Contrary to popular belief, landscaping is not as easy as it seems. It would be best to adopt different landscaping strategies depending upon the season to ensure that your creative landscape design looks beautiful throughout the year. With a little understanding of seasonal gardening, we can achieve success in seasonal landscaping easily. Here are a few things to look out for when we consider seasonal landscaping.
Spring
During spring, the ground warms up, and it is easier to dig a pit in it. It is the time to plant perennials and also to enjoy the bulbs planted in the fall or early winter as they come to life. It is important to check the soil conditions during spring, as it is the most vulnerable season for soil. This helps determine whether the soil is soft or hard and whether it is suitable for planting trees.
Outdoor grown trees and shrubs, leafy vegetables, and potted perennials can be planted during this period. After the frost-free date has passed, we can plant annuals and vegetable plants. The garden’s color palette can be decided in the spring season. The blooming time in spring is the key to seasonal landscaping. We need to decide where to plant the early bloomers, such as cold-tolerant annuals and early-blooming perennials.
A vibrant and colorful garden can be created by knowing the blooming time of the plants. In spring, we can group complementary colors. For example, we can club together with a warm color scheme of red, orange, or yellow with a cold color scheme of blue or purple. Violas, pansies, and primulas can be planted in early spring. Dahlias, lilies which are summer-blooming bulbs, can be planted indoors first before moving them outside.
Summer
Summer landscaping has its own set of conditions and factors that we need to take note of. Planting or transplanting plants during summer can distress them. Heat- tolerant plants which can bloom throughout summer must be planted. Summer annuals, perennials, or shrubs that are grown in containers can be planted.
During summer, the plants’ positioning is of utmost importance as the heat can have adverse effects on them. Experts recommend planting trees at the start of summer so that the floors will bloom at the end of it. This allows us to sit back and enjoy the garden as it requires deficient maintenance.
The soil can easily dry up during summers, making it difficult to grow annual summer plants. It is important to water the soil so that there is an optimal water level for the plants. Soil moats must be created around the plants in summer. This helps to increase the moisture around the plants. Moats help to filter down water to the roots.
Also, one must be diligent in removing deadheads during summer. This ensures that healthy blooms are alive. Expired annuals must be removed from the soil bed. Sun-loving black-eyed Susans, evening primrose, hollyhock, hasta, etc., are some plants that can be planted during summer.
Fall
It is important to consider two things during fall — focusing on cold-season plants like shrubs, hardy perennials, and annuals and planning for spring blooms by sinking the fall bulbs.
During fall, it is important to look out for signs of diseases and pests. It is also of utmost importance to nourish the soil before planting again. Fall is the time to plant fall bulbs that will bloom in spring. For a continual colorful fall and autumn, there are plenty of cold-bulb plants that can be planted. Fall is a great time to fill in the landscaping gaps with perennials, shrubs, and trees that produce winter berries. Asters, roses, cold-tolerant plants like nemesia, osteospermum, etc., can be planted during fall.
Winter
Winter is mostly a time for preparation and maintenance. It has its unique landscaping conditions. During winter, the ground is cold, and it sometimes freezes. It is important to keep the soil and plants protected. Hardy perennials, shrubs, etc., can survive in winter. A thick layer of mulch can be spread on the ground as it protects the plants from uneven ground temperatures.
Shifting of the soil is one major problem during winters. This can be prevented using evergreen boughs as a mulch layer across the bulb beds. If there is now in your area, it is necessary to protect the plants from it. Brooms or other soft objects can be used to brush off the snow from the branches. Winter is generally a period of dormancy of plants. But proper care must be taken to avoid any harm to them. In case of heavy snowfall, you can hire any of the snow plowing companies to remove the snow and maintain the landscape.
The above steps, if followed diligently, can make seasonal landscaping much easier. This would help to improve the value of the house throughout the year through different seasons.
