Spring is fast approaching, and you are ready to welcome the season of life and hope. This ultimate spring lawn and garden checklist for Kansas City homeowners will make sure your curb appeal and backyard are equally prepared for the new season. If the list feels long, don’t fret: you can always trust one of the best landscape companies in Kansas City to handle these maintenance and cleanup tasks.

General Tasks

Start with these general tasks that cover the entirety of your front and backyards. Getting them out of the way allows you to focus on specific areas of your lawn and garden afterward.

Remove Debris

Remove debris, branches, dead plants, and trash that might have flown into your yard. Not only does this immediately improve your landscape’s look and feel, it also gives you a clean ground to inspect your hardscape and softscape for maintenance needs.

Deweeding

Deweeding is one of the most tedious but necessary tasks in the spring yard cleanup. Remove weeds from your flower beds, under the trees, in your lawn, around retaining walls, and in the seams of your pavers. You can then lay down new weed barriers or spray weed repellent to prevent them from coming back.

Inspect Your Sprinklers

You should hire a professional sprinkler servicing company to inspect and service your sprinklers, especially if you’ve had a harsh winter. The inspection usually checks fixtures, electrical, and plumbing for signs of damage, clogging, and other problems.

Check for Damages on Fixtures, Retaining Walls, Walkways

Look for damage in retaining walls, walkways, patios, decks, and decorations. Repair or replace them as needed. You can DIY minor repairs but should always work with a professional for more structural issues or larger damaged areas.

Clean Your Hardscape

As part of your winter hardscape maintenance, you should’ve resealed your hardscape if needed. This makes spring cleanup really simple. Start by blowing off hard surfaces to remove any leaf litter or debris. You can also hose down your decks and patios or use a pressure washer for a more thorough cleaning, and your hardscape will be shiny as new. However, if your hardscape has extra details or complicated surfaces, it would be best to hire a professional cleaner for the job.nance task yourself.

Garden and Plant Checklist

Your garden beds might need the most work depending on the complexity of your landscape. However, proper cleanup of garden beds before spring can help ensure beautiful, healthy plants in the later season.

Cutback Perennials & Grasses

By early spring, most of your perennials should be sprouting. This tells you how far to cut them back. For early-blooming perennials, you might be able start the cutback as early as February. Be sure to wait until you start to see new leaves sprouting so you don’t overcut and kill your plants!

In the meantime, don’t forget you also need to cut back ornamental and sedge grasses. However, since each grass is different when it comes to the length to cut back to, depending on its variety and age, it’s best to hire a professional landscaper to handle all cutback tasks.

Check for Damages on Plants and Trees

Check for damage on plants and trees and decide your next steps. Most damage to trees should heal naturally with minimal intervention. However, if any large branches (or trees themselves) are at risk of falling, they should be removed immediately. Damaged plants that are beyond rescue should be replaced with new ones.

Mulch

Compared to weed barriers or chemical sprays, installing or replenishing mulch in your flower beds is a healthier way to prevent weeds while providing essential protection for your vulnerable plants.  It also retains moisture for your plants that will be well-received in drought conditions.

Fertilize Flower Beds

Make sure your flowers have enough nutrients to feast upon by fertilizing your flower beds. Fertilizers should be added after new growth is observed, but not when there is still a significant risk of snow. For the Kansas City metropolitan areas (zone 6b), mid-March would be your safest bet for fertilizing. Fertilize your beds when the soil is moist, such as right after a light rain, and during the cooler hours of the day. 

Plant Seasonal Flowers

If you’re starting your flower bed from scratch this year, you can start gathering flowers before spring arrives. Kansas City has a wide variety of local nurseries and plant shops that carry ready-to-plant spring plants. You can also start from seeds, although that will take much longer. Before flowers bloom.

Lawn Care Checklist

The perfect, lush lawn takes love and diligence. We recommend working with a lawn care professional for your ongoing service needs. However, if you’d rather perform the pre-spring checkup yourself, here are the basic tasks you should cover.

Seed Bare Patches

Nobody likes a spotty, bald lawn. That’s why you should seed any bare patches once you notice the unevenness in your lawn. There are many brands of pre-mixed repair packages that already come with seeds, fertilizer, and mulch. 

Note: Be careful applying any pre-emergents in areas with new seed as it will counter act your efforts.

Mow Down the Grass to Approx. 3 Inches

Mowing your grass down can stimulate healthy root growth, and in-return keeps your lawn greener. It also prevents the grass from shading the soil, which can lead to more aggressive weed growth.

Fertilize Your Lawn

Avoid fertilizing and seeding at the same time. Instead, the best time to fertilize your lawn is determined by the type of grass you have. Kansas City’s weather allows a variety of cool- and warm-weather grass to grow. A fail-safe rule is to fertilize lightly in early spring.