“A man’s home is his castle” goes the old English proverb, and in the world of homeownership in Calgary, this means that your ‘castle’ needs to be somewhere that you take care of and protect all year round. While many Calgary homeowners will either have a rigorous cleaning schedule for the interior of their home (or indeed an external cleaning agency to do the work for you!), people are much more lax when it comes to taking care of the outside of their homes. However, there are plenty of jobs that need to be taken care of during each season to keep your home/castle looking its best all year long.
Spring Maintenance
As the snow melts away, your yard needs a lot of work to get it ready for summer fun. Some essential spring property maintenance Calgary homeowners need to undertake include:
- Dog poop clean up – if you’re someone who sends their dog outside to go to the toilet during the winter, it’s essential that you get ready of all the dog waste as soon as the snowpack melts. Untreated, the faeces can leach into your lawn and also make your property a hot zone for rodents and other scavengers.
- Lawncare – the melting snow will give your lawn a kick start in terms of watering, and the long spring sunny days will help get your soil up to temperature quickly. However, you’ll also want to do some preventative seeding in the bald patches, as well as a good first mow to allow for full growth throughout the summer.
- Trimming and pruning – the time after the last frost and before the heat builds up is the ideal time to take your pruning shears to your shrubs and trees. Be sure to research how much to trim as each plant requires a different amount of pruning to help it develop over the summer months.
Summer Maintenance
Summer is a great time to sit and enjoy your garden in Calgary. There’s plenty of holidays to celebrate with your family and friends, and the maintenance tasks are fairly limited. A regular mowing schedule is essential, especially if you have younger children running around. You’ll also need to keep on top of your weeding and mulching to protect your plants from the strength of the summer sun, and to allow them to fully grow and develop.
Fall Maintenance
As much as spring property maintenance is all about getting your garden ready for summer, your fall work is based on making sure that everything is able to survive through winter and become productive again in the springtime. Common fall property maintenance tasks include:
- Fall cleanup – the biggest task is to do a full cleanup of your entire yard. This means clearing leaves and branches from your lawn, weeding and cleaning out your garden beds, and fully sweeping and washing your deck or patio to make sure that any debris is cleared out. The reason for this full cleanup is so that any debris doesn’t mix with the snow and ice to cause damage, and so that your garden and plants have the best chance of getting warmth and sunlight when the winter months are done.
- Landscaping – fall is a great time to undertake most landscaping projects, as long as you get it done before the first frost hits. You’ll find the ground to be more workable after a warm summer and plenty of water, and the days will be warm enough that you can finish most projects in a weekend. You can use the fall to create layered garden beds, giving them the winter to decompose into wonderful soil and compost for the spring. It’s also a good time to do any last patching up of your lawn, making sure it’s all covered up before the snow comes.
- Protection – protecting any vulnerable trees and bushes is a great fall task. For smaller shrubs, this means covering them in a lightweight breathable material like burlap so that they don’t freeze in the winter. For your smaller trees, consider wrapping the trunk in either plastic or hard wearing material to prevent any small critters from nibbling away it looking for a home. Finally, you should cover any bare earth with mulch or straw to prevent frost damage during the early and late stages of winter.
Winter Maintenance
Once the snow comes, there’s really only one main winter property maintenance task for Calgary residents: snow and ice removal. However, it’s a big task, and one that you can’t let slip away from you. It’s essential to keep a close eye on the weather reports so that you know when the next big storm is coming in. You can take preventative measures such as salting or sanding your sidewalks and lowering your snowbanks, but oftentimes winter snow removal is about getting out there early and often so you don’t break your back (or your snow blower!) on heavy wet snow.
Getting Professional Help
It’s clear to see that there’s a lot of work in maintaining your castle to a high standard all year long. This is when you’ll want to work together with Scoop Cut N Shovel’s property maintenance team. You can hire our experts with any single job listed above, from a one off dog waste clean up to get everything going in the spring time to a full snow and ice removal service, where we’ll come to your house each and every snow storm to get everything cleared up for you.
We have a wide range of subscription packages to help you save money on those services you want to use frequently. However, our biggest savings come from our year round property maintenance package, where you can get help with all of the property maintenance tasks listed above, and then more, saving you time and effort no matter what the season. We can start at any time of year, so call for expert help today to make the most out of your castle this year.