect them from the cold, snow, and ice.
Once you remove the cover in the spring, you are more likely to be greeted by a healthy tree that survived the cold months.
5) Rake those leaves away
There are many different reasons you would want to get the fallen leaves up from your yard. For starters, walking or driving on wet leaves is hazardous.
For your lawn, leaves can steal the sunlight (or the spotlight) away from your grass. Taking away the sunlight could hinder your grass from growing, even in the spring.
When the forecast calls for snow, fallen leaves will trap moisture and could contribute to the development of mold on your lawn. Mold could damage your grass, and you would not notice until spring.
6) Don’t prune during the winter
Pruning is a great idea for the right time, but winter is not an ideal season to do it. If you prune during the winter, your plants won’t have time to grow by the spring, so they will be slower to take their form and natural beauty.
Choosing to prune in the spring or summer will help your landscape look breathtaking in the warmer months. And who wouldn’t want that?
7) Salt can destroy your grass
Salt is generally used this time of year to melt ice and prepare the roads for travel. People will generally salt their driveways to get to work or prevent people from slipping on the pavement when there’s snow and ice.
While salt is a good tool, it can be harmful to your lawn. The salt can create bare spots in your lawn that will be very noticeable after the snow is long gone in a few months. If you use salt, be sure you are very cautious of where you are spreading it.
HydroClean Is Here to Help You This Winter
If you want the best lawn maintenance and care, HydroClean’s professional team is here to maintain your lawn with excellence. HydroClean has served the Buncombe, Henderson, and Haywood Counties with over 21 years of experience.
HydroClean is the go-to in the Asheville area using their precision trimming methods and their great eye for detail.
Additionally, if winter weather hits your home in Asheville this year, HydroClean provides snow removal services to help you or your businesses continue your day-to-day operations. Please feel free to contact us to discuss our lawn care and snow removal services. We are here for you.
Read on to discover if pressure washing will kill the plants you worked hard to save over the winter.