12th May 2023

A seasonal approach to Grounds Maintenance

Planned, preventative maintenance (PPM) is the best strategy when managing outdoor areas, and the key to managing your landscape and your budget is to take a seasonal approach. By working seasonally, you’ll gain a better understanding of the natural life-cycle of your outdoor spaces, enabling you to work more proactively and cost-efficiently.

A knowledge of seasonal change will also help you avoid costly errors. For example, it may be tempting to cut back on winter grounds maintenance as a means of saving money, but you could well end up spending more on reinstating lawns in the spring.

Obviously, every site is different, with varying requirements, depending on size and the nature of your soft landscaped areas. However, it can be useful to know what to expect in the coming months, enabling you to plan accordingly. To help you plan your grounds maintenance schedule and bring in specialist help when required, we’ve compiled a seasonal guide, highlighting key requirements.

Spring

Early spring is the time of growth and renewal, which involves landscaping, pruning, trimming and planting. It’s time to prune roses, weed and tidy up beds & borders, refresh container plants, remove & refresh mulch, and add fertiliser. Depending how much rain there’s been, you may need to cut lawns, repair patches and aerate. Late spring is the ideal time to plant out bedding plants, creating desired colour schemes and designs, and also to plan a programme of works for the season ahead and carry out an up to date risk assessment of outdoor areas.

Summer

The hottest and most intense period of the year, summer’s main requirements are grass cutting and pruning. You could also look at making aesthetic changes to your grounds, such as the inclusion of a wild flower meadow that would encourage wildlife, especially pollinators. Such areas require less maintenance, which means you’re not only benefitting nature but also cutting down costs. During summer, you should also monitor sites for invasive species, such as Japanese Knotweed or Giant Hogweed, and check for insect damage or disease.

Autumn

This is optimum time for tree surgery to keep wooded areas safe and healthy, divide and replant overcrowded perennials and carry out a general cutback of perennials and shrubs. Tasks can include overseeding lawns, adding fertiliser, raking & composting leaves, clearing rotting debris, and planting new additions such as oak and holly. It’s also a good time to schedule site improvements, review assets and maintenance plans, and reassess landscape objectives, such as environmental, wellbeing, rewilding etc. This is the time to assess ways to reduce costs, such as replacing certain plants with those requiring lower maintenance.

Winter

Rather than a time to cut costs, winter provides an opportunity to get a head start on spring by treating lawns to ensure they grow healthily and moss-free. Decaying leaves can form a substrate in which weeds germinate, so an essential task is to collect leaves and other garden debris that could potentially cause damage. Neglect this job and it will take longer in spring to bring lawns up to standard, plus you may need to use weed control and costly chemical treatments. You could also check trees for dead wood, prune fruit trees, apply tree guards to protect from rodent damage and wrap tender foundation shrubs in burlap. In the event of ice and snow, it’s important to monitor the public areas that will need clearing and gritting. When gritting, ensure green areas are not damaged by the salt, thereby avoiding restoration costs.

Zenith - specialist help throughout the seasons

With over 35 years’ experience, Zenith’s Grounds Maintenance division has a proven track record of delivering high quality, tailored grounds maintenance solutions that provide excellent value for money. Our teams are all fully trained and directly employed, and will work to client-agreed work schedules, providing a flexible approach that fits in with seasonal requirements. We will always provide site-specific risk assessments and method statements , and provide a one-stop shop for all your commercial grounds maintenance and winter gritting requirements.

As required, we can provide grass cutting, shrub pruning and hedge cutting, weed control, tree surgery, site cleanliness, fencing, sports ground maintenance, winter gritting and soft & hard landscaping. Our clients include business parks, corporate headquarters for blue chip companies, engineering facilities, schools, FE colleges and housing associations.

To discuss your requirements and plan a seasonal approach to your grounds maintenance, call Zenith today on 024 7668 7167 or email info@zenithcontractservices.co.uk