Is Your Cape Cod Landscape Ready for Spring?

cape-cod-landscape-ready-spring-whittenWhen the landscaping to-do list seems overwhelming, choose what to DIY and what to leave to Whitten Landscaping.

It’s only early March, but were already seeing spring bulbs starting to show and lawns are beginning to green. After last winter’s epic amounts of snow, were certainly not complaining! When it comes to caring for your Cape Cod landscape, a comprehensive approach now will lead to a lusher lawn and bigger blooms come summer.

Spring Lawn Care

  • DIY It: If you take care of mowing your own lawn, now is the time to bring your mower in for a tune-up. Wait until it’s much warmer and you’ll likely face a substantial waiting list. Now is also a great time for a light application of slow-release or organic fertilizer.
  • Leave it to Us: If your older lawn wasn’t up to par last year, it’s time to aerate. Most DIY tools for lawn aeration make for a lengthy process and if it’s not done properly – at the correct depth and spacing – the benefits won’t be as great. We have specialized equipment which allows us to quickly and efficiently aerate lawns of any size. And if your lawn is showing signs of disease or infestation, stronger fertilizers and pesticides should be applied by professionals.

Pruning

  • DIY It: Spring is great time to prune many shrubs. Getting them cut back and reshaped now will give them a fuller, leafier look later in the season. Most roses also do well with a spring pruning too; cut back between a quarter and a third of the branches. If you didn’t cut back ornamental grass last fall – many people like to leave it for visual interest in the winter – now is the time to cut it back. Shrubs that should not be pruned in the spring include: Azaleas, rhododendron, lilac, mountain laurel and some varieties of hydrangea.
  • Leave it to Us: While we didn’t have the number of winter storms this year as we did last, we still had a couple big ones. If you have a large tree near your home caused concern this winter, we can remove limbs which are in especially threatening locations. Pruning is also good for many varieties of the large trees that thrive in our area. It will give them cleaner look and can improve their health and lengthen their overall lifespan.

Planting

  • DIY It: Once we’re past the potential of a hard frost, spring bulbs can be planted. These include: lilies, begonia, dahlias, elephant ear and gladiolas. And once the local nurseries have perennials available, you’ll know it’s safe to plant them. Smaller perennials – up to one gallon – are quite easy to plant, just be sure to dig deep enough and prepare the soil with fertilizer. Don’t forget to water regularly.
  • Leave it to Us: When you consider that a planting hole should be at least twice the size of the root ball, anything larger than a one gallon perennial can be tough to plant. While it’s tempting to simply dig a hole the size of the root ball, the surrounding soil will be too tight for the new roots to spread properly. Planting trees of virtually any size should really be left to professional landscapers. Without a spacious hole and proper fertilizer, there’s a chance a tree will never really take hold. And if a tree isn’t planted perfectly straight, the misalignment will become more pronounced as the tree matures.

Cleaning & Splitting: It’s a Toss-Up

  • Spring Cleaning: The spring cleanup – a thorough raking to remove sticks that came down over the winter and any remaining leaves – can seem like a great reason to get some exercise and be outside all day to one person and like a major, backbreaking chore to another. If you’re in the ‘backbreaking chore’ camp, we offer comprehensive spring cleanups.
  • Splitting Perennials: Most perennials can, and should be, split periodically. It allows you to create ‘new’ plants and maximize your investment and it’s good for their health. Whether or not to DIY splitting perennials is a toss-up for two reasons: While some plants, such as hostas, are virtually impossible to harm while splitting them, older plants can have large, deep roots that make them a challenge to remove from the ground. With other perennials, if splitting isn’t done correctly you may end up with killing plant.

And Finally…

If everything you’ve just read has you thinking ‘Ugh, I want to enjoy my garden; not work in it!’ leave your entire spring landscaping to-do list to Whitten Landscaping.