When we think about Fall, we instantly visualize beautiful changing leaves, colorful mums, earthy installs, and seasonal pumpkin displays. What doesn't get as much recognition is all of the prep work that goes in behind the scenes to put your commercial property’s landscaping in the best position to look amazing next Spring, Summer, and Fall. Fall is one of our busiest times of year and in today’s blog, we’ll go through the “top 10” items on our seasonal checklist to prepare our commercial properties for the Winter and assure a consistent, high-quality delivery of services all-year-round to our clients.
1. Soil Testing
We like to run a soil test on your property before the Winter to assure we have enough time to amend any potential imbalances prior to Spring. This assures your lawn and flowers will grow next season as we’d expect them to.
2. Aerating and Overseeding
Fall is the absolute best time to aerate a lawn. Aeration is the method of creating holes in a lawn to alleviate soil compaction and increase the flow of oxygen, water, and nutrients to roots. Aerated grass roots can dig deep into the soil, growing strong and resilient. Temperatures are within an ideal range and moisture is typically increased in the Fall, which leads to better results. Overseeding assures that any dead spots in your property’s lawn caused by a harsh summer or pet-friendly environments are repaired by Spring.
3. Refresh Mulch
Mulch gets discolored during the heat of the Summer months. A quick refresh alongside a new display of seasonal flowers significantly increases curb appeal (and can support the health of your soil, too!)
4. Plant Fall Perennials and Spring Bulbs
Fall is the best time to plant Fall Perennials and Spring bulbs - again due to the premium weather conditions. We’ll determine a design plan together with you and get to work.
5. Dig Up Tender Bulbs
Some bulbs just won’t survive a New England winter. We’ll dig them up and plan to plant new bulbs this Spring.
6. Protect Hardscapes
Sealant helps prevent damage from freezing and thawing. We’ll pressure wash your hardscape and use an industry leading product to seal the space. This is recommended every Fall season.
7. Dethatch Your Lawn
While aerating helps break up thatch, a layer of organic matter that accumulates on a lawn around the base of the grass plants, dethatching is also necessary to assure your lawn comes back better than ever next Spring.
8. Add Trees & Shrubs
If you are looking to add privacy or a new aesthetic to your commercial property, large trees and shrubs are a great place to start. It is best to make a decision on this in the Fall. We will typically transplant large trees/shrubs such as Evergreens to your property for privacy purposes. For aesthetics, we’ll utilize smaller shrubs or less mature trees.
9. Tree Trimming
Just as adding trees and shrubs is important to accomplish in the Fall, trimming large, overgrown trees is too. The weight of overgrown branches can have a negative and harmful effect on your mature trees, putting them at higher risk for diseases that can eventually spread and kill your trees.
10. Prep for Snow Removal
New England Winters are HARSH. We offer commercial snow removal and maintenance alongside our landscaping contracts to provide peace of mind working with a team that already knows yours, and already knows the landscape.
We’ve been at this for 16+ years, and while Fall remains our favorite season, our team of experts is experienced in maintaining commercial properties all-year-round. Please reach out for more information.
