Spring Yard Clean Up Checklist and Essentials

Spring cleanup prepares your yard for the growing season through yard maintenance and lawn care tasks. While completing these tasks, you need to keep in mind that your lawn is tender in spring after remaining dormant during winter. Therefore, you need to be gentle in everything you do to prevent injury and harm to your yard.

Now that we have established the importance of spring yard cleanup let us jump into the tasks that are involved in this process. Eden has curated a checklist to make sure you cover all your bases.

1. Getting Rid of Trash From Your Lawn and Planting Beds

Roll up your sleeves, wear your work gloves and get ready to tackle all the waste that has gathered in your lawn through the entire winter season. Pick up the most obvious trash first, like pet refuse (cat litter, dog waste), fallen branches, pinecones, and twigs. Be careful of broken glass while collecting the trash. If you leave this debris in your yard for too long after the snow has melted, it will affect the growth of new grass. 

Next, rake any leaves that were left over from your fall cleanup. If these leaves are left as the snow is melting, the wet leaves will cause your lawn grass to develop a fungal disease called snow mold. And no one wants that. Therefore, you should rake these leaves out as raking also achieves the dual purpose of removing thatch from your lawn. Thatch is loose, spongy organic matter that accumulates right under the soil surface.

2. Fertilizing and Preparing Planting Beds 

After your yard is clear of all debris, it is time to feed the vegetation. Add compost around all the plants in your lawn and fertilize them. The best time to fertilize your plant beds is right before adding a new layer of mulch. This will replenish the soil with all the nutrients that were spent during the long winter months and give your plants a boost for the growing season.

Eden suggests using compost as a fertilizer instead of chemical ones in order to prevent your plants from being burdened with chemicals. Compost is a natural slow-release fertilizer that is gentle on your plants. But if the composition or pH of your soil needs to be amended, then you are free to use chemical fertilizers. Make sure to read the application instructions before you use them. While fertilizing, you can also pull out any weeds that you find along the way. 

Winter also affects the lines of your plant beds. So, you should carefully redefine the bed lines in a way that the mulch can meet the line of lawn grass in a definite path. This will give your landscape a finished look. Work the soil of your beds to loosen the compact parts and remove any rocks and debris you find. If your soil has poor drainage, add some grit or sand to improve it.

3. Planting Lawns and Flower Beds

Early spring is the ideal time to plant perennials in your beds because they are hardy and can handle a bit of cold weather. If you want to plant annuals, you should wait till the weather remains in the 50 degrees Fahrenheit range consistently as annuals are more susceptible to cold weather.

Plan your plantings while keeping the point of view, plant sizes and their blooming times in mind. If your flower bed will mostly be viewed from the side, then place the plants which will be the tallest at maturity in the center and surround these with smaller-sized plants. If you will be viewing your flower bed from the front, then placing the tallest plants at the back is the best idea. 

Combine annuals and perennials together when you are planting. This is to ensure that your flower bed has an even distribution of color throughout the year.When it comes to lawn grass, early spring is a good time for overseeding or planting new seeds. As the temperature slowly warms up, it will provide a cozy environment for the grass seeds to germinate.

4. Controlling Pests and Weeds

Pests pose a challenge to many landscapes. If you live in a region where wildlife frequently invades your landscape and eats your precious plants, you should try using plants that are resistant to animals like deer and rabbits. But if you feel this limits the creativity of your landscape, you should invest in fences that will stop these animals.

Eden does not recommend spraying pesticides in your landscape without identifying the type of pests, as this will harm your landscape. The correct identification of pests is important to tackle them in their most vulnerable season and with the right type and amount of pesticide. If you are unsure about this, a professional landscaping company can help you develop the right pest control program for your landscape.

Coming to weeds, they are an inevitable part of any landscape. The best way to prevent them is to attack them before the weed seeds germinate. Pre-emergent herbicides are used for this, and it is all about the timing here. Pre-emergents need to be used during early spring before the temperatures become consistently warm. This will allow the pre-emergent application time to penetrate into the soil and form a layer around the root of the weeds as they grow. 

There are some types of weeds that are late growers. Therefore you need to apply for a second round of pre-emergents a few weeks after the first application. Eden recommends the preventive application of herbicides over post-emergent applications as this is better for the overall health of your landscape.

