Winter in North Texas brings colder temperatures and a few days of overnight frost, both of which can impact your beautiful landscape. However, you can do several tasks in the weeks before and during the winter season to protect your plants and set them up for stellar spring blooms. Keep your landscaping healthy with these seven must-complete winter landscaping tips for your yard.
Clean Up Leaves and Other Organic Debris
One of the first things you should do throughout the fall, especially before winter comes, is to clean up all the fallen leaves, sticks, twigs, tree nuts, tree seeds, and other organic debris that has dropped onto your lawn and into your landscaping. Doing so ensures your grass, flowers, and shrubs get all the access to water and sunlight that they need to survive the winter.
Aerate Your Lawn
Aerate your lawn before cold weather arrives. This process involves puncturing the soil, making it easier for grass roots to get air, water, and nutrients. You can buy a rolling aerator or aerator shoes at your local hardware store and complete this aerating task yourself.
Apply Fertilizer and Weed Control
After cleaning up and aerating your lawn, apply fertilizer and weed control. Plant roots can now better absorb the nutrients they need to last the winter, and weed control is more likely to settle enough in the soil and prevent weed growth that could steal away the nutrients from your grass. Even though your grass is dormant, weeds can still pop up.
Keep Watering
While you don’t have to water your lawn or plants as often or as much as you do during the other seasons, it’s essential to stick to a watering schedule during the winter. Your landscape still needs a bit of water to survive the cold temperatures, and quite a bit of water your plants receive can evaporate. Regular watering makes it more likely for the roots to get damaged from freezing.
Be Careful With the Salt
If you need to salt your driveway or sidewalks when ice develops on surfaces, try your best to avoid getting salt on your lawn or landscaping. Salt can taint the soil, causing damage to your plants and grass. Salt in the water runoff may still be an issue, but due diligence is still vital.
Mulch Your Landscaping
If you don’t have mulch under your landscape plants, consider adding it in late fall or early winter. Mulch can protect the soil and plant roots during cold weather.
Add New Landscaping Features
You can complete many tasks yourself or hire a landscaping company to handle them for you during the winter, including the following:
- Creating new plant beds.
- Installing or upgrading an irrigation system.
- Fixing drainage issues.
- Installing sod.
- Adding water features and outdoor living spaces.
At Clients First Landscape Solutions, we dedicate ourselves to transforming yards and outdoor living spaces in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Contact us today to learn more landscaping tips and find out how we can work with you to create the landscape you desire.