Winter is coming and your house is not the only thing you need to prepare. Have you also prepared your yard ready for the coming season?
As winter approaches, you must tend to your plants needs and do appropriate care as they’ll be facing extremely cold temperatures that might cause them to die.
Maintaining the look of your yard during the winter months can seem like a daunting task to some homeowners, especially if you’re not an experienced gardener. Have no fear – it’s not actually as difficult as you might think.
Here are the tips on how you can help to maintain the look of your yard during winter:
Table of Contents
1. Clean your yard
Before winter approaches, you should do any preventive measures that will help to maintain the look of your yard. This will stop you needing to do it in the depths of winter and the freezing temperatures!
It’s good practice that you try to clear away any dead stems, debris, or leaves out on the lawn.
If undone, this can smother the grass which can cause damage and disease to your lawn. When this happens, it would be difficult to tend to and might cause the death of your grass.
A build up leaves on the grass blocks out sunlight and reduces water evaporation. This can cause mould or fungus to build up, as well as killing the grass.
If there’s a sickly or dead tree on your property that you want to remove, you should go to Ajax Tree Removal or your local tree removal service. Damaged or dead trees can become a hazard if they fall on their own, especially during a season when there are often high winds and heavy snow to weigh down and knock even healthy trees over.
2. Mulch the garden
With the cold temperature of winter, your plants might experience excessive cold and frost which will do harm and might cause them to die.
A great way to help combat that is to give your garden a nice layer of mulch. Mulch helps to retain the moisture of your soil by preventing water from evaporating, and in this case it will provide your plants’ roots with some insulation, loosen up the soil so that it is less likely to get packed and frozen, and use up some of your own garden discards.
It’s highly recommended that you mulch your plants with your very own fallen leaves. You can do this by collecting the leaves you are clearing from step 1, put them in a bin, and leave them to rot.
It’s cost-saving and also beneficial for your plant as leaf mulch can help to eliminate the formation of weeds. You can spread your mulch over plants, vegetables, and flowers.
3. Take your plants inside
When you have a particular plant that you’re not sure will survive in cold temperatures, feel free to take them inside rather than have them die in the cold.
It’s recommended that you place them in a pot so you could bring it inside easily during the winter season.
After taking them in, make sure that you continue to provide their water and sunlight needs as much as possible so they can survive winter and be returned to the garden in the spring.
4. Cut your grass
There’s no need to let your grass grow out of control in the winter. You can still mow it on a dry day, but choose a high cut setting instead. Grass grows a lot slower in the winter and you don’t want to cut the grass so short that you scalp it.
This will only do more harm by exposing the crown of the plant, revealing it to extreme weather conditions. When this happens, your grass might not be able to handle it well and will cause to die.
5. Add cool weather grass seed
To keep your lawn perfect-looking, purchase grass seed that is designed to withstand cool weather, also known as ‘cool weather grass seed’. It’s widely available.
This will allow you to continue to have a healthy-looking lawn that can handle colder temperatures.
You can simply sprinkle the seeds over your lawn and use a spreader. Try to spread them evenly so they will grow to be perfect rather than clumpy if seeds are too near to each other.
6. Knock snow off
If it snows heavily, it might bring too much weight to your plant, which could result in breaking or damaging them.
When it stops snowing, it’s recommended that you knock the snow off of your plant to help them lighten their load and be able to get through winter.
If you don’t knock the snow off then it could freeze and cause sagging or breakage to branches.
Conclusion
Snow is a natural occurrence and should be prepared for. When winter season is coming up, it’s encouraged that you take action before it starts to happen so that you can extend the life of plants as well as keep your lawn looking great, reducing the hard work you’ll need to put in when spring arrives!
You should always start by cleaning your lawn by removing all debris and take cold-sensitive plants you care about inside to save them from dying.
Note that winter only takes a few months and with proper care, you can survive it along with your plants by keeping them healthy and strong even with extremely cold temperatures.
All you need to do is to do extra-care and it’ll be spring in no time. And when that happens, transform your garden to welcome spring and have a fresher look for your yard!