5 Spring backyard maintenance tips

Rethink your landscape

In the spirit of spring cleaning, don't be afraid to take an out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-attitude when it comes to your backyard maintenance. "Remove elements that aren't working," suggests landscape designer Dennis Stevens. "Keep great things, thin out and add additional plant material to make it all more interesting."

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Repair your hardscape

Stevens also recommends that you take a good look at your hardscape. Survey any rocks, patios, walkways, pavers, boxes around planters, fences, gates, arbors, gazebos, and more that need repair. Chances are that winter conditions have weathered grout areas, paint and other hardscape elements so they may well need mending.

Manicure your lawn

Whether or not your backyard was hiding under a blanket of snow all winter, springtime is the time to put lawn maintenance tips into play. Start by giving your lawn a deep raking to remove dead grass and leaves. Next, aerate your lawn to get compacted ground ready for spring showers. Then, before fertilizing, fill in bare grass spots with turf builder or by seeding.

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Feed with fertilizer

One of the most important lawn maintenance tips come spring is to fertilize your backyard. The Scotts Company, at www.scotts.com, recommends fertilizing your lawn four times a year to maintain healthy turf, giving your lawn its first feeding in early spring when your lawn is waking up from its winter slumber.

But before feeding the rest of the vegetation in your backyard, learn what types of fertilizer you need. "Specialty plants, such as gardenias and camellias, require different types of fertilizer," says Stevens, so the same fertilizer you spread on your lawn won't likely work for your entire backyard.

Clean up your garden, flower beds and shrubs

Give flora attention with spring cleaning tips that will bring your garden back to life, such as removing extra mulch used to protect vegetation during cold weather, along with dead leaves and other debris around the backyard. Early spring is also the time to turn over winter soil and plant new vegetation. And don't' forget to give trees and shrubs some shaping -- but be sure to wait until spring-blooming trees have had a chance to bloom before pruning.

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Although lawn and backyard maintenance tips give your yard a jumpstart for spring, putting a maintenance schedule into place can make all the difference in the world. "With a regular small investment in upkeep, you will save a lot of money in replacements down the road," advises Stevens, with measures "such as specialty pruning, feeding schedules, water conservation, and professional pest and disease inspections." Whether you call in a landscape team or do the work yourself, these five spring backyard maintenance tips will have your outdoor space summer-ready in no time!

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