Preparing your Chagrin Falls backyard landscape for a successful season
Expert landscape designers serving the Chagrin Valley weigh in on best practices for backyard landscaping to prepare for warmer weather. Learn how to lay the groundwork for functional landscape design methods that foster healthy sustainable ecosystems.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
- When to schedule late winter and early spring pruning for Northeast Ohio landscapes
- How to handle fall debris that winter left behind in your garden beds
- Which ornamental trees and shrubs transplant best in early spring
- Why leaving your landscape “messy” over winter actually created a valuable habitat
- Professional timing strategies for meaningful landscape design changes
Was winter rough this year?
Was it rough? Or was it a traditional winter? Ask around and you might get a few surprise answers. The older generation might tell you this is how it was growing up, the younger generation on the other hand may still be hibernating in fear of the next snow storm that pounds Northeast Ohio.
Is winter too early to start thinking about spring landscaping? Absolutely not. In fact, this is a great time to take inventory of your yard.
Either way, spring will lead to warmer weather and there are many plants that are already starting to show their early spring potential. If you’re a native landscape enthusiast you may soon start to wander into your back yard to catch those plants just starting to emerge from your mulched beds and naturalized areas. To others, these mulched beds may look like a mess beyond hope of new greenery popping out of the ground.
When winter prevents fall cleanup
A lot of us did not get the chance to finish or even execute a fall cleanup or get their last lawn cut in due to the early large snowstorms. This will lead to additional work in the spring, but not to worry, the early weather change forced habitats for all the critters that normally would end up going elsewhere for shelter.
Whether or not you’re an advocate for cutting back herbaceous plant material at the end of the season or waiting till spring to do so, you may have been forced to leave them, ultimately creating shelter points for critters and allowing those plants to over seed themselves. Leaving them up over the winter and cleaning them in the spring gives back to the soil as a lot of the material has decomposed and you may be pleasantly surprised by additional clumps or color this spring and summer that will germinate from allowing them to seed themselves over winter.
If you’re going to have mulch installed this spring as many do, leave the cleanup for when you install the mulch. It is herbaceous material and if you hire the right eco friendly professional landscape company to mulch your beds they will utilize this debris to enhance your existing soils.
Late winter and early spring pruning is encouraged
Pruning should be a main focus for some of your woody shrubs and ornamental trees before you mulch in the spring. Late winter is a good time for you to take an inventory of what trees and shrubs are in your backyard landscape so you know what you have, what should get pruned in late winter/early spring, and what needs to wait until later.
Carmel Landscapes uses software that inventories every yard and will actually schedule pruning for the specific needs of your unique landscape. Pruning some of these trees and shrubs at the wrong time won’t kill them, but poorly-timed pruning can lead to less desirable results.
If you feel like you’re the type that just goes out on a sunny day and shears everything, consider contacting a local professional landscape company in the Chagrin Valley corridor that specializes in pruning and not shearing. You will be pleasantly surprised by the results.
Design changes to your existing landscape
What about meaningful design changes to your existing landscape? Maybe your landscape has matured so much that it may seem a little crowded for your taste. Maybe you’re ready for a change or considering an outdoor space where you can cook and entertain, but there are ornamental trees and mulch beds taking up all the room.
Thankfully, contrary to popular belief, there are many trees, shrubs, and perennial plants that prefer to be transplanted in the spring over fall because of their blooming habits. Some of Northeast Ohio’s most utilized ornamental trees like magnolias, dogwoods, and red buds take well to late winter transplants.
We won’t go over how to transplant trees in this blog, but if you don’t have the proper equipment to move entire trees without disturbing their root systems, we suggest you find a professional landscape contractor local to the Chagrin Falls area to do the heavy lifting.
What to do when snow melts in March
Finally, above cleaning debris in your beds, look at your lawn when the snow melts in March. Leaves kept falling well after the first winter storm and the old debate on whether to leave your leaves or blow them comes to the table. We advocate to leave them on the lawn, but not in their unprocessed state as a whole leaf. That’s the type of heavy debris that will smother turf in no time.
Unfortunately, like we talked about earlier, you may have missed your last fall cleanup. There may be leaves everywhere. No worries, we know what to do.
You may even notice lawns with oak trees may have a less than satisfactory appearance, but it’s not that oak trees kill lawns, it’s that oak leaves keep falling into winter and we don’t have the opportunity to process those leaves until the snow melts. Local expert landscape contractors manage both your turf and mulch beds. They are different environments that require different care.
Moving forward with your spring landscape
If you have been huddled up near your living room fireplace all winter dreaming about greenery, that’s the time best spent considering your design goals and expectations for your landscape. That’s the time you jot your ideas on a paper napkin and get in touch with local landscape designers that understand the Northeast Ohio climate.
Winter may be dreary, but your yard isn’t dead. It’s just getting ready for the next big comeback.
Carmel Landscapes specializes in sustainable landscape design, native plantings, and professional landscape maintenance throughout the Chagrin Valley. Contact us to discuss your spring landscape preparation and how we can help create a thriving outdoor environment that works with Northeast Ohio’s unique climate.