Now that fall is here, it’s time to use the remaining warm days to prepare your landscaping for the winter. Have you completed everything on this fall clean up checklist?
Clean up debris and remove annuals
It’s time to remove annuals. Pulling them now helps ensure your yard, garden, and flower beds are clear and ready for planting in the spring. Clear fallen branches and prune trees and shrubs, too.
Drain sprinklers and hoses
Drain water from hoses, fountains, and drip irrigation systems. Store them in a dry place. Water left standing over the winter may damage your equipment.
Spread mulch during your fall clean-up
Mulch is one of the best and easiest ways to make sure roses and tender perennials have the highest chance of making it through the winter. Available in most garden and landscaping stores, mulch is reasonably priced and easy to apply.
Fallen leaves make good mulch too! Straw is another option but choose the straw carefully. If it is full of seeds, you’re going to be pulling a lot more weeds next summer.
Aerate your lawn
Lawn aeration is important because it allows vital nutrients, water, sunlight and oxygen to sink in and reach the root system of your lawn. Lawn aeration is especially crucial this year because Minnesota has had such a hot, dry, and long summer. Stressed grass needs replenishment before spring.
Fertilize your lawn during fall clean-up
After you aerate your lawn, it’s a perfect time to fertilize. Exposed roots are ready to receive nutrients. Use a fertilizer high in phosphorous to encourage root growth so that you will have a lush, green lawn in the spring.
Rake the grass as a part of your fall clean-up
It’s important to get the leaves off your grass before the snow comes. Thick and soggy leaves can cause the grass to suffocate, which will undo all your hard work of aerating and fertilizing. As previously mentioned, you can use leaves as a mulch around your trees, especially if you grind them up with a mower.
Plant bulbs
Now is a great time to look for deals on bulbs and scrubs. The demand is not as high in the fall so prices will be low or discounted. Many bulbs – tulip, crocus, daffodil, hyacinth, anemone and iris – are cold tolerant and can easily spend the winter underground.
Wrap trees during your fall clean-up
Trees, especially new and young trees, stand a much better chance of survival if they are wrapped and protected from deer and other animals. Hungry animals can damage their bark through the winter months if trees aren’t wrapped.
Call Great Goats Landscaping
Great Goats Landscaping is a small, local business that loves collaborating with homeowners to create a one-of-a-kind landscaping design. We offer a variety of services, and we’d love to help you complete your fall clean-up checklist. Give us a call today!
Contact 612-483-GOAT