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Just like Santa makes his list and checks it twice, there’s an end-of-the-season list homeowners should review to ensure their yards are ready for winter. Fall and early winter are the time to properly clean up your property so you can hit the ground running once spring comes, says Beth Hammonds, account manager with Exscape Designs, a Novelty, Ohio-based full-service landscape design/build and maintenance firm. Here’s a list of the items you should wrap up before Old Man Winter settles in, according to Hammonds. TURF Ideally, your turf care program should include a nutrient application in the fall several weeks before the ground freezes. For example, Exscape’s six-step lawn care program includes a winterizing fall fertilizer to help the turf get through the long, cold winter, minimizing damage. It’s a great way to help the lawn recover after a stressful summer season. As the weather cools down, mowing should come to a halt. Ideally, your grass should be about 2.5 inches tall prior to the first frost. “The most important thing to note is to remove piles of grass or leaves sitting on top of the turf,” Hammonds says. “If left behind, it will potentially kill the grass and encourage snow mold and other fungal diseases.” LANDSCAPE BEDS You’ll thank yourself in the spring for cleaning out your landscape beds before winter hits. Hammonds recommends removing all leaves, grass and debris from your beds, in addition to cutting back perennials like hostas, irises and daylilies once foliage has died back. Ornamental grasses and small deciduous shrubs also may be trimmed back. In many parts of the country, ornamental grasses are not cut back as they over-winter. In our area, heavy snow smashes them to the ground, so cutting them back in the fall while leaving several inches behind at the base encourages spring regrowth. If spring color is on your mind, it’s also an optimal time to plant bulbs. TREES AND SHRUBS A late-fall deep root feeding allows the trees’ roots to absorb the fertilizer effectively, Hammonds says. She also recommends dormant pruning ornamental trees and some shrubs in the winter. Fall/early winter is a great time for corrective pruning or size reductions of overgrown shrubs. For example, hydrangea arborescens or hydrangea paniculata bloom on new wood each year, so now is an ideal time to cut them back. “You can see into the plant whether the branches are crossing each other, and if limbing up or thinning out is necessary, because the leaves have dropped,” she explains. It’s the optimal time to make sure they’re shaped properly and not overgrown.” PLANTERS AND POTS Some homeowners utilize their planters and pots seasonally for year-round interest. If yours are in use, ensure they are weather resistant before leaving them out in the elements, Hammonds says. If planters and pots are not in use, they should be cleaned and stored for the season due to the Cleveland area’s extreme temperatures. For example, clay pots must be emptied and stored in a dry location or the winter freeze will cause them to crack and fall apart. “Regardless, it’s good to remove the soil and start fresh with new soil every year,” she says. IRRIGATION If you have an irrigation system on your property, be sure it’s winterized before the first hard freeze by blowing out the lines and back flow preventer with the water being shut off in the basement. “It should be done by the end of October because the weather is starting to turn,” Hammonds says. “There’s no need for irrigation this time of year, as it can start freezing at night.” LIGHTING Outdoor lighting is an important part of the landscape in the winter, considering it gets dark by dinnertime. If your lighting system is run on a timer rather than a sensor, be sure to adjust your lighting to turn on before dark. It’s also a good time of the year for you or your contractor to give your lighting system a check-up, Hammonds says. “Wipe down the faces of the lights and make sure there’s no standing water around them,” she says. “If water freezes around a fixture it can potentially cause the light to fail.” WOOD LINES A common winter service for Exscape is cleaning up wood lines by removing debris, brush, fallen trees, downed limbs, briars and “volunteer” plants along the edge of yards that border wooded areas. “This is a fantastic and economically smart way to enhance your property, and it can be done year-round,” Hammonds points out. “It tidies borders up for a clean, finished look on your property’s edge.” SNOW PREP Before the snow falls, make sure your snow stakes are in place, especially around a curved drive, she says. The goal is to keep plows away from the edge to reduce turf-edge damage. PROJECT PLANNING In addition to these maintenance items, winter is the perfect time to sit down with your professional landscape contractor to begin discussing plans for the following year; both small enhancements and large design/build projects take time to plan and schedule with Exscape. “Winter season is the perfect time to think about and plan out what vision you have for your property so we can work together to create that dream,” Hammonds says.

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