As the Calgary winter starts to wind down, many homeowners across the city start to dream of their big spring projects in the garden. It’s hard to describe the excitement of seeing the first blades of grass burst through the melting snowpack, and it’s fun to examine the buds on trees and shrubs and imagine the leaves and flowers that are to come. With all this expectation, Calgary homeowners know that it’s important to have a solid landscaping and spring cleanup plan to get the perfect outdoor space.
Start With A Spring Cleanup
Before you can start making your landscaping projects a reality, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve gone through a solid spring cleanup to make sure your garden is ready for change. While the nature of your spring cleanup will obviously depend on the size and composition of your yard, these are common tasks that will help set the stage for your perfect outdoor space:
- Pick up winter debris – the most obvious thing you’ll see as the snowpack melts is all the late autumn debris that covered your yard after your last fall cleanup and mowing session. Depending on the nearby trees, you’ll have leaves, pine cones and small branches to pick up and move. Some of these could be picked up as you do your first spring mow, but that’s still a few weeks away, so you’ll need to plan on picking up your winter debris manually.
- Clear the poop – the other thing that will hit your nose as well as your eyes once the snow is gone is the dried up poop in your yard. If you have a dog, this should be part of your winter property maintenance routine, but even if you don’t have an animal who poops outside, you’ll still find leftovers from neighbourhood pets and pests. It’s essential to pick up this poop as it contains harmful toxins for your flower beds and lawn that will leach out when the spring rains come. It’ll also make your yard smell attractive to more pests and rodents who see animal poop as a free feast, and you definitely don’t want to be the neighbourhood restaurant.
- Spring pruning – one of the biggest secrets to creating the perfect outdoor space is to know every tree, shrub and plant in your garden intimately. This means that you should be using your enforced indoor time during the winter months researching pruning and fertiliser needs for each of them. Some of your trees and shrubs don’t need any pruning, some will benefit from pruning before the snow flies, but most of your pruning will be done after the last frost hits but before real growth starts to happen. This pruning helps to shape where the tree or shrub will spend its energy during the growing months, as well as promoting fruit growth and overall plant health.
Scoop Cut N Shovel’s Spring Cleanup To The Rescue
It’s clear to see that your annual spring cleanup will take a considerable amount of time and effort. For some Calgary property owners, this is a great way to get back outside after the long winter months, but for many others, there’s a desire to have a nice garden without having to invest a lot of time. This is when you’ll want to call the cleanup experts at Scoop Cut N Shovel. Our team will come to your yard and take on all the hard work for you. We’ll even bag up and take away all the debris we find, leaving you to get on with your spring landscaping.
Spring Landscaping Projects
Once your spring cleanup is done, it’s time to start thinking about landscaping. When most people hear the term landscaping, they think about major earth moving projects, but in fact you can undertake a variety of smaller spring landscaping projects that will make a big difference to the look and feel of your garden:
- Layered beds – weeding your flower and vegetable beds will of course be a part of your spring cleanup process, but removing these plants also strips the soil of some much needed nutrients and protection. A simple landscaping trick is to begin layering your beds from the top down to replace these nutrients instead of rototilling. Start with a layer of brown compost (leaves, twigs etc), add a layer of fresh compost from your kitchen or local farm, and finish with a top layer of mulch. Your mulch can be decorative, but you’ll get more mileage from a mulch that will break down and release nutrients over the spring months.
- Create a new bed – a bigger spring landscaping project is to create a brand new bed. This could be turning a patch of grass into a layered bed ready for vegetables, or installing a raised bed off your deck or patio to add a pop of colour to your seating area.
- Add a walkway – paths and walkways are a great way to frame your garden and protect your lawn from foot traffic. The most common way to add a walkway is with flagstones, and you can either lay them down like stepping stones, or create a more solid path with adjacent stones filled in with gravel or cement to give a more formal like.
Scoop Cut N Shovel Makes Landscaping Easy
Just like with your spring cleanup tasks, landscaping requires a lot of time and effort, as well as a good eye for design and aesthetics. Just like with your spring cleanup tasks, Scoop Cut N Shovel have a team of landscaping experts who will work with you to create your perfect outdoor space. You can also sign up for our monthly garden bed maintenance subscription packages, which will help you maintain the good work and intentions from your winter dreams. Finally, you can bundle and save with any of our other property maintenance packages, or get complete support with our yearly property maintenance and take your cleanup and landscaping game to a whole new level.