Spring into Cleanup!

Beavers don’t badmouth, and while we hate to say an unkind word about our fellow rodents, we feel it’s our responsibility to share this with our customers. We hear they’re good at chucking wood, but groundhogs are notoriously bad at predicting the weather. You can get much better advice about seasonal preparation for your Elkhart property from Busy Lil Beavers. Sorry, Phil. We only bring it up because though winter’s not over, spring cleanup is now upon us! You may wonder why we’re preparing for Spring when it’s still so chilly. Well, you have to look ahead in the landscaping biz and to have a lovely spring, we start prepping now.

What is Spring Cleanup?

Spring cleanup is the process of cleaning up your property and readying it for all the fun things you want to do once the growing season starts! There’s a lot to do. Some of it is the sort of thing you need to do for your land all year, but some explicitly address the damage left from the previous season.

Winter, What Did You Do?

Oh, winter, you’re incorrigible! Like a toddler or three-month-old puppy left unattended, winter leaves a mess. Winter a season of dormancy for your landscape, but it’s also a season that clears out the weak to make room for new. Whether it’s melting snow that eroded your gardens or hillside, snow mold that killed your grass, or branches that broke under the weight of massive ice, winter often feels like it’s no friend to nature. But, like all seasons, it serves a purpose. You just need to plan for dealing with what is left before the Spring.

Stick To It

To begin with, a big part of any yard cleanup is removing plant debris. You know about fall cleanup. It’s all about raking and blowing leaves. But plants shed parts all year. Leaves are typical (though not the same amount as your massive fall leaf exodus) but also other plant pieces. In the winter, you tend to lose more branches because of winter storms and ice breaking them off. So one piece of a spring cleanup is picking up all those sticks.

But Why?

The plant debris that has piled up all over your yard isn’t just ugly. It’s also unhealthy for your plants. While a certain amount of plant debris may break down and fertilize the soil, too much, especially in one place, can block water and sunlight from reaching your plants. In addition, the leaves and other plant parts can trap moisture. That can cause ice during the winter and mold any time of year.

Pruning

Though with help from BLB, you may have been able to protect most of your plants over the cold months, winter is typically a time of culling for the plant world. Those trees we mentioned whose branches broke might not allow us to take a look at them. Likewise, parts of your shrubs and flowers may have died. Part of a spring cleanup is cutting away all the dead, dying, or diseased parts of your landscape so that the rest of the plant stays healthy. It also makes more room for new life.

Bring Out Your Dead

Now is the time to see if any plants succumbed to the cold. If any whole plants die, we’ll remove them. Then, we’ll go into your garden bed and pull up any flowers you lost over the winter. It’s also nearly time to replace them.

Coming Soon to a Yard Near You

We’re not quite into the time of year for replacing plants yet, but it is time to start thinking about it. Of course, once April hits, we’ll install new plants and replace all the mulch that broke down or washed away. But just because we’re not doing the work today doesn’t mean you can’t start thinking about it. Good landscaping starts with a plan. So while things are slow in your yard (before the air is full of sounds and smells of mowing), let’s think about design! What do you want in your yard this Spring and summer?

Ready to Spring Into Cleanup?

You’ll have plenty of time for Spring cleaning your home once the season gets here. But spring cleanup for your landscape starts while winter winds down. So if you want to love your yard in the Spring, call the Beavers today! Oh, and if you need a little help with spring cleaning and decluttering haul off, the Beavers’ sister company Beaver Bins can help there too. We do a dam fine job.