TLC For Your Yard When The Snow Starts Melting

The winter season is a relatively low maintenance season for your landscaping and yard. It can be nice to take a break from maintaining your yard, but now that the snow is all melting and spring is around the corner, it’s time to start paying attention to your landscaping again.

Damage control

The first thing to do with your yard is to tidy up. We got a lot of snow this season, so it’s possible that gravel from your yard got misplaced while shoveling snow, or when your kids were making snowmen. A lot of your greenery is probably in need of some TLC, as it hasn’t been exposed to consistent sunshine in a few months. Clean up any misplaced twigs, rocks, and other debris. Gently rake your lawn to remove some of the harder to see debris. Be careful; you’re not trying to uproot the grass, you’re just trying to clean and remove anything that doesn’t belong. Also be careful of damaging the soil while it’s still soggy. You’ll want to wait until the ground has dried a little bit, so you don’t hurt any of the small grass shoots trying to grow.

You’ll probably find yourself needing to clean up mud that got tracked onto your driveway, sidewalk, or any other walkway you may have.

Planting

If you have a garden, the majority of your plants will have died during the colder months. Some plants, such as fruit trees, won’t need to be replanted. Other plants, such as most of your flowers(non-perennial) or vegetable plants, will need to be replanted when the weather gets a little bit warmer.

It’s possible that your lawn will have a few bare spots left from the weight of snow. As long as the damage isn’t too bad, you can fix this problem easily by sprinkling the affected area with seed. Avoid touching or stepping on this area, as you could damage the roots while they’re in a delicate growing phase. If the damage is extensive, usually because of some external reason, as the weight of snow alone isn’t enough to really hurt your lawn, you may want to consider replacing the incredibly damaged areas with sod.

This is also a perfect time to start planning your garden area, if you don’t have anything already in place. If your yard looks like it needs a little bit of sprucing up, plan to plant a few rose bushes, or section off a part of your yard with a garden box, and plant some squash or pepper plants.