Make your yard great again! With a spring clean up.
It's that time of year again, the snow is almost gone, the birds are chirping and the fresh smell of spring is in the air. You look outside and see the mess you never cleaned up before winter and the snow luckily covered it in a nice white blanket, until now. Guess what, this is where everything changes!
We’ll be going through all 7 steps to creating a beautiful yard that’ll keep you outdoors all summer long! To save you time we’ve put them in the same order they should be completed. Simply follow these steps and your yard will look amazing in no time!
1. Create a Yard Plan (Do not skip this!)
Time and time again we’ve been told to plan things out before we go ahead with them, not only will skipping this step cost you money but it will cost time as well. Be sure to come up with a great plan for your goals this year and make a plan to stick to them. A lawn for example can take a couple seasons to get it looking great, creating a proper plan will help you achieve your lawn goals quicker and will help get that lawn looking great in record speed. This also goes for landscaping projects and new features you want to add!
2. Cleaning Your Gutters
Let’s start things out from up top. Cleaning your gutters should be done regularly to prevent build up, help water flow properly away from the house and help prevent possible water damage. We’ve all heard of a basement flooding or water damage occurring because of water from outside, so let’s keep it away from the house with proper drainage. Doing this first allows you to simply throw the debris onto the lawn to clean up with the mower later. It also gives you a chance to inspect an important part of your house that you never see. Be sure to use a proper stable ladder or better yet clean them from below with a hose attachment, or even a shop vacuum attachment.
3. Prune Flowers, Shrubs, Plants and Trees
Pruning, trimming and shaping plants and trees helps keep them healthy, promotes new growth and keeps them looking clean and beautiful. This can be a daunting task and trees need to be trimmed at certain times of year. Be sure to check out your trees guidelines before trimming and consider hiring a professional to get the hard to reach areas. You’ll want to inspect plants for winter damage especially junipers which are prone to salt damage from roads that aren’t even near the plant.
4. Clean up Those Garden Beds
If it’s warm enough, now would be a great time to visit your local garden center to add new plants to your yard. Annual plants look great but need to be replaced every year. Perennials designated for your zone are a great way to save time and money when they keep coming back, more beautiful each year. Next, edging garden beds is a great way to spruce up your yard and keep everything clean. Be sure to add this into your plan. You might want to consider a plastic or concrete edging to reduce maintenance, going with a higher quality edging will ensure a longer lasting edging. Adding weed barrier to planted garden beds is a great way to keep weeds at bay, I can’t stress enough how important buying high quality weed barrier is. Again, the cheaper ones don’t work well, weeds grow through and they deteriorate after even a year. No, double layering doesn’t work well enough. You get what you pay for. Finally, finish them off with a mulch or rock application. This brings everything together to bring you a gorgeous look that ties everything together.
5. De-clutter
Next step is to de-clutter your yard. Do you really need all that fire wood? Maybe you have a collection of planter pots that are old, outdated and falling apart. De-cluttering your yard will help keep your yard looking great and your neighbors happy.
6. Make Your Lawn Great Again
A lawn can be detrimental to your yard plan. There’s nothing like a lush green lawn to accent your house. This part can get expensive so good options to keep in mind are to split costs for equipment rentals with neighbors or to contact a local landscaper and get one of their package deals. Not only do you save time this way but you can actually save money. This is a huge topic all in itself so we’ve created a separate post for this step. For more information, visit our “7 steps to an amazing lawn” post.
7. Cleaning the House Exterior & appliances
7.1 You’re almost there! One last step to bring the entire yard clean up to a close.
Cleaning the stucco or siding: Years of build up can cause them to deteriorate and not look their best. Cleaning with a hose or better yet a pressure washer can help get your house looking great. We sometimes don’t realize how dirty the sides of our houses actually are.
7.2 Washing the windows: Dirty windows will not only help you see your yard better but will also help the entire house look better!
7.3 Finally washing your patios, walkways, driveway, sheds, outdoor appliances and furniture, will give your yard that final face-lift to bring all your hard work together and clean up all the mess you’ve made cleaning your yard.
That’s it! I know this seems like a lot, in all honesty it’s a crazy amount of work but it has to be done. This is where you have to sit down and consider if it’s worth taking the time and doing it yourself, or should it be hired out to a local landscaping company. Most companies offer bundled packages to help save you money. A crew showing up can have this completed fairly quickly but you’ll find doing it all yourself can take even weeks (I’ve done it, it’s not fun)
Now the fun part! Your yard is on its way to looking amazing! You’ve done all you had to do, now you can sit back, relax and enjoy your fresh, great looking yard. It you followed these steps and instructions, by midsummer your yard will be the talk of the block!
Here are some of our favorite tools that might help you!
Pruners - Great for pruning and they're sharp!
Garden Plant and Weed Knife - If you've never had a garden knife before, they're worth their weight in gold! I always have a pair in the trailer ready to go for weeding.
Bucket Caddy - Amazing for tool storage, these attach to a bucket and you keep the tools on the outside with either waste or more tools inside the bucket.
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Leave a comment below, let us know what your biggest challenges are in the spring!