Take a close look at your lawn and garden: do you see brown patches, dying flowers, droopy shrubs, and a weed-choked garden? As a Connecticut homeowner, you take pride in your house and property, and poorly maintained landscaping is an eyesore that ruins curb appeal. Keep reading for expert advice on how to keep your lawn and gardens looking healthy, green, and lush.
7 Landscaping Tips to Keep Your Lawn, Garden, and Flowerbeds Healthy and Beautiful
1. Hire a Professional Landscaper in Connecticut
Here’s the truth: most homeowners simply don’t have the time or energy it takes to maintain their home’s landscaping properly. If you lack a green thumb or are just too busy, the best way to care for your lawn and garden is by hiring a professional landscaper. Professionals have the knowledge, products, and equipment necessary to keep your lawn and gardens healthy, boosting your home’s curb appeal. Plus, it saves you the time and effort of doing the work yourself!
Of course, finding a reputable landscaper that provides excellent customer service and high-quality work can be a challenge. Fortunately, we’ve made it easy for you. At Landscaper Locator, we have an extensive network of licensed and insured professional landscapers, all of which are vetted, pre-screened, and background checked. If you need a local landscaper in Connecticut, we’ve got you covered. Just fill out the quote form right on our website to get started.
2. Use the Proper Watering Technique
Watering is easy: just turn on the hose and aim for the plants, right? Not exactly. The time, method, and amount you water plants make a big difference in their overall health. Also, you should strive to conserve as much water as possible. CT may not have frequent or extreme droughts, but water conservation is still an issue. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates about 50% of the water we use outdoors goes to waste from wind, evaporation, and overwatering.
Here’s a list of tips for watering your lawn and garden correctly:
- Water early in the morning, ideally between 5 and 10 am
- Water deeply—soak the roots of your plants, about 6 inches deep in the soil (a screwdriver should penetrate the dirt with ease if you watered enough)
- Aim the water directly at the plant’s base: avoid getting the foliage wet
- Give your lawn about an inch of water per week if it looks dry or unhealthy
- Water trees and shrubs every 7 to 10 days
3. Remove Dying Flowers from Plants (Deadheading)
Nobody wants to look at dying flowers or dead, brown blooms. Deadheading is the practice of removing old, spent, or dead flowers from plants. Removing the spent blooms encourages the plant to spend its energy and nutrients producing new flowers rather than seeds. Therefore, deadheading will keep your flowers blooming throughout the growing season, keeping your gardens looking full and beautiful for longer.
A woman is deadheading, removing faded rose flowers using pruning shears to encourage new further blooms.
Not every plant needs deadheading. First, do a quick Google search to check that your specific flower will benefit from this simple practice. To deadhead a plant, just pinch off or cut the stem below the dead flower but above the next set of healthy leaves. Be sure to remove any seedpods that have formed. If you don’t like the look of a long, flowerless stem, you can snip it off at the base without harming the plant.
4. Aerate Your Lawn
Is there anything worse than brown, patchy, and scraggly grass? If your lawn doesn’t look as thick, lush, and green as you’d like, a lack of aeration could be the culprit. The lawn aeration process involves creating small, uniform holes in the dirt, then removing the plugs of soil. It relieves soil compaction (dirt that’s too thick or dense), which restricts the flow of water and nutrients your grass desperately needs.
Most homeowners don’t have the money to purchase a core aerator attachment for their mower. Hand aerators are cheaper, but they take a lot of time and energy to use correctly, and if you have a big lawn, forget it. Instead, hire a professional landscaper to take care of your soil aeration. It’s easier, cheaper, and eliminates the hassle of doing it yourself. Plus, you’ll have peace of mind that your grass and lawn are in expert hands.
How Does Soil Aeration Benefit Your Lawn?
Regular soil aeration provides numerous benefits towards maintaining healthy grass, including:
- Reduces thatch buildup (dead grass)
- Encourages thicker grass growth
- Decreases soil density and compaction
- Improves water, air, and nutrient circulation
- Promotes a healthy pH level in the soil
- Improves drainage by reducing runoff and puddling
5. Watch Your Lawn and Garden Closely for Pests
Pest infestations are one of the primary causes of unhealthy vegetation, dying flowers, and sickly plants. Insects love nothing more than to munch on healthy plants and flowers, leaving them riddled with holes or even killing them altogether. In fact, once insects have infested your garden, it’s near impossible to eliminate every last one. The best way to handle pests is through prevention. However, preventing insect infestations isn’t always an easy task.
Insecticides or pesticides are effective, but they can be harmful to plants, wildlife, pets, and children. If you lack experience using pesticides, it’s best to leave that job to the professionals. Instead, hire a landscaper with the knowledge and skills to prevent an infestation or deal with an existing pest problem. You’ll eliminate the hassle, time, and risk of handling the chemicals yourself, and you’ll love having a safe, healthy, and pest-free lawn and garden.
6. Perform a Lawn and Garden Cleanup Every Fall
Removing the dead and rotting vegetation from your lawn and garden every fall is key to maintaining long-term health. Here in CT, our winters are cold enough to freeze the ground. However, you may be surprised to learn that many pests, larvae, and diseases can easily overwinter in the ground and come to life in the spring when your grass and plants are the most vulnerable.
To reduce the risk of pests and diseases overwintering on your property, you should perform a thorough cleanup every fall. Rake out the garden, remove dead plants and vegetation, get rid of moldering leaves, and remove fallen branches. If you’re pressed for time, hire a professional. A landscaper will take care of everything for you, including the proper removal and disposal of dead vegetation and debris.
7. Use the Right Fertilizer
Using the wrong fertilizer on your grass, garden, or flowerbeds can cause significant damage, like burning the roots or even killing your plants. One option is to get a soil test, then use the results to determine which fertilizer is best for your property. However, hiring a professional is by far the easiest way to ensure your lawn and garden get the right kind of fertilizer.
If you’re worried about using synthetic fertilizers, look for a landscaper that uses green, organic, or eco-friendly products. If you have a compost pile, you can use it to replace or supplement fertilizer. However, be sure that the organic waste is fully composted; otherwise, it could reintroduce pests or diseases into your lawn and garden.
Unless you have the time, energy, and skill to do everything yourself, hiring a professional landscaper is the best way to maintain a healthy lawn and garden. At Landscaper Locator, our online network takes the hassle out of finding a local, licensed, and insured landscaper in Connecticut. You can search and compare companies, services, reviews, and more. Visit Landscaper Locator online now to find the perfect landscaping company and keep your lawn and gardens looking healthy and beautiful.