5 Reasons to Schedule a Seasonal Landscape Maintenance Visit Today

Seasonal landscape maintenance work is critical to lay the foundation for a vibrant garden in the future months. Winter/spring months are critical as most of the large, structural pruning work for shrubs, trees, and even perennial gardens happens during this time. Here are 5 reasons to schedule your seasonal Sonoma County landscape maintenance work today.

1. Why is Orchard Maintenance Important During Winter?

Pruning fruit trees during winter months is essential to ensure proper tree structure as well as to optimize fruit production over the coming year. Structural pruning of fruit trees should always happen when trees are dormant and leaves have dropped as this limits stress to the trees, and ensures we can direct the plants energy to producing healthy structural branches and eliminate wasteful growth that results in leafy trees with no fruit.

Flowering

Once fruit trees open their flowering buds the best window of opportunity has passed for pruning as the plant is now actively using energy to push growth. If branches without strong fruiting buds are left on the tree, it will send growth to these branches as well, and energy that could be used to enhance fruiting is wasted.

Pest Control

Pest control for Orchards is best done during winter dormancy to reduce the need for spraying when fruit is present. Many insects overwinter in the bark and leaves of a fruit tree and can be easily controlled with organic horticultural oil rather than requiring stronger and more harmful pesticides later in the year that can stick around and get into the fruit, harming your ability to create a cost-effective landscape. Additionally removing leaves and debris below the fruit trees dramatically reduces insect populations.

Infection

Fungal infections such as leaf curl can only be treated during dormancy as once it forms on otherwise healthy leaves in spring, you’re stuck with it for the year. Applying a copper fungicide to dormant trees can control the development and spread of leaf curl which dramatically impacts the health of the tree leading to lower quality and quantity of fruit production.

2. Why is Perennial Garden Maintenance Important During Winter?

Dormant pruning of perennial gardens is the most important task of the year, and timing it during late winter is essential to get your garden ready for spring and ensure vibrant blooms. Drastically pruning perennials during the growing season stunts growth and confuses the plants.

Dormancy and Pollinators

Best practice is to allow the plants to go fully dormant without removing old flower stalks and growth from the previous seasons as the plant pulls energy from this growth back into the root system and stores it for next year. Additionally pollinators often overwinter in the stems of perennials waiting for warm weather to emerge and pollinate flowers next summer.

Optimum Timing

Scheduling a seasonal maintenance clean up of perennial gardens during winter allows you to tackle this work efficiently all at once to optimize the timing to the benefit of your flower garden.

3. Why is Mulching Important During Winter Months?

Mulching during winter months suppresses weeds emerging from winter rains as well as provides great benefit to soil health as nutrients from the mulch are washed into the soils below. This is especially true when mulching with compost as many nutrients, including nitrogen with promotes the leafy green growth in spring, are water soluble and by installing mulch during the wet season we can allow rain to do the work for us rather than requiring overhead irrigation or even worse, allowing the nutrients to go to waste if no water is present.

Stay Ahead

By scheduling a maintenance visit to install mulch during winter you get ahead of the game which lowers maintenance needs and improves the health of the soil and plants in your landscape which leads to less work and more enjoyment in the seasons to come.

4. Why is Weed Control and Removal Important During Winter Months?

Removing weeds as soon as they emerge prevents them from going to seed which leads to persistent weed populations for months and years to come. Effective weed control is essential to prepare your lawn and landscape for summer. This means waiting to pull weeds once they have dropped seed is counter productive because they are guaranteed to come back, and some weeds drop seeds that are viable for multiple years. This means that allowing one weed to go to seed could mean you will have to pull that weed for 3-5 years in the future, whereas if you’d removed it prior to going to seed, it might not ever come back.

Save Time and Resources

By removing weeds when they are first emerging during winter months, we reduce the time required to do so, and also reduce the need to spray herbicides later on when weed populations get out of control.

5.   Why is Irrigation Maintenance Important During Winter Months?

Irrigation maintenance is important during winter months because it gives us time to make repairs before issues arise during warmer months which can lead to dead plants and stressed landscapes. In Sonoma County, we turn our irrigation systems off during the rainy season as supplemental irrigation isn’t necessary. This provides a perfect window to look under the hood and see what issues might have formed during the last irrigation year, and address them properly without the pressure of hot summer days threatening to cause damage to the landscape while the irrigation is off as we make a repair.

Preventing Stress

Plants in the landscape often take time to show you how stressed they are, and if this happens early in the season it’s often too late to fully recover their health for the rest of the growing season,  Perhaps they don’t die entirely, but they won’t exhibit their full potential if they’ve undergone irrigation malfunctions during the early growing season which sets the stage for all that’s to come in summer and fall.

Reduce Damage Risk

Rather than wait to see these issues in the form of dead plants in the spring and summer, schedule an irrigation maintenance visit now during winter months when the risk of damage to your landscape is still in the future. Scheduling an irrigation maintenance visit today is a cost effective and essential step towards a thriving landscape during spring and summer months.

Don’t Let Your Landscape Fall Behind – Inspired Landscapes

Keep your landscape growing strong with essential seasonal maintenance from Inspired Landscapes. Our professional landscape and irrigation specialists can provide routine inspections to ensure your landscape is ready for whatever comes next. Contact Inspired Landscapes today or give us a call at (707) 395-7474 to get started!