Spring time isn’t only a great time to deep clean your home, it’s also an excellent time for spring cleaning outdoor areas. With warmer temperatures and longer days, you can use the spring season to freshen and prep your lawn, landscape, and outdoor seating areas for a fun, bright summer. Use our outdoor springtime checklist to give your outdoor areas a fresh start.

Uncover Faucets

Since there is no longer any chance of pipes freezing, you are safe to remove plastic coverings from outdoor faucets. This way, you have easy access to the faucets for watering, planting, and other yard work.

Clean Hardscaping and Outdoor Seating

Use a pressure washer or water hose to clean off any dirt or mold from sidewalks, patios, and retaining walls. You can also use a hose to wash off any outdoor furniture and let the spring sunshine air-dry them.

Clean and Weed

Before you plant or spruce your flower beds or yard, remove any leaves, dead foliage, pinecones, and pine straw with a rake. You can either bag the materials or place them in a compost pile. After cleaning, remove weeds from flower beds, around the edge of the yard, and along sidewalks and other hardscaped areas. The easiest way to tackle weeds is to catch them as soon as you see the tiny seedlings emerge from the ground. You can use your hands or a small collinear hoe or rake to get rid of the weeds. To finish off the cleaning, mow your lawn so that you are starting with a clean, blank slate to begin your spring landscaping and planting.

Spray for Pests

Warmer weather means that pests such as ants, bees, wasps, mosquitoes, and spiders will become more active. Use the early spring season to get a jump on these pests while they are at their weakest by spraying around your home and outdoor areas. You can use pest repellent sprays from your local hardware store, but the safest, most effective pest control can be accomplished by contacting the professionals. Petty’s technicians use the most innovative techniques and equipment to rid your home and yard of those annoying pests.

Plant

Now that your beds and yard are clean, you can begin adding bright, fresh flowers around your home. Plant hardy annuals such as pansies and snapdragons around your yard for a quick pop of color. These also work well in containers to brighten up your porch. Other plants such as dahlias, scented foliage such as mint and basil, zinnias, and rose bushes should be planted in early spring after the chance of frost has passed for blooms in late spring and early summer. After planting, add mulch to your beds to help retain moisture and limit weeds.

In addition to brightening up your flower beds, you can get started on that garden for summer veggies. While springtime in Texas is mild and there are slim chances of a late frost, it is helpful to follow a planting calendar to make sure that your plants will thrive. March is ideal for planting hardy, cool-season vegetables such as potatoes, artichokes, peas, summer squash, watermelon, corn, beans and tomatoes. They should be ready to harvest by early summer. Early April is ideal for planting winter varieties of squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, pepper plants, and eggplants to be harvested in the summer.

Petty’s has over six decades of experience in landscape and gardening and is prepared to help with your spring yard cleaning. Contact us at 800-258-9184 or info@pettys.com today and let us do the hard work for you!