With the leaves starting to fall, it's clear that winter is on the way. And while the holiday season is always a wonderful time to see family and friends, and to host events at your home, the real question we're asking is - how will your landscape look?

At Groundscapes, over 20 years of experience in the industry has taught us a thing or two about what most homeowners focus on throughout the year: while spring and summer are great opportunities for constructing an outdoor kitchen or swimming pool, and fall is always prime time for fire pits and football, winter is often left overlooked. Why bother enhancing or managing your landscape for the winter season?

Below, we explain the 5 most important actions you can take to prepare and optimize your landscape for the cold winter months. These suggestions are not only about maintaining the quality of your landscape, but also about making sure it remains as beautiful as possible for the many holiday events and guests you will be hosting. Let's get started!

Rule Number 1: Take Basic Steps to Prepare Your Softscapes for Winter

A Softscape, refers to the natural and living components of your landscape such as grass, trees, shrubs, flowers, and gardens. The first step is straightforward: before the first deep freeze, you want to make sure that all of your softscapes are prepared for ‘hibernation' over the winter months. This includes trimming up the trees and bushes, cutting the grass (shorter than usual), clearing all dead branches and remaining leaves, and aerating your garden patches. To better protect your trees and bushes, adding additional mulch and fertilizer can also help.

These basic precautions are important, as they enhance the overall health of the softscapes in your yard, and make them easier to manage during the spring thaw.

Rule Number 2: Maintain the Landscape During the Winter

Similar to Rule 1, any forward looking homeowner will want to take a couple of basic steps during the winter time to make sure their landscape remains healthy and prepared for the spring. This most often includes:

Overall, the more proactive you are during the winter the more money and time you will end up saving during your spring cleanup.

Rules 3 & 4: Don't Forget About Winter Improvements To Make Your Landscape Beautiful

Even with a thick blanket of snow covering most of your lawn, there are still many ways to ensure that your landscape maintains a strong aesthetic appeal during the winter months. Your best choices for improving the looks of your winter landscape can be broken down between natural and constructed improvements:

Homeowners looking to enhance the natural appeal of their landscape in the winter can focus on the types of trees and flowers they plant. This includes:

(1) Planting berry bushes that can flourish year-round, to add color and life to your scenery.

(2) Planting certain types of trees including Elms, Aspens, Crabapples, and Evergreens that contrast beautifully in the snow.

(3) Planting flowers that will still have foliage in the winter, and will remain visible in the snow.

(4) Adding winter plants such as holly, poinsettia's, and mistletoes to existing softscapes or hardscapes that may be unused during the winter.

Equally important, however, is to also consider investing in a larger hardscape feature specifically designed to make your winter landscape glisten in the sun. Such features include: a fence, trellis, arbor, bench, or fire feature.

Rule Number 5: Spend Your Winters Preparing For Your Spring and Summer Improvements

The landscaping process can range from a couple of days, to a couple of months. However during the spring thaw, when everyone is out and about preparing their home-environment for better weather, landscaping companies can be short on time. That's why our most important recommendation is to spend your winter months planning out which new landscaping improvements you could use during the spring or summer time.

Instead of only starting the process in February, and waiting for multiple months to complete it, you can get a free quote, start the design process, and have all of your materials selected before anyone else has even started approaching landscaping companies! By planning for the spring and summer in the winter, you can guarantee a calendar date on your terms and for your convenience.

Conclusion: Don't Forget About Winter!

Winter can be easy to overlook when the weather is cold and icy, and no one wants to go outside. Nevertheless, your landscape could still use some preparation, winter maintenance or additional features! If you are interested in building out a winter project, or simply have a question about gardening and preparing your lawn for the winter, don't hesitate to contact us!

For all customers, who would like to start planning their projects for the spring and summer, a more complete guide can be found here. If you are already interested in a specific feature or project do not hesitate to give us a call or send an email to info@groundscapes.com!