Winter Maintenance for a Year-Round Beautiful Landscape
With rain falling and wind blowing, winter may not seem like the ideal time to consider your outdoor living space. However, at Landscape East & West, we believe the cold season is the perfect time to ensure a high-growth spring and enhance your landscape. That’s why we work with our clients to create year-round maintenance plans that guarantee your yard is in top condition, no matter what the weather is doing.
January and February are ideal times for pruning in Oregon when most plants are fully dormant. Fruit trees and bushes that provided berries in the summer, apples and pears in the fall, and an abundance of roses, are ready to lose some dead wood. Pruning now encourages strong spring growth and better fruit production.
Cutting back dead or crowded wood reduces the risk of disease and improves airflow and light penetration, which is especially important in Oregon’s damp climate. Pruning helps to better shape bushes and trees, setting your yard up for a beautiful spring and summer.
Now is also a great time to prune deciduous and ornamental trees because, without the leaves, it’s much easier to see what and where to trim. Plus, dormant trees heal faster, so the cut branches will be ready to support new growth.
Pruning, check. What’s next on our list? Fertilizing those freshly trimmed trees and shrubs and adding pre-emergent weed treatment in your beds. We make sure to provide the best growing conditions so your yard bursts to life when the weather warms.
Winter is also an ideal time for us to assess your lawn and develop a care plan. If you look out the window and see puddles or mud pits, there’s a problem. Actually, if you are unable to walk on your grass in the winter, it’s time to make some changes.
A big problem in our region is the abundance of clay soil, which turns to mud when mixed with all our rain. Our landscape experts are well-versed in soggy yards and have plenty of solutions, such as adjusting drainage patterns, correcting soil composition, or even changing the type of grass or turf. You may not want to walk across your lawn in the winter, but we will assure you can.
For all those Oregonians who are avid gardeners, winter doesn’t mean an end to the growing season. Whether you grow kale, arugula, and spinach, or beets and carrots, leeks and green onions, or parsley, sage, and thyme, your Landscape East & West maintenance crew will be sure the ground conditions are ideal for healthy crops. You won’t have to do anything but gather the bounty and enjoy fresh-from-the-garden meals.
Addressing your plants and grass isn’t all we tackle during our winter maintenance. If you find yourself using a flashlight to pull carrots and cut herbs, or you’re tired of looking out into the black abyss of your yard at night, it might also be a great time to address the lighting in your yard.
Your landscape is an investment, and we encourage you to find ways to enjoy it both day and night, even if it is just looking through a window. Those long hours of darkness provide the perfect opportunity to evaluate your outdoor lighting.
Adding strategically placed exterior lights can make your indoor space feel larger, can complement your landscape by highlighting specific areas and features, and can add a level of safety and security to your home. Make your yard shine day and night.
One of the best parts of Landscape East & West’s year-round maintenance plans is that you can escape to a warmer climate (Hawaii, anyone?) and leave the care of your yard and garden to us. Instead of returning to wind-blown branches, rotten radishes, and mud puddles, you’ll come home to a yard that looks as good as, if not better than, what you left behind.
If you’re done dreaming of a white Christmas and ready to fantasize about a fruitful spring, contact us to learn more about our maintenance program and all the other services Landscape East & West provides.
