How snow can affect your landscape

If you’re in an area that receives a lot of snow and rain in the winter, you’ll want to be wary of the excess precipitation. Not only can it wreck havoc on your landscape off the get-go, without proper care or maintenance it can have long term effects.

If you have recently completed any landscaping, you may discover that excess run-off from the melting snow might end up causing some wash out on your walkway, patio, or drive way. This may be caused depending on how well your yard was landscaped, so you want to be sure that you have a top notch team doing the job. The grading plays a large role in this, as well as how the landscaping was installed initially.

Indicators of wash out will mean that you have to try to direct any form of the moisture away from the walkway, patio, or driveway. Instead, you have to divert it in the other direction. Try to build an area that will drain to an area on your property. Make sure that you choose an area that will not end up causing other problems. If you’re unsure of how to do it or where to begin, call a professional landscaper to work on it and create proper grading, proper drainage, and solve the task at hand before it becomes more complex.

Weather can certainly do a number on unfinished jobs, so if you have any form of recent uncompleted landcaping, there are some negative aspects to heavy snowfall. Heavy snow fall means that you will have to wait longer to restart the landscaping in the warmer months. Sometimes, companies will decide to finish and complete past construction jobs and landscapes before starting on the new ones. If you plan to do it yourself, be sure not to rush into starting it while the ground is still filled with moisture. This will mean that it will take longer to get out the kinks and clean up the mess as it does to finish the project. Furthermore, wet landscapes do not provide the proper grading, and it will not have an effective result.

Conversely, heavy snow fall will help recent projects. Because the sub-surface settling will be better distributed, it should increase the process and the speed of the settling as a whole. Because new landscapes need that extra time to settle, the soft surface will allow the soil and the foundation to settle completely, and the winter will let it remain undisturbed.

When choosing a landscape design, there are many shrubs and trees that benefit from all of the extra moisture. Trees that flourish include willow trees – they thrive on the excess water sources, and helps them grow. Others, such as birch trees, on the other and, do not. Regardless of the type of tree or shrub, landscapers and homeowners want to be sure that there is no water settling or draining into the tree wells. This means that the soil is saturated, and the tree won’t grow as well or, eventually, drown. This water needs to be diverted in order for the best success. You can also dig a small trench away from the trees or shrubs so the water flows elsewhere.

Snow is definitely a beautiful feature to any form of landscaping, and no one can deny the beauty of a gentle snow cover over their trees and lawn. Because it is such a good insulator, it actually keeps the cold air temperatures from harming the plants, making it also beneficial. It is only when the snow is very wet that it can cause a problem, causing plants to become too moist, or, if the snow is too heavy, possibly bend or break. If this occurs, lightly bat the branches underneath, which will help keep the snow weight from breaking any of the branches.