At last, spring is here, and the winter begins to fade into the rearview, allowing life to embrace the outdoors once again. The joy a backyard or primped landscape brings after the long, cold, gray winter is beyond expression. Still, while your yard will progress out of its winter sleep naturally, trees, plants, and shrubs could use a little assistance, ensuring each comes back to life healthy and fruitful. While tree removal Waterloo services might be necessary, try to perform a little spring maintenance before throwing in the towel on any trees or plantings.
1. Inspect for Seasonal Damage
The winter can cause damage to plants, including trees. The frigid temperatures, piled snowbanks, sleet, and other cold-weather phenomena can lead to breaks, burns, and several other issues. Before your plantings have a chance to spring back to life, take a close look at the individual branches, trunks, stems, etc., assessing the health of the plant. If you are not familiar with making such assessments, then reach out to a professional service.
2. Fertilize Your Trees, Shrubs, and Plants
After a long, hard winter, all plants can use a little pick-me-up. To give your trees that extra boost they need, consider spreading out a layer of slow-release fertilizer. You can find plant-specific mixes. Follow the directions on the package. If you would prefer, you can hire a tree or landscaping service to lay fertilizer, taking a lot of the guesswork out of the equation for you.
3. Rake Your Yard
Before getting too far along in your plans for curb appeal and upkeep, rake your yard. Even when you rake your lawn before winter, the cold season has a way of polluting your landscape with more natural and human debris. You want to clean up the area to ensure the root systems have access to as much moisture as possible. You might even want to aerate the landscape for better results.
4. Prune Before Leaves Appear
It is natural for trees to need pruning. Unfortunately, it is challenging to clean up the canopies in the summer and early fall because the branches are full. Spring is an excellent time to call on a tree-trimming service to inspect the tree limbs, preferably before the new leaves appear. Pruning the tree early is also safer for the pruners.
5. Apply Mulch
Mulch helps retain moisture, providing the trees, shrubs, and plants with more water. It can also reduce the growth of weeds, especially if you lay it down in the early spring before the first sign of weeds. Mulch essentially deprives the ground of sunlight, limiting weed growth.
6. Remove Pests and Disease
You will want to inspect your trees and other plants for signs of bugs or infestations in early spring. The sooner you identify an invasive species, the quicker you can find a solution.
You also want to inspect and assess your trees for any signs of disease. While many diseases can be treated, some will require eliminating the infected tree to limit the spread of the infection.
7. Plant New
If you need to eliminate some trees, or if your yard doesn’t have enough trees, you might want to plant a few new trees. While a sapling might be much smaller than the trees you’re used to, they will grow, and they do provide a lovely family memory if you seize the moment.
Spring cleaning is not only reserved for the home or the indoors; the outside of residential and commercial properties also requires attention and upkeep. If your trees, plants, and shrubs need a little love and attention, contact our tree removal Waterloo experts at Martin’s Tree Service to schedule an appointment.
Steve Martin
