Luzerne, Lackawanna, Monroe, Bucks, Montgomery Counties in Pennsylvania have been hit pretty hard this past week with winter storms. The end of winter Nor’Easters can cause quite a bit of damage to your lawn, shrubs, and trees. Luckily spring is right around the corner, which will allow you plenty of opportunities to get your lawn in tip-top shape with a well thought out spring clean up. Preparing your yard for the growing season is vital to ensure an eye-catching lawn and garden this summer.

Green Machine Lawn Care, of Kingston, PA, put together their top 6 tips for spring clean up this year:

Prepare Flower Beds

Flower beds can add a lot of appeal to your landscape. There are certain things you can do to make sure you are getting the most out of your plants:

  • Before planting any new flowers, first, rake out leaves that have fallen in the bed as well as dead foliage to stop the smothering of plants and avoid spreading disease.
  • If there is any remaining mulch from last year, it must be removed to create a precise palate for a new layer of mulch after completing spring planting.
  • Fasten loose drip irrigation lines with pins.
  • Tamp down lifted plants by foot or replant them using a shovel.
  • Layout pelletized fertilizer on top of the soil to let rain and water absorb the nutrients into the ground. Lastly, fertilize bulbs immediately after flowering to lengthen their bloom time and feed next season’s growth.

Fix Up Trellises and Fences

There are many different reasons to want to fix your trellises and fences:

  • Do a thorough check for shaky fence posts and replace the ones you need to.
  • Reinforce rotted sections of trellises with wood epoxy.
  • If any pickets or lattices have entirely deteriorated, replace them.
  • Clean wooden structures by scrubbing them with a solution made of part liquid soap, eight parts bleach and 32 parts water.
  • Peeling and old paint need to be scraped off, the surface then sanded and repainted/stained to reinvigorate your yard.

Prune Perennials, Shrubs, and Trees

Your trees and shrubs can make or break whether or not you have the curb appeal you deserve. With recent snow storms and Nor’Easters, hitting the Eastern and Northeastern Pa areas, it has caused much damage to branches. You can follow these tips to help revive this area of your lawn:

  • Damaged branches must be pruned back to the live stems to help heal and improve their appearance.
  • Cut overgrown evergreens back to a controllable size.
  • Prune flowering shrubs in the summer before their buds swell, however, hold off on pruning spring bloomers until their flowers have spent.
  • Trim back blooming perennials to 4 or 5 inches and ornamental grasses to 2 or 3 inches to allow new growth to grow quicker.

Begin a Compost Pile

Compost piles have many different benefits including the prevention of soil erosion, conserving water, reducing waste, and more:

  • Merely use last year’s mulch, pruned branches, and flower bed debris to build the foundation of a compost pile. A 3-foot by 3-foot corral made from wire fencing is an ideal place to store a compost pile.
  • Before adding them to the compost, shred branches and leaves to speed up decomposition. Also adding bagged compost to the starter pile will accelerate the process.
  • Ensure the compost pile is kept moist and aerate it by tilling with a pitchfork every two weeks.
  • Do NOT put weeds in your compost pile as they are likely to sprout.

Perform Lawn Care

Basic lawn care necessities can help your landscape thrive:

  • Begin by raking the lawn.
  • Next step is to aerate the soil. After aeration is complete, lay peat moss over the lawn with a rake.
  • Inspect the lawn for dead spots caused by grubs, salt, plows or disease and seed those specific areas once forsythia starts blooming.
  • Add the first dose of crabgrass treatment, fertilizer, and pre-emergent weed killer. Do not apply weed killer to newly seeded areas.
  • Perform maintenance on lawn mower blades by sharpening or replacing as necessary as well as other lawn care tools.

Clean Up The Surfaces of Hardscapes

Basic cleaning around your property can make a big difference in your landscape:

  • If there any gravel has migrated to unplanned locations make sure to shovel or rake it back into place.
  • Fill in any empty or depressed areas with more gravel.
  • Take out pavers that have lifted because of the freeze-thaw cycle.
  • Restore the base material and put the pavers back in place.
  • Pressure wash, on a low setting, to remove dust, leaf stains or debris from your walkways and patios.

Professional Lawn Care Technicians in Eastern Pennsylvania

Not every home or business owner has the equipment nor the time to perform spring clean up. Green Machine provides professional lawn, tree, and shrub care to customers throughout the Luzerne, Lackawanna, Monroe, Bucks, Montgomery Counties. We are happy to offer a free estimate or quote for your spring clean up needs. Contact us Today!