There are a few things that can be done now to your yards to prepare them for Spring Green Up and the 2011 Growing Season. Now that most of the leaves have fallen, it is easier to see what needs to be done and work on your yards.
Trees and shrubs
Winter is one of the best times of year to limb up trees and cut shrubs back to the desired height and size. There will be less stress on the trees and shrubs, insuring a better survival rate. Tree limbs can be cut away from touching the houses, overhanging the roofs, along with any low hanging limbs and suckers. This will help reduce the accessibility of squirrels and other undesirable pest to your home. Trees can also be thinned out and shaped for a more desirable appearance this coming growing season.
As trees mature, larger limbs block out the sun and create more shade than necessary to support healthy lawns. This makes it difficult for most grasses to grow and thrive. Limbing up and thinning the trees will allow more sunlight in and help your lawns get thicker, healthier, and look better. It’s easy to see these areas where the lawn have thinned out. There can also be a heavy layer off moss that contribute to less than healthy vigorous grass. Mother nature is saying “I don’t want to grow grass here.” Many times these problems can be resolved by reducing the amount of shade.
Overgrown shrubs can be cut back to a more manageable size. This is a great time to bring shrubs down from under the eves, below window ledges and away from the houses. This allows a walking area behind the shrubs and also better air circulation for air conditioning units. Older shrubs can be trimmed into a hedge shape or defined and separated. Shrubs recover better from this kind of severe trimming when done during the cooler weather.
Debris and leaf pick up
It is important that fallen leaves be removed from under the shrubs. In addition to making the shrub beds look better, there can be diseases on the fallen leaf surfaces that can be spread to desirable shrubs. This typically happens when rain drops splash disease spores from the leaves up to the shrubs.
Once your beds and islands have been cleaned out, it is a great time to spread new mulch or pine straw.
Yard and woods clean up
With the leaves gone it is easier to see what needs to be cleaned up and cut back. Now is the time to get those wooded areas cleaned up by removing unwanted vines, poison ivy, scrub brush, fallen limbs, dead trees and such. These wooded areas make great play areas.
Cut back Perennials
Perennial foliage that has died back should be removed, Roses and such should be cut back to prepare for new growth in the spring.
Clean out your rain gutters
Now that all the leaves have fallen, it is a great time to clean out your rain gutters. Downspouts that allow heavy currents of water to flow across lawns and shrub beds should be re-routed or buried.
ASI Lawn & Landscape has been in business serving Fayette and Coweta Counties since 1994. Our fully licensed and insured crews are knowledgeable and experienced in all areas of landscape maintenance. The owner, Dan Hollingsworth has over 40 years experience in dealing with fertilizers, lawn chemicals, turf diseases and weed control as well as lawn and landscape maintenance.
The owner’s son, Joe, is a certified tree arborist and can help identify and solve problems with your trees. He is happy to visit and make recommendations.
ASI’s specialty services include: complete lawn mowing, six visit chemical lawn care, tree and shrub pruning, new landscape design and planting, tree removal, yard and woods clean ups, poison ivy and brush control spraying, new mulch, pine straw and much more.
They offer free estimates. As part of their estimate service they will help you understand what it takes to keep your yards looking good. They can also help you understand how to prune shrubs and take care of your lawns. Their web site is asilandscape.com
