Landscape Maintenance To-Dos & Checklist

It’s the time of year to get excited about seeing green grass and blooming flowers. It’s also the time to get organized to make landscaping plans come to life.

Ideally, you began your inspiration and planning work in the winter months — you’ve had meetings and conversations with the team at Green Thumb. If you haven’t, there is still time to figure out what you need to make your landscaping dream a reality. Landscapers have been busy since late last fall planning their clients’ spring projects. The sooner you start the process, the sooner you will get onto a schedule.  

Here are some key to-dos to put on your landscaping maintenance checklist:

1. Determine what areas on your property you want to change, adjust, or fix.

Take a walk about your grounds and examine the flow, the growth, the colours, and the locations of your existing trees, shrubs, and perennials. Consider how much your plants have spread (both in height and width). Consider if the existing plants still fit in their location or if they need to be moved, removed, or pruned.

If you are unhappy with the way things have grown and changed over the past year, make sure you have the following tools in order to make the proper adjustments:

• Sturdy stainless steel digging shovel
• Steel garden trowels in a few sizes
• Garden knife
• Saw
• Strong pruning shears
• Large capacity wheelbarrow
• Heavy-duty or oscillating hoe
• Rubber or nitrile coated garden gloves
• Loppers
• Watering hose and appropriate nozzle
• Plant fertilizer
• Mulch

Expert tip: If this sounds like a lot of stuff, a lot of planning, and a lot of work, that’s because it is. We recommend leaving the complicated and labour-intensive work to the professionals. Transplanting your plants is quite involved and you want it done right.

2. Determine what sort of seasonal care your landscaping needs.

Consider which landscaping elements on your grounds need attention. Then, put together a schedule of work to be sure the work is completed in a timely manner. This will ensure that plants and trees can settle into their new shape or new garden bed before the weather gets too warm.

There are particular seasonal maintenance activities that need to take place in the spring. These include:

• Garden and lawn clean-up
• Mulching
• Weeding
• Pruning
• Plant splitting
• Transplanting
• Watering
• Fertilizing
• Shaping plants
• Removing plants
• And more

3. Determine how often your landscaping will need care and maintenance.

A schedule of routine maintenance to keep your landscape looking its best all season long is best left to the experts. Your landscape maintenance professional will know when and what to do. Leave it to them. If your property includes perennials, shrubs, trees, and a lawn, consider how often each area of your landscape will need maintenance.

We recommend the following:

• Garden beds: weed, prune, and clean every two weeks
• Lawn and hardscape grooming: weekly cut, trim, edge, sweep, blow, cleanup
• Weed control: twice per season
• Grub control: nematodes (organic solution as pesticides have not been permitted in Ontario for the past 12 years). Application normally late August to early September.  Application is timed through consultation with the Turf Grass Institute in Guelph to achieve optimal results.
• Fertilizing: 4 times per season, with fertilizer appropriate for each application
• Overseeding: at the beginning of the season and then as needed especially in shade areas. Overseed annually in heavy shade areas.
• Pruning: Ongoing; at the beginning of the season to cut out dead branches; approximately late June after shrubs have flowered and put out spring growth; every other week to keep stray shoots in control

Keeping to a set schedule will keep your gardens and landscaping neat, clean, and healthy. At Green Thumb Landscaping, we understand that sometimes homeowners get inspired and excited about their gardening talents. You try to prune, transplant, and maintain your landscape yourself. The results don’t always work out the way you hope. Don’t learn the hard way. Leave the landscaping to the experts and enjoy the beautiful results. Contact Green Thumb today to book your on-property consultation so you can rest assured that your property will look its best.