Winter Landscaping Tips for Property Owners: A Seasonal Guide
Winter offers a unique set of challenges for property managers. With heavy snowfalls, slick ice, and endless pathways of salt, your property’s look can suffer, even if you manage to keep up with maintenance. But there’s hope for you yet. Here are some tried and true landscaping tips to help your property stay beautiful all winter.
How to Maintain Your Landscape in the Winter
Winter lawn care doesn’t start and stop with shoveling or salting. It’s about setting yourself up for spring so you can hit the ground running and have your grounds looking fantastic. These tasks are often forgotten during the winter months but are crucial to maintaining a good-looking property.
Tree Pruning
Believe it or not, winter is an excellent time to prune trees. With all of the leaves gone, it’s easier than ever to spot any damaged branches. So take care of them now, and your trees will thank you come springtime!
Winterize Sprinkler Systems
This task is likely on your winter landscaping to-do list, but you’d be surprised how many property managers forget to do it or deem it unimportant. For example, if you don’t winterize your sprinkler system, you risk dealing with burst pipes when the water inside freezes.
You can winterize them by forcing compressed air through your sprinklers to push out excess water. If you still need to, prioritize this task and get it done the next time temperatures are above freezing. You’ll thank yourself for preventing an incredibly frustrating and time-consuming problem.
Lawn Fertilization
Fertilizing your lawn before the first freeze is an excellent way to enrich the soil and fortify it for spring. This landscaping hack will help your lawn grow a beautiful, vibrant green and even help reduce how much work you’ll have to do on it later. For the best results, go for fertilizers that have nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Mulching
Adding mulch to gardens and tree beds is another task that many believe should only be done in warmer weather. But mulch is a phenomenal insulator and can help protect your plant’s delicate roots from freezing.
You can add roughly four inches of mulch after the ground starts to freeze, taking care to avoid laying your mulch too close to the trunk or stem of the plant. A pro tip: save any leaves you’ve raked up in the fall and use them as mulch for the winter! It’s organic, easy, and, best of all, free! Straw or shredded bark works equally well, so feel free to use it if you have some lying around.
Don’t Stop Watering
Many property managers assume that plants won’t do well being watered since it’s cold out. They’re right to an extent, but only if the temperature is below 40 degrees. Otherwise, your plants need water to survive and thrive. Without water, they can suffer for months and are left susceptible to diseases or death. And a property full of dead shrubs is quite the eyesore you’ll want to avoid.
Raking
Raking is almost exclusively viewed as a fall task. But plant debris will build up on your grounds, regardless of the time of year. And when the debris mixes with snow, mold, and fungus can grow — something you don’t want to deal with when your property starts to thaw.
Commercial Landscape Maintenance Services from Coastal Spray
Landscape maintenance is an ongoing process for property owners. Partner with Coastal Spray for your winter lawn care needs and let the professionals handle the more tedious tasks that winter forces onto your to-do list. Reach out to our team today to hear more about our commercial landscaping in Houston