What Is the Right Yard Maintenance Schedule? 4 Recommendations

How often should you have your home landscape maintained by a professional? The right maintenance schedule will protect your yard and house while also not emptying your wallet. But what is the right schedule? Here are four schedule recommendations to help you build yours. 

1. Two Week Standard Interval

Most routine lawn and yard care is begun on a two-week schedule. This allows the yard, shrubs, and flowers time to grow and bloom between visits. But it prevents things from becoming overgrown and weeds from getting out of hand. This maintenance is usually quick and standard, and the regularity allows jobs to be rotated to ensure everything is done at least once every four weeks. 

Standard two-week maintenance should include mowing and edging the lawn, fertilization as needed, trimming bushes and shrubs, weed control, assessment of plant health, and checking the irrigation system's effectiveness. 

2. One Week High Impact Interval

During certain times of the year, it's advisable to switch to a one-week schedule. When might you use this? During the wettest part of spring, for example, grass may grow strong and fast after post-winter fertilization and with seasonally high amounts of rain. In addition, those who like to use their backyard for summer entertaining may want to keep it a bit more trim during periods of hosting. 

3. Monthly DIY Interval

If you need to save money on landscaping or like to work in the yard, consider a monthly schedule. On a monthly visit, the landscape pro acts as more of a guide rather than doing the bulk of the regular maintenance tasks.

The landscaper may assess the health of your lawn and plants, do skilled tasks like targeted trimming or fertilizing, and adjust the sprinklers. The homeowner would take on the weekly or bi-weekly jobs of mowing, weeding, and basic pruning. 

4. Seasonal Special Projects

Along with standard maintenance intervals, plan a few special projects seasonally. Most trees and some shrubs need to be pruned at least annually, usually in the fall or spring depending on the type of tree or bush. Spring planting or color rotation will need extra care as it takes root. And you may want to spruce up your outdoor hardscape or make changes between seasons.

This seasonal visit should be scheduled outside your normal routine so that time is devoted to it without taking away from the other things that need to be done. 

Where to Start

Building the right maintenance routine depends on your goals, your budget, and your own interest in gardening. The best place to begin is by consulting with a landscape maintenance service in your area. Call today to make an appointment and get more recommendations.