Tis the Season for Spring Cleanups

Spring is a season about starting fresh. So even though the calendar says the new year begins in January, nature has other ideas, and our bodies’ instincts and cultural habits can’t help but align themselves with them. That’s probably why Spring cleaning is a meme-creating cultural norm that’s outlasted many other old habits that died with new times.

But don’t forget your yard in the frenzy of Spring cleaning and decluttering. Spring Cleanup outside is equally important as what you’re doing in the house, and it’s not that dissimilar.
Here’s what Wheaton recommends for your Fremont yard and how it parallels the cleaning inside your home.

First, We Throw Away the Trash

The easiest part of any cleaning project, outside or in, is removing the objects we know right away don’t belong. For example, in your home, broken items might be sitting around collecting dust. In your yard, that’s your plant debris.

Why Does Plant Debris Collection Matter?

Even on a typical day, your plants work on making your yard messy. It’s not malicious; they’re just trying to grow! But as they grow, they shed leaves, sticks, petals, and dead parts.

Once they hit the ground, it’s clear they’re not helping your plant anymore, but did you know they can hurt them? That’s because everything resting on your lawn blocks the grass from getting everything it needs, particularly water and sunlight.

In addition to blocking out good things, it can trap moisture, creating mold and disease.
Removing all the leaves and other plant debris from your yard allows the plants in it to thrive better. And naturally, Spring cleanup also makes your yard look better!

Winter Does More

We started the last section discussing a typical day, but the Winter accelerates the plant-shedding conditions. Storms can knock down and even kill plants. In addition, ice and snow may break off tree limbs.

The result is that you’re starting Spring with a yard that needs glam up after Winter.

Put Away the Winter Coats

Inside your home, you’re taking the time to put away the Winter clothes and decorations and taking out your Spring wardrobe. Outside, we’ll want to do the same. From the literal point of view, that might mean yard decorations, but it may also mean changes to your plants.

If any plants died over the Winter but are still in the ground, it’s time to pull them up. If you had cold weather annuals or Summer annuals still in the land that died during the Winter, we could take them out to make for something new.

Likewise, if anything was supposed to last, the season didn’t; it’s unfortunate, but there’s no reason to hang on to it when you could better use your gardens for new annuals and perennials.

Now a Polish

Removing what you don’t need in your home is just the prelude to cleaning. Outside, the plants that survived still need a spruce up too.

Now it’s time to prune! Your hearty plants that made it through the Winter likely lost some parts. We’ll start by removing the unhealthy areas of your plant so it can focus its energy on the rest of it!

With shrubs, that can mean pruning branches and trimming overall. Flowers are similar, and flowerbed maintenance also includes deadheading as the season goes on. For your grass, the first mow is all about removing that scraggly growth that protected its roots from freezing during the Winter.

Don’t Forget Mulch!

Now is also the right time to replenish any mulch that deteriorated or washed away. Over the Winter, it protects your plants from the cold. Now it does the same for weeds and heat!

Make It Spring-y

Now comes the fun part! All that cleaning outside and Spring Cleanup outside is done for the same reason – so you can better enjoy your home in the Spring. But, of course, what you do in the house is up to you. Outside, we’ll help you by installing your new landscaping to welcome the new season.

It’s time to plant your flowerbeds and start mowing the lawn regularly. Want to have some friends over to enjoy the yard? We can also help you with new hardscaping and landscape lighting that will allow you to enjoy your yard no matter the time!

Contact Wheaton for Your Spring Cleanup!

Spring Cleanup may not have the sizzle of creating a new flower garden or the ubiquitousness of mowing the lawn, but it matters just as much to the health and beauty of your home. So call the pros at Wheaton to do it right!