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The Essentials of Maintaining Your Landscape

Salisbury Landscaping - Maintaining Your Landscape -weeding the garden

Landscape design is only the beginning of creating a gorgeous space; the follow-through brings the project to completion! Maintenance is more than just upkeep—it’s really about helping your landscape flourish and bringing it to its full potential. Here is a primer on the main tasks of landscape maintenance and how to make it an enjoyable experience that you feel confident doing.

Prune Your Shrubs 

As shrubs start to fill in, we can alter their size and shape, maximizing the flowers or berries they produce. Early spring, before leaves start to bud, is usually the ideal time for pruning. However, the exceptions are shrubs that form their blossom buds during the previous season, like lilacs and forsythia. If you prune these shrubs in early spring, you’ll cut off this year’s flowers! We recommend some research to learn the best times and ways to prune the specific varieties in your yard. Feel free to contact us if you have shrub-specific questions.

Salisbury Landscaping - Maintaining Your Landscape -personal style patio furniture

Shape Your Hedges 

Shaping hedges is an important kind of pruning. It’s much easier to shape them a few times each year than to let them get out of control and have to chop them down. When you sculpt them regularly, you can look for the cuts you made last time and then cut them back to that same height. Regular hedge maintenance saves you time down the road and keeps your hedges in top shape! 

Prevent Weeds, But Weed  

Preventing weeds and weeding are two key practices to save time and keep your landscape looking its best. We can try to avoid it, but weeding is an inescapable part of landscape maintenance. There are, of course, many ways to reduce the need for weeding, like adding mulch to your garden, growing ground covers over any exposed soil, and keeping your lawn healthy. Still, weeds are going to come up from time to time. It’s best to weed them before they go to seed and reproduce.

Salisbury Landscaping - Maintaining Your Landscape -watering the garden

Water, When Necessary 

Water is essential to all life, including our garden plants, but that doesn’t mean it should cost you money and time. Here are some tips for efficient watering: 

  • Learn how much water your plants need weekly. 
  • Set up a timed sprinkler or drip irrigation line to water them.
  • Water in the early morning to reduce evaporation. 
  • Skip the watering if it rains. 
  • Mulch your garden to keep the moisture in. 
  • If possible, group plants according to water needs, e.g. drought-tolerant plants together; this will help you direct the water to where your garden needs it the most. 

Take Care of Your Insects

Insects are also essential to all life, including us and our landscapes. When one group of insects takes over, we call them pests. However, we can minimize the need for pest control by keeping a healthy balance of insects to begin with, including predatory insects and pollinators. 

Companion planting, growing lots of native plants, eliminating pesticides, and having a biodiverse garden keeps the insect population happy. You can keep a small pile of leaves or an area of unmowed grass for their benefit as well. 

Salisbury Landscaping - Maintaining Your Landscape -deadheaded flowers from garden

Deadhead Your Flowers 

To keep your plants blooming, deadhead your perennials, annuals, and flowering shrubs. This may be as simple as plucking off the spent flowers with your hand, pruning the spent stems down a few inches, or shearing off a whole bunch of deadheads at once. The goal is to keep your garden plants looking fresh and encourage them to flower again.

Take Care of Your Soil 

Taking care of your plants is easy if you take care of your soil. Mulching your garden provides nutrients to your soil as it breaks down and protects it from the elements. Spreading compost in the vegetable plot once per year goes a long way in replenishing the nutrients and feeding the microbiology.  

Keep Your Hardscapes Looking Fresh Patios, driveways, and stone pathways have to put up with a lot of harsh weather in Edmonton. We can extend their lifespan and vibrancy by cleaning them regularly, clearing away any rotting debris, replacing broken stones, and resealing them every 3-5 years.

A landscape is not complete the moment the installation is over. Landscape design and installation are just the beginnings of any landscape, which can become more beautiful over time with proper maintenance and care. If you have any questions on landscape care, feel free to reach out to our team of experts!

Posted in Landscaping Tips

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