The bees are buzzing, the flowers are ablaze with colour, the smell of freshly cut turf is in the air… to say we’re excited that spring is officially here is an understatement! Spring is a time of promise in the garden, the wonderful time of year when everything comes alive before the heat of summer sets in. This is as true for your commercial landscape as it is for the home gardener.
To make sure your grounds and gardens are set for ultimate growth and always looking their best, we’ve put together some spring landscape maintenance tasks you’ll need to tick off your list.
Inspect your tree health:
Spring is a great time to have your trees inspected and attended to by arborists. In most cases, it’s the best time to complete an uninhibited inspection of the structure of your trees, making sure everything is healthy. Hangers or limbs of poor health should be removed, along with overhang of assets such as gutters, eves and walkways.
Perform your yearly irrigation checks:
When it comes to spring garden maintenance tips, it’s important to remember your irrigation system. Although the forecast shows a very wet spring and summer ahead, it’s best to be prepared and make sure your irrigation systems are working and programmed properly for the warmer months. Change out the batteries for battery-controlled panels and solenoids.
Prune away for new growth:
Most of the hard pruning and garden cleanouts should have been finished by spring, meaning you can focus on managing the new growth of hedges, pathways / border plantings and branches abutting buildings.
Clean up your garden beds:
A thorough clean out of your garden beds is due! Remove any build-up of autumn leaves and make sure you have thoroughly weeded. You can then either top up or apply mulch to garden beds. This will ensure all moisture is retained for the warmer weather in spring and summer.
Time for turf care:
- Late August and September is the time to start treating turf weeds. Broadleaf weeds such as Clover and Bindi are beginning to invade the lawn areas. A selective herbicide treatment program can eliminate these and is best applied in August and September.
- Following your weed treatment, the turf areas will need a fertiliser program come October to strengthen the new growth and promote excellent colour and nutrition.
- Following a year of flooded and sodden conditions, the soil profile in the turf will respond well to some aeration to allow some air flow and profile decompaction. This also allows root stimulation and helps with a bit of drying of the soil profile. We suggest using a deep slicer or solid tines at this time of the year for best results.
Add some extra colour into your spring garden:
- Spring is a great time to inject some extra colour into the front entrance of your site, signage, or key areas of interest. Some of the annual flowers we are using this season include: Amaranthus, Begonias, Petunias and Zinnias.
- Fan of the beautiful Jacaranda? Sydney’s streets will be coloured purple with flowering Jacaranda trees once again this spring. Other key interest plants that will be in flower include Cherry Blossoms, Banksias, Daffodils and Wisteria.
We hope we’ve given you a bit of a head start in the garden this spring! If you could use a hand with your spring landscape maintenance or getting your commercial landscape into shape, please get in touch with our team here.
