Landscaping Through the Seasons

Photo by Curtis Adams from Pexels

While gardening focuses on cultivating and maintaining your beautiful plants and flowers, landscaping is all about the big picture: in other words, the overall appearance of your back or front yard when you walk into it. While there are plenty of garden designs out there, creating a bespoke plan for your outdoor space is guaranteed to give your garden that added wow factor.

Personalising your landscaping includes taking a look at your garden through the seasons, factoring in information such as local climate and soil as well as the amount and direction of the sunlight you get in your yard. WIth these foundations in place, you’ll have the essential information you need to begin maintaining a glorious garden whatever the season, plus a few extra tips from us.

Location

Your yard goes through yearly cycles of growth and dormancy, so it can help to work with the seasons rather than against them. This will vary depending on where you live, and special considerations might even be required if you live in an area prone to extremes, like heat or cold.

For example, California landscape maintenance requires attention to water conservation and drought tolerance, owing to its arid climate, while some areas of the Pacific Northwest tend to receive more rainfall during fall through to spring when the drier weather arrives.

Creating a Plan

Designing your own yard can be a fun way to spark your imagination and amp up motivation levels to get started, especially if you are working with a professional landscaping specialist. Additionally, creating a plan in the winter months can give you something to look forward to once the warmer weather returns.

Plants don’t grow overnight, and neither should landscape planning. Rather than rushing to get everything done, planning in advance allows you to take this process gradually, looking at each of the key aspects in turn, such as:

Succession planting: How to choose plants and flowers that ensure your garden stays in bloom all year round, for example summer roses and dahlias that can be replaced by chrysanthemums and marigolds in the fall once their season is over.
Maintenance: While winter plants like evergreens stay looking lush all year-round, perennials at the end of their bloom cycle will need to be pruned back to make space for newcomers, so include dates for when to do this in your plan.
Art and lighting: While your yard is bound to be a work of art in itself, a few finishing touches here and there in the form of decorative lights or sculptures can be great for adding visual interest. Working with a landscaping professional can help to ensure any installation is made safely and securely.

A professional landscaper will also help you tailor your yard design according to the seasons in more detail, which we’ll look at now.

Spring

As your garden comes into bloom, focus on giving your plants a chance and spring clean your yard by cutting away any dead or damaged material such as branches to help encourage fresh growth while shaping plants for the coming season. Around this time of year it also helps to fertilize your soil. If you are unsure about what to use, ask your local landscape professional for advice.

Summer

For areas prone to drought, proper irrigation is essential during the summer months, as is watering systems to help keep your yard well hydrated. While summer is generally thought of as one of the most enjoyable seasons, weeds and invasive plants think so too, so take steps to control these during this period.

Fall

In preparation for the winter months, a final pruning can help to keep your garden free of any dead or diseased material before your yard goes into dormancy, in addition to fallen leaves. While maintenance at this time is similar in many ways to spring, it also includes overseeding, soil aeration and fertilization to help foster future growth.

Winter

The winter months might look like a relatively quiet time, but there’s still work to be done, especially if you are in an area prone to snow and ice. Winterized irrigation systems to help prevent damage from freezing, in addition to winter safety measures to ensure safe access and protection from cold conditions are all important for making sure your garden stays looking good once spring arrives again.

While much of the interim maintenance can be taken care of yourself, having a professional landscaper on hand can be especially useful not just for planning your yard, but also for taking care of larger-scale tasks as well as offering advice and assistance with any unexpected issues that might come up throughout the year.

Professional Landscaping

Additionally, a professional landscaping contractor can also offer support with the following:

Disease and pest monitoring and control to help keep your yard looking healthy.
Bed maintenance and mulching to help suppress weeds and conserve moisture.
Optimizing water irrigation to help distribute and reduce waste water.
Strategic soil management and fertilization according to soil composition and PH.

A professional landscaper can also help with seasonal clean-up tasks such as mowing and edge trimming in the summer and removal of debris in the fall and winter months, so that instead of waiting for spring to arrive, your yard can look lovely all year.