Landscaping can be hard work. It's the sort of thing you get dirty, tired, and sore from. As a professional landscaping company, we know that there are many aspects of the job that can be a huge workload. We always look for ways to make it easier to do each time. Even if you've hired our services for designing and looking after your landscape, you may be wondering how to maintain it yourself in a way that isn't so backbreaking.
There are some landscaping tasks you can do that make your life easier, keep your professional landscaping costs down, and, most importantly, boost the look of your landscape.
Keep reading on to learn more about landscape maintenance that keeps the work from building up!
Proper Lawn Care
The first thing most people notice with your landscape is always your lawn. Because it's so essential to have a great lawn, many people spend most of their efforts in landscaping maintenance on keeping the grass greener. But we're here to say, when it comes to good grass maintenance, the secret isn't to work harder – it's to work smarter.
It's important to understand the proper way to care for your lawn, this will save you time, money, and energy in the long run.
This means a few things:
- Mow your grass at the proper height. Many people try to cut their grass shorter than they need to, meaning they cut less frequently, but this has one additional effect. It kills the grass. Save time and money on water, fertilizing, and seeding by keeping your grass healthier in the first place! Keep your grass cut at about 2 ½ inches tall for the optimum spot.
- Fertilizing. This is a great way to add nutrients to your lawn and keep it healthy, but it's important that you don't overdo it. The truth is, your grass only needs so much fertilization to grow, and any more will be wasted and flow into the water table. You only need to fertilize about every 2 months. Any more than this, and you're doing too much work!
- Seeding your lawn is always a good idea. To make sure it has the best effect, you should plan a time to do it instead of adding it willy-nilly when you feel like it. We recommend a routine called "dormant seeding". Here, you seed your lawn in the fall before the grass freezes and wait for these seeds to kick in when spring hits.
Look for Weeds – Early!
If you have gardens, flowerbeds, or lawns that often succumb to weeds by mid-summer, your problem might be the way you approach your weeding. You need to approach it with a proactive mindset. Get on top of the weeds before they become a larger problem.
The best time to deal with your weeds is in the early spring, before they have enough time to really grow and spread. The longer weeds stay in the ground, the stronger their roots grow, the wider coverage they have on your lawn, and the more work you have to do to remove them.
This won't prevent weeds from growing all season long, but it will limit the amount of work it takes every time you decide to remove some weeds. The way to work efficiently, in this case, is to work early.
Use Mulch in Gardens
Mulch in your gardens and flowerbeds is your best friend for keeping your workload light over the course of the season. Although this may seem like a bigger step right away compared to leaving dirt or grass, over time, you'll notice this saves time and effort.
Mulch is a perfect solution for several reasons. First, it looks great and will last for a full season without much upkeep. But more importantly, it serves several functions in your garden. Mulch is great fertilizer. As it breaks down slowly, it provides the soil with nutrients to grow taller and brighter, all without you having to fertilize. It also serves as a prevention method for weeds, since it blocks sunlight and stifles their growth.
It's a great solution if you don't want to spend time or energy weeding or fertilizing your gardens.
Use Plants Wisely
When you're thinking about the types of plants to use in your yard, your gardens, or the rest of the property, it's best to choose them wisely. You should always think about how your plants will work in the space you have before putting them in.
We have a few suggestions to help you pick plants that will save you time on maintenance.
First, if you're looking to plant on your property, use plants that are native to your area if possible! This will ensure that your plants are meant to grow in your region with minimal amounts of upkeep and maintenance. This will also help you contribute to the natural biodiversity of your area.
Another way to make your life easier is to buy potted plants, especially if you're looking to add plants to your hardscapes and patios. If you want to have a few plants on your property and would like to alter the way your property looks, using potted plants means you can move them around.
Conclusion
These are our favorite tips to help you stay out of the yard and with your family as much as possible, this summer.
We encourage you to try maintaining your own landscape as efficiently as possible to save you time and effort over the course of the season.
Of course, there's one way you can prevent yourself from doing any maintenance work ever again. At Pacific Lawn Maintenance, we are a full-service lawn care and landscaping service to help you with your maintenance needs throughout the season. We want to help you keep a pristine exterior all year and guide you on how to do this.
If you've hired our services before, let us know how we helped you in the comments! And if not, call us anytime to book a landscaping service.