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4 Landscaping Mistakes to Avoid this Fall in Northwest Florida

by Emily Durgan | Tue, Oct 18, 2016

4 Fall Landscaping Mistakes to Avoid this Fall

For most home owners, the fall can be a chaotic time of year. The kids are back at school, and you’ve got to deal with work, family and household obligations, let alone getting reading for the holidays which are right around the corner!

Your calendar and to-do lists may keep you on track for taking care of most things, but are you ignoring the maintenance chores needed in and around your yard and property?

You must make sure that your property is completely ready for winter and that you haven't made any landscape maintenance mistakes that will come back to haunt you with a vengeance after our short winter has come and gone.

Don’t Fertilize Plants That Will Go Dormant

Don't Fertilize Plants that will go Dormant

The purpose of fertilizer is to encourage growth. When flowering plants go into dormancy for the winter, they don’t grow. During the winter, flowering plants rest and soak up soil moisture and nutrients that they’ll use to produce foliage and blooms when the spring growth cycle resumes.

Don’t Forget to Apply Mulch

Don't Forget to Apply a Heavy Layer of Mulch in Fall

One of the most important ways to prepare your yard and property for winter is by laying a heavy layer of mulch around plants in landscape beds, around shrubs, and around trees. Over time, the mulch will break down and add nutrients to the soil. In the meantime, it covers the top soil with a natural blanket that maintains the soil temperature and protects the roots from potentially damaging colder temperatures.

Don’t Forget to Cut Perennials Back to the Ground That Produce New Annual Growth

Cut Perennials Back to The Ground in Fall to Produce new Growth

If you have perennials that produce new growth every year, cutting the stems back to just above the ground is a necessary fall chore. If you neglect this chore, the stems will fall over and create an environment that is conducive to disease development and nesting pests.

The cleaner your planting beds are after late fall cleanup, the healthier your plants will be when they reemerge in spring.

Don’t Forget to Divide Overgrown Perennials

Divide Overgrown Perennials in the Fall

Most perennials that spread over the years will need to be divided every few years. If you grow cannas, for example, your rhizomes spread by producing baby offsets. It’s important to divide your perennials long before we get a hard freeze so you can transplant your new divisions and allow enough time for the new transplants to develop healthy root structures.

Let GreenEarth Handle Your Fall Landscape Maintenance Tasks

Fall is a great time to free up your weekends and spend time with your family. Rather than spending your time on fall clean up, don’t risk making costly mistakes. Let our lawn care service and landscape maintenance experts handle all of your fall plantings, cleaning, mulching and pruning tasks. We’ll make sure that everything gets done on time so you can enjoy spending time with family and friends in your beautiful outdoor living space.

If you’d like a consultation or want to know what we can do to help you, give us a call at our Panama City Beach office at (850) 236-1959, or call our Santa Rosa Beach office at (850) 267-0010 to set up an appointment. You can also fill out the online form on our website to schedule a consultation.

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