For many homeowners, the coming season signals the end of a gorgeous landscape. While that’s not strictly true, it is certainly true that the winter season poses some unique challenges. Cold weather means that potted plants need special care, and the coming snow can mean disaster for an unprepared landscape. But you needn’t make preparations on your own. Four Seasons Landscaping is here, and we’re ready to provide all of the support we can!
Prepping Your Grass
In many ways, tackling grass care with snow in mind is planning around the inevitable. When the ground freezes, your grass will enter a holding pattern. But before this comes up, it’s ideal to give it as much care as possible by:
- Controlling disease and fungus – It’s very important that you keep the landscape as clear as possible all throughout the fall and winter. That means mulching or raking leaves to minimize excessive cover that promotes fungus and disease, as well as continuing to mow right up until the real freeze starts.
- Nurturing through nutrition – In order to return with vigor in the spring, your grass needs quite a bit of stored energy and health. It’s wise to have your landscape experts utilize potassium-rich fertilizer with minimal nitrogen to optimize energy retention and minimize excessive fall and winter growth.
- Giving it space to breathe – For the fall season, there is nothing as effective as aerating and seeding. Aeration promotes healthy roots and distributes water and nutrition more efficiently, helping your grass grow strong and hardy to take on the coming cold season.
Preparing Plants
If you own sensitive plants that simply cannot handle the Maryland cold, it’s best to pot them as soon as you can. After that you’ll need to do some pot winterization, but we’ve got a handy guide to help you accomplish that! Otherwise, for your plants that can bear the weather just fine, you’ll still want to help them out by:
- Using mulch – Mulch, straw, or other acceptable landscape coverings are excellent for adding insulation to the soil around your plants. This helps to minimize dangerous freezing.
- Being harsh on weeds – During the weeks coming up to the cold season, all plants are storing up energy and working hard to spread solid roots, and weeds are no different. This means they can eat up all of the vital stuff you want for your gardens and shrubs, so be sure to stay on top of weeds even more than usual.
- Protecting young plants – If you did some late planting, you’ll want to pay particular attention to those younger plants. Be sure the mulch layer is solid and consider anchoring them to reduce possible wind damage.
- Clearing away dead limbs – This is the best time to remove dead limbs and foliage from plants and trees. Doing so helps the plant’s health and reduces risks of weight damage.
Winterizing & Landscape Services in Montgomery County, Maryland
The winter might seem daunting to a homeowner, but with even minimal planning and preparations, you’ll have a landscape ready to bounce back in full color come spring.
Contact Four Seasons or call (240) 252-4807 at any time if you have questions, or if you need help winterizing or designing your landscape!