5. Shrub Pruning

Once the danger of frost has passed, you can start to unwrap the burlap or any other covering you might have used to protect your shrubs during winter. Examine the branches and leaves for winter damage and remove any that are dead or have been affected by frostbite, rodent damage and burns due to de-icers. 

You can prune the dead parts of all the plants, regardless of the type of plant. Cut till the part where the green stops and brown starts in the branches. Pruning your shrubs will help promote new healthy growth by making sure precious nutrients are not wasted on dying or damaged branches.

The blooming time of the shrub comes into play when you need to prune the live part of the plants. If the plant is a spring-flowering plant, don’t prune it in early spring as you will be removing potential flowering buds. Wait till their flowering period ends to prune this type. Examples of spring-flowering shrubs are Forsythia and Lilacs. 

Summer flowering plants like Rose of Sharon and Lavender can be pruned in early spring without the fear of losing blossoming parts. Pruning them at this time will stimulate healthy blossoms in summer.

When shaping hedges, Eden suggests using hand trimmers instead of electric shears as manual pruning will ensure that the outer layer of growth is not so thick that sunlight is unable to reach the center of the shrub.

6. Perennial Division and Mulch Removal

As Eden suggested in the first point, remove the mulch when the weather starts remaining consistently warm and your property is not in the frost zone anymore. You should monitor the growth of perennials for a better sense of timing for the removal of mulch. When the perennials begin to reemerge, remove the layer of mulch so that their growth is unrestricted. 

There are various benefits to mulching. It prevents the growth of weeds, helps the soil to retain moisture during summer, and gives your landscape a finished look.Lastly, we come to the division of perennials. Most of the perennials can be divided during spring, but if you require advice on this, a professional landscaper can help you.

When to Start Yard Work in Spring

There is no exact calendar date for this answer as it depends on where you live. You can turn to your landscape to provide the signs. You should start your spring yard cleanup based on the following factors.

• The region you live in should be out of the frost zone.
• Your soil and grass should have completely thawed.
• The excess water of the frost should be soaked by the soil, and the soil should be allowed to dry after this.
• The average temperature should remain above 40 degrees Fahrenheit consistently.

If you start your spring cleanup too early, you will be compacting the soil with your constant treading, thus preventing healthy regrowth. 

What is the Fastest Way to Clean Up Your Yard?

Yard cleanup is a time-consuming and physically draining activity. Here are some tips suggested by Eden to make your yard cleanup quick and efficient:

• Use the correct tools – Using the right tools for your yard cleanup is half the job done. They will make your job quicker and easier. 
• Use a tarp with your leaf blower to clean up leaves – No matter how good your leaf blower is, it will blow the leaves only to a certain distance. If you use a tarp, you can blow the leaves into large piles near the tarp and then rake them onto it. 
• Use preventive methods for weed control – Pulling out the weeds after they have grown takes up a lot of time, and the weeds would have already taken up a portion of the nutrients meant for your plants by then. 
• Keep your gutters clean with gutter guards – Cleaning out your gutters regularly is essential to prevent roof damage and rot. To reduce the frequency of this task, you should install gutter guards. 
• Start a compost pile for your yard waste – Compost piles serve the dual purpose of saving time in waste disposal and providing a rich source of organic nutrients for your landscape.

How Much Does Spring Yard Clean Up Cost?

Spring yard clean up cost depends on a number of factors like:

• The city you live in.
• The landscape service you hire.
• The size of your yard.
• The tasks you want to be completed.

Yard cleanup prices are different for different regions as the cost of living differs. Also, yard cleanup services have different definitions based on the landscape company you hire. Some landscaping companies only include basic services like raking up the leaves and removing other debris from your lawn for a cost of $250. You should be careful to avoid hiring these services. Eden provides these services at flat rates starting from $200 for half an acre of land.

Do You Need a Spring Cleaning Yard Service?

While some people like taking care of their yard as a DIY project, this only works well if you have appropriate lawn care knowledge. Incorrect methods of completing your yard cleaning tasks like pruning could seriously damage your landscape. This is the reason you need a professional spring yard clean service. Eden suggests hiring professional landscape contractors if you are not familiar with lawn care and want to save time and energy.

Seasonal cleanup of your yard is essential to keep it healthy and prevent the infestation of pests, insects and diseases. Also, a lawn that is well-maintained in all seasons increases the market value of a property. Eden provides yard cleanup services for both spring and fall. We use the appropriate tools and landscape materials to ensure that your landscape is in the best condition to face the season ahead. Contact us today to learn more about our services.