5 Tips To Keep Your Landscape Beautiful All Year Long

Whether it's your home or business, everyone wants a landscape that looks great all year round. But making this happen in cold and volatile climates like Illinois is difficult. How can you boost the year-round appearance of your landscape? Here are a few steps to take for more success.

1. Learn About Your Yard

The first step is to learn more about your yard's strengths and weaknesses. How does the sun and shade pass through at different times of the year? What are its moisture and drainage issues? What are the problem areas you already struggle with? Where would you like the best year round views? How is the soil? And what insects and wildlife does that soil deal with in different seasons?

Answering these questions helps you find the right plants to thrive in different locations in different seasons. It allows you to maximize sunlight and shade as needed, and to develop a strategy for managing seasonal challenges like snow or heavy spring rains. 

2. Look for Staggered Blooms

Key to a year round landscape is not to focus too heavily on any one area. If all your annuals come up during spring, there is little room and energy left for the other three seasons. Instead, include elements that will thrive at different times.

Do you have all spring bulbs, for instance? Replace some of those daffodils and crocus with summer irises or dahlias and fall lilies. You may get a little less color in one season, but you'll enjoy the other seasons more. 

Get ideas for different plants that work in different seasons by visiting your local nurseries throughout the year. Native plants are usually the best for off-season plantings because they are adapted to thrive in the local climate and weather. 

3. Develop a Seasonal Color Program

A seasonal color program is a system for rotating some flowers and plants by season so that your landscape stays fresh and happy. This is usually managed by a professional landscape service with experience in local climate planting. Many business owners use seasonal color programs to maintain an attractive façade, but homeowners enjoy it just as much. 

Your seasonal color program may focus on colorful annual flowers, planting those appropriate for one season and then replacing them with the next season's flowers. But it may also include perennial bulbs, shrubs, and flowers which come back on a timed schedule. 

4. Don't Forget Greenery

Flowers aren't the only way to achieve lushness and color throughout the four seasons. Evergreen trees and bushes keep their wonderful green color even under snow, so they're a great addition. Evergreens come in many varieties, ranging from classic cypress and juniper to colorful holly and golden euonymus. Flowering plants come in evergreen species as well, including azaleas and camellias. 

Even deciduous trees and shrubs which lose their leaves in winter can provide cold weather color. Look for colorful bark, such as the bright red of coral bark maples and red twig dogwoods. 

5. Make Use of Containers

If you feel overwhelmed trying to beat the winter blues, don't overlook the value of mobile options. Containers on wheels can be easily moved in or out of the weather as needed to maintain their health. They can also help you overwinter some spring and summer perennials indoors. And when you struggle with perfecting your year round landscape, a few well-placed containers create an immediate makeover. 

Ready to get started making your landscape look and feel more welcoming all year long? Begin by meeting with the team at Bill's Lawn Maintenance & Landscaping Inc. We'll work with you to identify your seasonal landscape goals, challenges, and options. Then you can enjoy your yard no matter what the weather.