Lawn & Landscape calendar

More Information About Important Lawn & Landscape Maintenance Tasks

If you are not familiar with some of the lawn & landscape maintenance terms found on our calendar, here is a little more information.

Cutting back grasses – Ornamental grasses and liriope are decorative grasses found in landscapes, not lawns.  There are many different varieties but they are all maintained in the same way.  You can either cut them back to the ground in the late fall or early spring.  The key thing to know is that if you wait to the spring to perform this task, make sure you cut them back before new growth begins to emerge!  Also, for taller grasses, you will want to leave 6″-12″ of the stalks intact to help support next season’s growth.

Correct pruning and trimming bushes – Correct pruning refers to strategically cutting limbs as needed to correct the growth pattern of plants or to cut out diseased or damaged branches.  Trimming bushes is also referred to as pruning or hedge trimming.  It is important to prune plants regularly, twice per season on our calendar, to ensure the plants maintain a natural shape and stay within their space in your landscape beds.

Aerating (and overseeding) – Aerating is the process of running a core aerator machine over the lawn.  A core aerator pulls ‘plugs’ from the soil which allows water and nutrients to more easily reach the root system of the plants.  You can leave the cores, or plugs, on top of your lawn to let them break back down naturally and return into the soil.

Spring and summer annuals – These are colorful flowers that only last for part of 1 season.  That is why they are called ‘annuals.’  Perennials return year after year.  If you are looking for a quick and relatively inexpensive way to spruce up your landscape, annuals are a great choice!

Garden maintenance – This primarily refers to weeding landscape or flower beds.  We all know this is a never-ending battle!

Lime – Lime is an amendment often used on lawns to raise the soil’s pH and better allow the grass types to utilize the nutrients available in the soil.