What Landscaping Services Are Needed for Late Summer in Worthington and New Albany, OH?

Keeping your landscape in tip-top shape throughout the year means constant work. The native plants of your landscape are self-sufficient most of the time, though lawns and non-native plants will require more consistent maintenance. As the warmer months wind down, it’s time to start getting ready for the winter. You may be asking: what landscaping services are needed for late summer in Worthington and New Albany, OH?

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Getting Your Lawn Ready For Winter

Keeping a lawn healthy is sometimes difficult work. Throughout the summer, your landscaping professionals will mow and fertilize as needed. Once the grass has ceased its growth for the year, it’s time for your landscaping professionals to do a thorough assessment of how the grass fared during the spring and summer. If there are any problems such as stunted growth, fungus growth, disease, weeds, pests, or patches of dead grass, these issues need to be addressed quickly. Installing sod in late summer to replace damaged areas will ensure the sod roots have a chance to get established. The soil may need to be aerated to rejuvenate it after a summer of heavy foot traffic and drought. Weed management may need to shift into higher gear as some weeds go to seed in late summer. Delaying any of these tasks can mean extra work come springtime.

Removing Debris

In the late summer and early autumn you want to stay on top of removing debris that can suffocate your plants or lawn by depriving them of sunlight and water. Thatch - a thick layer of dead grass that accumulates around the base of your grass can cause the lawn to become stressed. Once the late summer heat starts to drift into early autumn’s cooler temperatures, your trees will drop thousands of leaves. These leaves need to be regularly bagged and removed, or mulched, so that they don’t create a sodden blanket that will suffocate your lawn. We recommend you include a leaf removal service in your contract with your landscaping professionals and ask about mulching your leaf debris so the decaying plant matter can return nutrients to the ground to support next year’s vigorous growth.

Pruning Trees

While native trees and shrubs will do very well in your landscape on their own, sometimes they do need a little maintenance. When a tree grows a branch, it may sometimes send too much of its resources to that branch while the top of the tree doesn’t get enough. This can end up stunting the growth of the tree and causing an irregular, unstable shape that becomes vulnerable to breaking under the load of snow; and the tree itself could become unstable in high winds. Although trees are pruned to the desired shape in early spring, pruning in late summer will safely remove any dead branches which could present a falling hazard.

New Plantings

Late summer is a good time to add some new plants to your landscape, perhaps to refresh your entryway plantings or add interest along your driveway. Once the temperatures start to cool, you can plant perennials, shrubs, and trees and still have plenty of time for their roots to become established.

Mulching

Adding mulch now will help your plants overwinter well by helping to conserve water in the soil and to act as insulation.

Edging

Edging is a good task for late summer when the soil is still warm and plants are slowing growth. It’s one less chore to do in the height of the season next year!

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