The best time to start your spring landscaping is in late autumn. That may sound extreme, but it’s absolutely true that the key to healthy trees, shrubs, and plants is preparing them for a healthy start to the growing season.
As the temperatures begin to drop here in the Northeast, all of our plants and foliage are getting the message that it’s time to rest. While we mostly think about fall landscaping as cleaning up falling leaves and some post-summer pruning, it’s also about protection and fertilization.
Protect Trees and Shrubs with Winter Guard
Fall and winter can be very wet seasons in Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. One would think all that moisture is great for spring growth. It’s not quite that simple, though. Excessive fall rain, blustery winds, snow, and swinging temperatures can damage your property’s landscaping and put you way behind your goals for the spring.
The trees and shrubs around your home are far more exposed to the weather than plant life in a forested area. This exposure puts your foliage at risk for breakage, uprooting, and even dehydration during the cold months. All of the weather elements take their toll on your landscaping. The good news is that you can prevent this damage by winterizing your trees and shrubs for their protection.
Blue Grass Lawn Service & Landscaping, Inc. has developed a Winter Guard Protection treatment that minimizes the effects of cold, wind, snow, and rain on your landscaping. This treatment is customized to meet the needs of your property. It includes Pest Inspection, where we inspect and treat for the pests that like to set up home in your landscaping during the cold months. Our team of professionals is serious about winter protection for your trees and shrubs. We have developed winterization techniques that promote a vibrant start to spring after anything winter throws at your landscaping.
Additional services that you should consider doing to winterize your property include:
- Mulching - our method of mulching leaves the stem of the shrubs exposed in a well, with the mulch building out and up from the center. This allows for proper drainage to avoid pest infestations and rot.
- Windshields - we protect shrubs, plants, and small trees that are most exposed by creating burlap windshields. We can fully wrap or stake down trees and shrubs that are especially vulnerable to being blown over.
- Tying branches - by wrapping branches carefully with twine, we can avoid them being snapped off by heavy winds or snow loads.
If you need assistance with these tasks, we can happily provide you with referrals for highly qualified professionals.
Proper Feeding for Winter Rest
Fertilization is not just for the spring and summer. We feed lawns and landscaping in the fall as well so that the soil can regain the nutrients that get depleted during the warmer months.
Winter fertilization slowly releases nutrients into the soil where they will be stored for when the temperatures begin to warm up again. This promotes strong root development, and it ensures that the plants have access to healthy soil as soon as they come out of dormancy. The result is excellent seasonal budding and flowering throughout your landscaping.
If you have never tried a full winterizing treatment for your landscape trees, shrubs, and plants before, you may have experienced the frustration of slow spring growth. That frustration is much worse if you notice that other homes in your neighborhood have landscaping that seems to wake right up and start growing lush leaves and abundant buds and blossoms. The only difference is winterization!
You don’t have to wait until spring to get your trees and shrubs into growth mode. Feed them now so they wake up refreshed and ready for spring.
Timely Pruning for Proper Growth
Pruning is a pretty standard activity during your fall landscaping cleanup. This is the time when you’ll find dead branches to remove and overgrowth to cut back.
When pruning for shaping purposes, wait until your shrubs or trees have finished all of their flowering. Even better, wait until after the first frost of the season. Pruning while there is still life on the branches will disrupt the plant’s internal clock. Prune after the plant goes dormant so that it can recover and then direct its energy into new growth on healthy branches.
Most homeowners get the closest look at their trees, shrubs, and plants while pruning. If you notice anything that concerns you, such as mushroom groupings, insects, retained moisture, or signs of rot or disease, please give us a call. Our highly knowledgeable team can help you diagnose and treat the problem before it causes too much damage to your landscaping.
If you need assistance with pruning, we can provide referrals for skilled professionals to make sure it gets done in the healthiest manner for your trees and shrubs.
Professional Tree and Shrub Care for Winter Protection
At Blue Grass Lawn Service & Landscaping, we have been testing and developing our methods for over 40 years. Our Tree and Shrub Care Program is designed to promote healthy plant life throughout the year so that you always have beautiful landscaping.