How To Prepare Your Landscape For Winter

There are so many things to do when the season turns from Fall to Winter. Christmas feels like it is creeping up fast, and the last thing homeowners want to do is think about landscaping projects, and working in their outdoor space and  the freezing weather. Preparing your yard for winter does not need to take a long time, and can be done before the weather turns, allowing you to have a comfortable, safe winter.

Why Prepare Your Landscaping For the Winter?

Any steps that are taken before winter, will make springtime easier. The more work that is done now on your outdoor space, the less work you will have ahead of you when it comes to prepping your landscaping for spring. Prepping your yard for the winter helps keep your home and property safe and damage free.

Getting Your Garden Ready For Winter

Clean Up Your Garden/Garden Beds 

Get rid of any diseased plants and leave the healthy ones in place. Diseased plants can harbor pests and funguses.

Another step into cleaning up your garden, garden beds and flower beds is to remove any invasive weeds that you see. By removing the weeds fully, you will prevent them from sprouting all over again and from disrupting next year’s crop.

Get Your Soil Ready For Spring

By replenishing your mulch in the fall and adding a thick layer of it to your garden beds and flower beds, you are helping the soil regulate its temperature and moisture, and easing its transition into winter.

Adding a thick layer of mulch around root vegetables that are being left in the garden during fall and winter can act as buffer against hard frost, and prolong your crop.

Getting Your Yard Ready For Winter

Tidy Up Your Lawn and Front Yard 

Leaves, branches and the like will smother your grass if they are not cleaned up, so be sure to rake your entire yard, and get rid of the leaves and branches that have accumulated during the fall weather.

Trim any overgrown branches back from your house and electrical wires to prevent iced over or wind-swept branches from causing a problem with your power, or property damage.

Remove any hoses attached to the house and store them away for the winter. This prevents cracks, lets them preserve their proper shape, and helps them last longer. Shut off exterior faucets and drain water from outdoor pipes, valves, and sprinkler heads to protect against bursting pipes.

Get your snow shovel, snow blower and car scraper out and easily accessible. When the winter weather hits you want to be ready for snow removal, not scrambling through the wind and snow to find these things. This way clearing walkways and surrounding areas of your yard will be easy to clean. 

Lawn Care: Aerate and Fertilize

Aerating your lawn opens up the soil and promotes a better environment for the roots of your grass. Fall is a great time to aerate and fertilize, as it will give your lawn a pre-winter boost and get it ready for the upcoming cold.

Yard Clean Up

Clear away all clutter from your outdoor space, like patio and yard furniture, toys, and tools that are not going to be used during the winter. This will allow snow removal to go smoothly when you are unable to see what is in your yard! This yard cleanup should also include cleaning out your gutters of leaves and debris.

Your House

While it is important to remedy your lawn care in the fall ( cleaning up walkways, draining water fixtures, tidying up fire pits, taking care of garden beds and flower beds) to make spring time easier for you, making sure you are warm and comfortable inside it even more important. Before the chilly weather hits, check all windows and doorframes for heat loss. Replace weatherstripping if necessary, and check for any drafts around all windows and doors.

Doing all of these steps can feel like extra work, but you will be happy you completed them when you are comfortable for the winter, and even happier when your garden and yard are healthy and ready to go for the warm weather ahead.