8 Tips for Year-Round Landscaping in New Haven, CT

If you're lucky enough to live in New Haven, Connecticut, you are already familiar with how beautiful the area indeed is. With crashing ocean waves and bright fall colors, this city does have it all. Moreover, if you're looking to sell your house or make it look better from the road, a well-landscaped lawn can make all the difference. Here are some tips to help you take your lawn from “so-so” to “out of this world.”

1. Add Curved Features

While traditional flower beds create beautiful, straight lawns, they can be a bit boring. This boxy look is no longer in style and adds years to the overall appearance of your home and yard. Instead, add round, shaped edges to create exciting designs, and incorporate design features like rocks or large stones.

2. Use Colorful Mulch

Mulch is a great way to help your landscaping plants save water, develop strong roots, and maintain an overall healthy appearance. However, mulch can also act as a thoughtful landscaping accent. Consider using colored mulches that fit in with the color scheme and style of your home and the surrounding landscape. Remember too that mulch is a great landscaping feature for areas that don’t receive much snow yet won’t be home to plants during the winter months.

3. Plant for the Year

Consider how your lawn will look throughout the seasons, but particularly in the winter months, as you will have minimal vegetation to spruce the place up. Incorporate mulch and winter-friendly plants to help add color and texture, and add other landscaping features like paving stones and ornaments to help keep your lawn looking fresh and exciting throughout the year.

You might also consider planting evergreens, since they will, as the name implies, stay green throughout all seasons. These plants need minimal trimming and don’t need much water, either, making them the ideal plants for a lawn in New Haven.

4. Trim Regularly

While you can plant, mulch, and fertilize to your heart’s content, your plants will start to look droopy and stunted if you don’t periodically trim them. Trimming the branches in the early winter months can help give them a boost before they need to start growing again in the spring. You can even incorporate fun, edgy designs to help take your shrubbery up a notch.

5. Don’t leave the leaves alone

In the fall, you might be tempted to let go of the colorful display of foliage on the ground as it falls from the trees. Decomposing leaves are good for adding nutrients to the soil, but they aren’t good for sitting on top of the grass. Leaves left on the ground all winter can crush the blades and suffocate new growth. Either rake the leaves and compost them or mulch them using your mower and let them decompose on the lawn that way.

6. Plan Ahead

Think about the flowers you want to plant before you design your landscaping features. Select bulbs that are locally appropriate, and remember that many need to be removed during certain seasons. Make time to prepare your flower beds with mulch or fertilizer before winter strikes, and remember that road salt and sand used during the winter months can damage certain types of plants.

7. Consider Your Location

The most important factor to consider in your landscaping decisions is the overall structure and health of your soil. Select plants that will grow well with your soil type, and don’t plant those that are going to require heavy maintenance or won’t work well in the area of your lawn you intend to use.

Furthermore, don’t select plants that aren’t in sync with the style of your home. For example, a modern home should be accompanied by a modern, minimalist landscaping style with simple lines instead of formal hedges and vast beds of flowers.

8. Plant Trees

You need to think well into the future when you are planting trees. Try not to let yourself get stuck on the idea of what a tree looks like now, but instead think about how it will look five, ten, or fifteen years from now. Consider the purpose of the tree, as well as how much maintenance it will require. Don’t plant too close to the house, as this can provide undesired shade and also cause foundational problems.

A well-maintained lawn can create charming curb appeal for your home, and become an eye-catching accessory to your already lovely home. By incorporating these tips, you can create a landscape that suits your personality and style throughout all of New Haven’s glorious seasons.

If you reside in Grand Rapids, learn more about how New Haven Lawn Care can take care of your lawn needs this summer!

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