Lowder New Homes is proud to provide fully-sodded, landscaped yards with each and every home.  It’s part of the package.

If you’re already settled into a Lowder New Home, and you have a green thumb, you’re probably already thinking about what you’ll do when it warms up. Here are seven winter gardening tips while you wait for spring:

1.  Inspect your deciduous trees or shrubs now, while they are dormant. Now is the right time to see the branches that might become undesirable. Mark   the branches, but don’t cut them yet. Wait until the first week of spring and growth has begun. Then prune. While it’s still winter, now is also the right time to look for “suckers” (sprouts that growing from the trunk of a tree, shrub or bush that drain its energy) and get rid of them before growth spurts begin.

3 . Use clippers to remove dead foliage from your ornamental grasses. Tall grasses can be cut down to approximately six inches; shorter grasses should be reduced to about three inches.

4.  With this unusually warm winter, this is also a good time to do some early spring cleaning of your birdbaths and bird feeders. Make sure you allow plenty of time for your bird feeder to dry before refilling with seed.

5.  Get out your garden tools and clean them up. Shine those metallic parts and sharpen the points with a file to improve the efficiency of your efforts.

6.   Clean the blades of your pruners and loppers with Varsol or turpentine and add a drop of oil to the hinges. If you use a professional to sharpen your blades, get that done now, while there’s virtually no wait.

7.  Pick up some slow-release fertilizer for your lawn and go ahead and apply it to your yard. As spring begins to blossom, your lawn will start off with a healthy dose of grassy goodness.

We hope these tips will help you enjoy the visitation of spring even more and give your green thumb a reason to be extra excited.