How to Prepare Your Garden for Winter in Massachusetts

Properly preparing your garden for the winter in Massachusetts requires a little bit of time and effort in the fall to allow for a happy and thriving yard next spring. Winters in Massachusetts can be brutal on your garden. The cold temperatures, heavy snow and copious amounts of salt can all take a toll on your lawn and other plants. By taking action on the tasks below, you can set your property up to thrive next spring.

aeration and overseeding

The fall is a great time to repair your lawn before we get into the winter months. Healthy lawns are less prone to snow mold in the winter and less likely to be overtaken by weeds in early spring. Therefore, the fall is a great time to aerate and overseed. Try and time the aeration and overseeding a couple weeks before the first frost so that the seeds and the rest of the lawn have time to establish healthy roots before winter starts. Below, you will find a list of average days of the first frost in the Massachusetts towns Perennial serves from the Farmer’s Almanac website. Farmer’s Almanac uses frost dates that are based on 1991-2020 climate data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They also use a 30% probability threshold, meaning there is a 3 in 10 chance the first frost will happen before or after the date they listed. This will help give you an idea of when you should try and get aeration and overseeding done. Generally, in our service area September – mid October is a great time to aerate and seed.

Andover, MA

October 28th

Lexington, MA

October 16th

Concord, MA

October 10th

Winchester, MA

October 17th

fall cleanup

Fall cleanups have a plethora of benefits and are great for removing debris and preventing disease in your outdoor space. Do a couple of cleanups once the leaves start coming down. You may be tempted to try and wait until all of the leaves come down before doing your fall cleanup, but in Massachusetts it is not uncommon to have a random snowstorm at some point in the fall. If it snows the leaves and debris will be frozen into the ground, making a clean up impossible until it melts. By doing a couple smaller cleanups throughout the fall, not only does the work get done faster as there is less of a pile up of debris, but you avoid being totally unprepared if there is a surprise snowstorm.

mulching

Mulching is another important component of getting your yard ready for winter. Mulch helps to protect plants over the winter by regulating the temperature of the soil. The ideal time to mulch to prepare for winter is after the soil has cooled and before the first hard freeze, which typically comes in late October in Massachusetts.

Turn Off Your Irrigation System

As winter approaches you will also need to prepare you irrigation system as well. You should drain garden hoses and shut off any outside spigots. If you have an irrigation system, make sure you shut off the valve to the water supply. Then you should drain the pipes and blow them out to prevent damage over the winter.

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Perennial Landscape Corporation | Winchester, MA | Concord, MA | Lexington, MA | Andover, MA

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Perennial Landscape Corporation

The Quality You Expect and the Service You Deserve

Perennial Landscape Corporation is a family-owned business creating distinguished landscape environments in Winchester, Concord, Lexington, Andover and surrounding Massachusetts areas since 1995.

Perennial Landscape Corporation was named after the category of plants called perennials. Perennials are plants that have a lifespan of two or more years, meaning they come back each year. Just like a perennial, our aim is for you to be able to count on us year after year.

Here at Perennial, we pride ourselves on providing excellent landscaping services and outstanding customer service. Our motto is ” the quality you expect and the service you deserve”. That is the mindset that permeates every aspect of our work.