The first task is to clear out any unwanted debris such as sticks, leaves or garbage that may have blown in to your beds. Also look out for rotten or over applied mulch. Fall blooming ornamentals also need to be cut down for the new season.

Once the beds have been rid of unwanted debris, you can finally inspect your plant material for winter damage. Broken branches and limbs need to be carefully pruned off.

Check for dead spots on evergreen trees and shrubs. Deciduous trees and shrubs are inspected for buds to make sure they have wintered over.

If you see any damage you may want to call a professional tree and shrub treatment company!

Next, it’s good to decide which perennials need to be moved or divided. We suggest moving and dividing in the late fall before the frost, but it’s important to note that most perennials can be moved in very early spring if they haven’t started pushing significant new growth.

When all plant maintenance has been taken care of and yard waste discarded away, it’s time to apply an organic granular fertilizer to all landscape plants.

Be sure to sprinkle the fertilizer around the base of your plants, not directly on them. This will help to avoid burning the foliage. Then, spread a pre-emergent weed control product in the beds to stop any weed seeds from germinating.

Next, edge the borders of the beds. This looks good and helps define the division between landscape and lawn. We wait to do this near the end, so your newly cleaned bed lines do not get trampled.

The final step is to apply 2” - 3” of mulch. The three most common types of mulch are dyed mulch, undyed mulch, and all bark. Dyed mulch is dyed with a carbon-based color that adds UV protection to the soil, undyed mulch does not have this effective, all bark mulch comes in larger pieces and is only made up of bark wood.