How to Prep Your Home for Spring

Tips to Clean Your Yard for the Outdoor Season

It’s that time of year to begin evaluating, spring cleaning, and prepping your home and property for the outdoor season. After a long, freezing winter, your outdoors may need more attention than usual.

This time of year, everyone’s calendars are full of prom, first communion, and graduation parties. Is your home ready? Our landscape professionals offer their top tips to get your yard prepped in time for hosting.

Plan a Yard Clean Up Day

Spade the edges of your landscaping before adding mulch as a top layer. Most mulch is sold in yard, so you need to predict how much you’ll need when ordering. Start snipping and cutting back your perennials and pruning shrubs.  If your trees are young, trimming leader branches back to a single leader will allow the branch to grow stronger and thicker. Make sure you are not pruning back further than when you can see stems with green foliage, as bare branches won’t sprout new growth. Clean up any broken branches.

Check Your Windows, Doors, and Gutters

Take a few laps around your property to check the seal of your windows and doors. Recaulk and replace as necessary. Evaluate your gutters: do you need to have them flushed out? Are any pieces of shingles laying on the ground after this past winter? Address any leaks, holes, or insect damage now before summer arrives. Carpenter bees and other insects look for places to build nests. It’s important to take care of them now before they continue growing.

Assess Grading and Drainage

Heavy rain creates soggy yards, flooding, and water runoff damage. Be sure to take a walk around your yard to assess any water issues. Unfortunately, winter helps highlight problems in your yard, such as standing water or bad runoff. If you have drainage issues, it’s important to have your property surveyed for trouble spots. Unresolved problems can cause damage to your basement, exterior walls, and decking.

Get a Professional Opinion

Is your home missing something? This is the ideal time to review your property and see what’s lacking. Consider making an appointment with a landscape designer to get an expert opinion on ways to upgrade your house. Outdoor living spaces are one of the smartest investments you can make, extending the amount of entertaining space in your home. From pool houses to sunrooms, there’s an endless list of options for upgrading. If you’re looking for design inspiration, you can view DiSabatino Inc.’s vast portfolio of outdoor landscaping, masonry, pool, and living spaces here.