7 Simple Spring Yard Tips to Breath Life Back Into Your Property

The time has come again to think about new life returning. Whether you live in the south or the north, spring is a time of rejuvenation, rebirth, and renewal.

You can help jumpstart your property’s transition from gloomy to bloomy with a little bit of TLC during the spring.

Are you hoping to breathe some life back into your property after a hard winter?

Let’s take a look at seven simple spring yard tips that can prepare your yard for the beautiful and glorious summer ahead.

1. Prep Damaged Lawn Areas For Spring Yard Seeding

Early spring is the perfect time to start thinking about your lawn in colder climates. Your first step will be testing the pH of the soil so that you know what amendments you’ll need.

Take a look at your lawn and remove any turf that’s been damaged by disease, plows, or salt. You can then prepare this area for seeding. You can use a square metal rake to remove any dead turf and flip it over to spread seed and compost on top.

When it comes time for seeding, you’ll work about half an inch of compost on top of the new seed to help keep it moist. In warmer areas, you can start fertilizing around March.

2. Prune Dead and Damaged Branches From Trees and Shrubs

Winter can be hard on your trees and shrubs. This is a part of your spring yard cleanup that can really spruce up your property. Find branches that have been damaged by snow, cold, or wind and prune them back to their live stems.

You can use a handsaw to prune branches that are bigger than one-half inch thick. It’s best to shape your hedges with hand prunes instead of electric shears because it is healthier for your plant’s growth.

You’ll want to prune your shrubs that flower in the summer before they have swelling buds. For spring-flowering trees and shrubs, though, you’ll want to wait to prune until they have finished flowering.

3. Clean Up Around Your Plants

Even though you did a good job raking in the fall, there is likely a lot of dead foliage and fallen leaves around your plants in the spring. This should be on your spring yard cleanup list no matter how small your garden is. Raking your yard in spring can be an easy way to make your yard go from messy to put-together after a short chore.

This is a time when you can pull up annuals and rake away fallen leaves before wheeling them off to the compost. Once there is no longer the threat of frost, you can also remove the existing mulch to put a new layer down after you’ve done your spring planting.

If any of your plants have popped up from frost-heaves, you can take this time to push them back into their borders and tamp them down. You can also spread pelletized fertilizer at this time so that the spring rain can distribute the fertilizer to the roots.

4. Tidy Up Your Hardscape Surfaces

Cleaning up your hardscape surfaces is also an important part of spring yard prep. You can rake any gravel that has escape from its rightful place back to the patio or walkway it came from. You also might want to order more gravel to fill in any depressions that have been created over the winter.

This is also a good time to take a pressure washer to your walkways and patios to get rid of any leaf stains or algae spots.

5. Cut Back and Divide Perennials

If you have any ornamental grasses, you can prune these to a height of 2-3 inches. Flowering perennials can be pruned down to 4-5 inches tall. Doing this can help encourage new growth to appear.

If your beds have become overcrowded, you can thin your plantings once the soil has thawed.

If all of this is starting to sound like a bit much, you might consider hiring landscape services. This way, your yard can be fully prepped for spring while you can focus on the things that are most important to you.

6. Compost Your Yard Waste

During your spring yard clean-up, you’re going to be collecting a lot of organic waste. Things like cuttings, leaves, foliage, and last season’s mulch will all need somewhere to go.

You can create a simple compost pile by making a small cube out of a wire fence or pallet wood. Managing your compost pile can take a bit of getting used to, but once you know what to do it becomes second nature.

It’s best to chip branches and shred leaves when they are bigger than one-half inch in diameter. This helps speed up the decomposition of your pile. You can also use a bagged compost starter.

You’ll want to take a pitchfork to your pile every two weeks to aerate it. It’s best for the pile to be damp but not soaking wet, about the wetness of a rung-out sponge.

Be careful not to add any spring weeds that have already gone to seed, though. Otherwise, they could end up sprouting in your pile and spreading around your property.

7. Patch, Replace, or Paint Worn Wood on Fences and Trellises

Even when your lawn is pristine, having worn or rotten wood on your fences and trellises can make your property look a little worse for wear. You can remove any boards, lattice, or pickets that are badly damaged or rotten and scrub the whole structure clean. Where needed, you can install new wood, and otherwise, you can patch any sections that are rotten with wood epoxy.

Are You Looking For Some Help With Your Spring Yard Tasks?

Adding some spring yard decorations to your property can be a lot of fun, but it makes sense to get your yard cleaned up first. Some people delight in the chores of spring yard prep, while others might find them annoying and tedious. If you find yourself in the latter camp, you might opt to hire a landscaping service to save yourself the trouble.

Did you find this article on spring yard tips helpful? If so, be sure to check out the rest of our blog!