Protect Your Lawn from A Northwest Indiana Winter Part 1

25 Oct Protect Your Lawn from A Northwest Indiana Winter Part 1

Just like any other investment, now is the best time to begin taking defensive measures for the upcoming winter and to make sure that your yard and landscape are properly protected when the temperatures start dropping

Here are some brief tips on what you can do before calling a landscaper to take care of your yard, especially when those cold Northwest Indiana winters begin approaching.

Check Trees for Dead Limbs or Signs of Brittle Branches

If you are in doubt about the health of your trees call an arborist to come and inspect them. An arborist can help determine if any trees or branches have insect damage or are other forms of damage. Like any negative force in your life, removing dead, damaged or diseased branches before the next winter is one simple way to avoid potential damage to your yard and shrubs.

Prune Your Trees Properly (or ask for help if you can’t)

The ideal time for pruning varies with the type of tree in question but it is generally agreed that winter is a good time to prune your trees. Since the leaves are gone and you can easily inspect the branches and tree structure for any signs of weakness, this makes it easier to identify what is bad and what needs to be removed. This also helps to avoid damage from heavy snow that collects on branches.

Keep Plants Hydrated All Year Around

Even in the dead of winter, plants and especially evergreen trees continue to lose moisture through their leaves. The more well-hydrated plants are, the more they are more likely to survive a hard freeze. You don’t even need to break out the hose, as a bucket of water (5 gallons or more) applied manually can help prevent any new trees from drying out.

Protect Your Fragile Plants from Freezing

Believe it or not, cold winter winds can drain the moisture out of leaf tips, making the need to protect them more important than ever. Before a hard freeze, you can wrap plants in burlap. Burlap is woven and allows air to pass in and out, and also making sure that there is less danger of creating a heat moisture trap like you would if you tried to wrap your plants in a nonporous material such as plastic. Once everything starts to warm up, you can remove the burlap to prevent the plants and make sure that the plants don’t overheat.

These are just a few of the tips we recommend for getting your yard ready for winter. The best tip out of all of the following tips though is to ask a professional if you have any questions. Our team at Duneland Landscape LLC are always ready to help you protect your yard and get it ready for the winter. Be sure to give us a call at 219-763-6741 for more information. We are dedicated to giving Northwest Indiana residents the knowledge and services needed to prepare their lawn for winter.