DIY or an Oshawa/Courtice Landscaping Service?
What do you most enjoying doing outside in your yard? Would you rather spend your time raking leaves or eating dinner outside on the patio? Pruning shrubs and trees or enjoying a drink with friends while gathered around a fire pit? If you prefer leisure activities to landscaping chores, you are not alone. Hire a local landscaping service or follow these tips to make landscape maintenance easier so you can spend more time having fun in your backyard.
Spring Cleanup
Two weekends each year are all you need to take of the biggest, most difficult lawn and yard care tasks. Schedule your first weekend in spring after the last hard freeze. Your main task is to clean up. Rake out leaves that have collected under shrubs and in corners of the yard. Pick up fallen limbs and branches; prune any damaged limbs that are still attached.
While you are working, inspect both your lawn and hardscape features. If there are low spots in your turf, level them with a topsoil and compost mix and reseed. You can also apply a balanced, organic fertilizer to the entire lawn. If walkways or patios have dislodged pavers or flagstone, reset them and make sure the edging is firmly in place.
If you plant summer annuals, prepare the beds now. You may even be ready to buy some sets and put them in the ground.
Fall Landscaping Tasks
Your second landscape work weekend should be late in the fall to prepare your yard for winter. Inspect outdoor lighting, timers and any other equipment to make sure everything is intact and all connections are tight. Put away hoses and summer maintenance equipment. Prune broken or damaged limbs from trees and shrubs. Rake leaves, particularly those on the lawn, and put them in your compost bin.
Every three years, schedule your fall chores earlier, a few weeks before freezing. Aerate and dethatch your lawn, then topdress it with a thin layer of compost. Check the mulch thickness in your planting beds and top it off to a total of four inches.
Natural Landscapes
A smart approach to maintenance is to avoid formal, highly manicured landscape styles. Let shrubs take their natural form; there is no need to prune them into circles and squares. Use organic fertilizers and compost. Both your soil and plants will be healthier. Avoid toxic herbicides and pesticides unless absolutely necessary.
Your spring and fall weekends of work mean you only have to do routine maintenance the rest of the year. Summer lawn cutting and winter snow removal are all that is left. To simplify those efforts, hire a landscape maintenance company. Your local Oshawa/Courtice landscaping service expert is The Gardener. They can handle the hard work and make sure you have plenty of leisure time to spend in your clean and green backyard.
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