Spring is nearly upon us, and that means that a lot of the plants across Nashville landscapes are waking up. Read on for a few of our best tips for preparing your property for springtime and making the most of your lawn and garden as things start to warm up.
1. Keep the Leaves
No matter how great your leaf pickup game was this fall, odds are some leaves found their way onto your lawn this winter. Unsightly dead leaves might be clinging to the trunks of your trees or stuck to your shrubbery in the garden, or they may have just blown in from other nearby yards. Dead leaves aren’t exactly pretty lawn decor, but you can still use them to help your late winter landscaping. Instead of removing these stragglers altogether, you may want to take advantage of them this spring. Simply rake or blow the leaves into your yard, then hit them with the mower. Mulched leaves are a great fertilizer for a lawn any time of year, and this small amount of leaves will spread throughout the lawn during mowing and give it a helpful boost right when it’s starting to wake back up. If you’ve got a good quantity of leaves and it seems like they’d leave too much behind even when mulched, attach a bagger to your mower and gather most of the leaves. You can use these bagged leaf scraps for composting or collect them for easier bagging and leaf pickup. Most parts of Nashville and the surrounding suburbs have brush pickup scheduled year-round, so you shouldn’t need to wait too long before they’re removed from the curb.
2. Catch the Rain
There are a lot of landscaping hacks out there for homeowners, but not every idea will work for every property. Catching and storing rainwater is one of those things that everybody with a green thumb should consider, but does it work for you? Fortunately, a rain barrel or rain garden is doable for most properties.
Want to set up a rain barrel? If you have rain gutters on your home, you’re already part of the way there. Since every home should have gutters, a rain barrel is not a difficult thing to install. Find a downspout on your gutters and retrofit it to work with a rain barrel. One or two rain barrels can save you hundreds of gallons of water use each year, and they are a great addition to an irrigation system. There are tons of rain barrel kits and DIY guides out there that can make things very simple for you. Check with your town to see if there are any sales on rain barrels, as occasionally Nashville will offer discounted rates subsidized by Metro Water Services.
3. Refresh the Mulch
Mulch is always a big springtime staple at the home improvement store, and it’s no wonder why—homeowners use literal tons of it each year. From the mulch around small trees to full garden beds, you may be in the market for quite a bit each year, and now is a great time to get it all sorted out. Spring landscaping often calls for a lot of mulch, and you’ve got options for how to get it. Consider the locations you’ll need mulch in your lawn and how much you’ve used in the past. Whether you simply need a small refresh to top off existing mulch or a total replacement will greatly influence how much you need to buy. Bulk mulch delivery is often a bit more affordable than buying it by the bag, especially if you need quite a bit. However, moving mulch can be a chore, so it’s important to have a plan in mind for getting the mulch to everywhere it needs to be.
One helpful hack is to use tarps to move large amounts of mulch around your lawn quickly and cleanly. Simply lay a tarp next to your mulch pile and shovel the necessary amount onto the tarp. Then, either alone or with another person to help lighten the load, drag the tarp to the area of your yard that needs the mulch. This method is quicker at moving large quantities than a wheelbarrow, and it can help to make short work of your spring mulching. A tarp isn’t just a good idea for moving mulch; it’s also helpful for storing it. When you’re getting mulch delivered, lay a tarp down before it’s placed. This can help keep your driveway or lawn clean during delivery.
4. Last-Minute Pruning
Pruning is best done in the winter since that’s when your trees and shrubs are able to commit the most energy to healing. Since we aren’t quite at springtime yet, you can still get in some good pruning to make sure your trees are as healthy as possible for the spring bloom. No matter how proactive you are with your pruning in the winter, chances are a windstorm or ice coating has broken some more branches off your trees. Fortunately, it’s not too late to clean your trees up.
Landscaping is all about two things: beautification and plant health. Late winter pruning is a great way to make sure that your trees are healthy and safe come spring. If you aren’t experienced in pruning, it may be wise to hire a landscaper or arborist to help out. Improper pruning, especially so soon before spring, can do more harm than good to a tree.
5. Get Help
If these winter landscaping ideas have done more to stress you out than help, don’t panic. You don’t need to go it alone this winter. The Parke Company has been helping Nashville home and business owners maintain and improve their landscaping for decades. We have the knowledge and equipment for the most complex jobs you can imagine. From leaf removal to full tree removal, we can get your property looking its best this spring, just in time for everything to bloom.
Enjoy Your Healthy Landscape
Ready to prepare your lawn for the fast-approaching spring season? The experts at The Parke Company are on standby, so feel free to drop us a line to help with your landscaping project.