Spring has arrived, the off-season of the winter months that award you a break from regular lawn maintenance are complete and it’s time to once again look after your landscape, as it represents an investment of time and money.
Neglecting your landscape puts it in harm’s way, leaving it exposed and vulnerable to a variety of issues such as unattractive weeds or fungi.
Brian Younker, founder and owner of Y&D Maintenance in Tinley Park, Illinois, shares the value of following consistent landscape maintenance.
Time and Money Saver
When your landscape is first installed, it is a beautiful sight; however, a lack of regular maintenance can cause extensive damage, costing you time and money in repairs. Annually, Americans commit an estimated average of $36 billion dollars on lawn care. Your landscape, if it is not properly maintained, becomes more prone to disease, starvation, pest infestation, droughts, a loss of nutrients, and other health hazards.
Brian Younker is adamant that frequent maintenance can help you avoid this pitfall. Heavier rainfall and higher temperatures, both common in the springtime, act as an impetus for the growth cycle of grass, trees and shrubbery, so it is essential to pay attention to your landscape immediately after this commences.
Ensures Healthy Plants
Landscape maintenance keeps your plants in a healthy state, free of weeds and diseases that turn it into a ghastly visual, Brian Younker notes. Those previously mentioned weeds and fungi have a nasty habit of preventing your landscape from soaking up important nutrients, water and sunlight, all of which spur its growth. As a result, plants and trees are less resilient and lose much of their vitality.
You can tend to your landscape greatly by constantly trimming and pruning plants or shrubs in order to keep them shapely, appropriately sized to receive maximum nutritional value; and removing thatch, debris and leaf clutter from your lawn to create a beneficial pathway for water, air and sunlight into the soil.
A Home Is More Appealing, says Brian Younker
A well-nurtured landscape makes your property extra appealing in the eyes of your family, neighbors and people who happen to pass through, Brian Younker says. Additionally, the beauty factor boosts your property value and, because it is noticeable, attracts plenty of buyers who are in the market for a new home. There is also the personal gratification of coming home to a visually pleasing landscape because it enhances your mood, reduces stress, and promotes a healthier, active lifestyle throughout the family. Cleaner air and filtered pollutants are natural byproducts of healthy plants, which will ultimately serve your family and home.
Your Responsibilities
To better inform you of how you can uphold your side of the bargain in landscape maintenance, Brian Younker lists a few duties for you to routinely engage in, depending on your particular property: weekly mowing, line trimming, property cleanliness, spring and fall clean-up, removal of clippings from paved surfaces, fertilizer planning, flower bed weeding, seasonal plantings, mulch spreading, core aeration, dethatching, and grub control.
