Even in the Northeast, landscape maintenance is a year-round affair — and while there are seasons when there’s more to do outdoors, taking consistent care of your property is essential to sustain its health and beauty.
When you let seasonal property maintenance slide, it’s wiser to plan on year-round landscape maintenance so you aren’t playing catchup with labor-intensive clean-ups. Besides, who wants to look at leaf piles all winter or fight stubborn crops of weeds all summer?
Also, seasonal maintenance allows a landscape professional to identify areas of your property that can be enhanced — and to identify potential issues like lawn disease or unsafe tree limbs before they become real problems.
What does a seasonal landscape maintenance schedule look like? Glad you asked! Here is how our dedicated landscape professionals keep clients’ properties looking beautiful all year round.
Spring Cleanup — Get Ready for the Growing Season
Some trees don’t drop their leaves until late winter, and there are always leftovers hanging on branches that fly down with cold-weather winds. In spring, we set the stage for a successful growing season with a thorough landscape cleanup that involves collecting leaves and debris like stray twigs and acorns and addressing landscape beds. We also identify problem areas that need to be addressed, such as turf that might have been exposed to ice removal products that can burn grass or lawn diseases that can surface after a wet winter.
Now is also the time to get ahead of weeds with pre-emergent herbicide applications and to jumpstart turf growth with fertilizer. This allows the soil to absorb water, oxygen and nutrients fully. Some lawns might require dethatching or aeration if this service was performed outside of the fall.
Here’s our spring maintenance to-do list:
- Spring cleanup of leaves and debris
- Clean out landscape beds to prepare for annuals and fresh mulch
- Pre-emergent herbicide and fertilizer applications to head off weeds and promote healthy turf growth
- Aeration and overseeding or detaching as required
- Soil test to determine if essential soil nutrients were lost over summer and need to be integrated into the lawn, tree and shrub care programs
- Early spring tree and shrub pruning for safety and aesthetics
- Mulch application
- Mowing, edging and trimming
Summer Landscape Maintenance — The High Season
We are moving into the long summer days when hot, dry weather can stress plants. During summer, we also experience more insect and weed pressure. The only pruning that should be done during the warmest time of year is cleanup to maintain a shrub’s shape. The focus is on managing weeds and disease and proper irrigation.
Also, our clients appreciate mosquito control to enjoy their outdoor living spaces without getting eaten alive. We like to keep a close eye on irrigation systems, checking for potential leaks or breaks that can waste water and damage the lawn.
Summer seasonal maintenance includes:
- Ongoing lawn and tree/shrub care to manage weeds and disease
- Irrigation system audit and continuous monitoring
- Mowing, edging and trimming
- Mosquito control
Fall Lawn Care Tasks — Moving into the Holidays
The leaves are flying, and usually, the grass is greener because of the cooler temperatures and more precipitation. Now is an ideal time to aerate and overseed the turf because the new seed has time to establish before winter. We also use a post-emergent herbicide to avoid spring weeds and a slow-release fertilizer to maintain turf health. All of this fall seasonal maintenance helps prepare for a healthy landscape in the spring. There’s also the apparent fall leaf cleanup, but now is a great time to consider future landscape enhancements and outdoor living projects for the coming year.
- Leaf cleanup
- Lawn aeration and overseeding
- Lawn, tree and shrub care — post-emergent weed control, slow-release fertilizer
- Mowing, edging and trimming
- Seasonal decor to prepare for the holidays
Winter Outdoor Maintenance — Make the Most of the Dormant Season
We use winter for shaping, pruning and trimming trees and shrubs. Now that leaves have dropped, it’s a great time to identify damaged, diseased or dying branches. And you can still handle landscape cleanup tasks like clearing out an expired garden or clearing a landscape bed that collected leaves after the extensive fall collection. Winter is also an ideal landscape planning time, from considering new plants to tuck into beds to larger projects like an outdoor kitchen or pool. Do not delay getting on the schedule, as luxury landscape design-build firms have a backlog. Here are winter season landscape maintenance tasks to keep your property in shape:
- Snow and ice removal
- Tree shaping, trimming and pruning
- Winter landscape cleanup
- Landscape planning
Enhance Your Outdoor Space With the Experts at Land of ELITE
How can we create the backyard of your dreams? Let’s talk. Our design and build landscape professionals bring inspiration, expertise, and professionalism to every project. Reach out by calling (845) 849-2953 or filling out this simple contact form, and we’ll get in touch with you.
