Spring yard cleanup checklist
One secret to cleaning up the yard is knowing that cleanup done for the spring should a be started in the late winter, as cleanup for winter is best started in the fall. So now is the best time to prepare the yard for the warmer weather. The following is a spring yard cleanup checklist:

Literally, Clean Up
Unless the gardener is the sort who likes to let fallen leaves naturally decompose into the soil, the piles of dead leaves, twigs, fallen branches and other debris need to be raked up from the yard. If the gardener is sure that the leaves are disease free, they can bag them up, and use them as compost or mulch. But the plastic bags, plastic bottles, candy wrappers and other trash that have found their way onto the lawn need to be discarded.

According to experts, the best tool to take up dead leaves and debris is a bamboo rake. The most efficient way to use it is to sweep it across the body instead of pulling it. To keep the tines supple, soak them in water over night every few months.

Prune Some Flowering Shrubs
Snip off the dead twigs on perennial plants and prune those flowering shrubs best pruned in late winter or early spring. They include:

• Flowering abelia

• Hibiscus

• Hydrangeas

• Sweetspire

• Crepe myrtle

It’s also time to cut back diseased or insect infested branches to healthy tissue, and remove branches that have been killed or damaged by winter. Cut off suckers that grow at the roots of the trees because they steal nutrients, and cut off water sprouts, which grow straight up from a branch. They don’t produce fruit or flowers and are useless.

Flower Beds
If the soil in established flower or vegetable beds did well during the last growing season, add some compost and weed. In late winter most weeds are tiny and easy to pull up. If the gardener is interested in new beds, their best bet is to install raised beds. Raised beds let the gardener control the type of soil and are easy to weed. Since they are raised even a few inches, the gardener doesn’t need to do as much bending. Plants in raised bed also get a bit more sunlight. Other ways to create new beds are to use a tiller over a specified area, then smother the grass and weeds with landscape fabric or black plastic until it’s time to plant.

Tidy the Lawn
Dig up and discard areas of the lawn that have been damaged during the winter with a metal rake. Amend the area with compost, and add emergent weed killer. Start overseeding the area a couple of weeks later.

Repair Pathways
In some places winter is really murder on pathways made of stone or concrete. Fill in cracks or have the paver removed if it is really badly damaged. Make sure to treat the bed before installing another paver. If gravel has been kicked out of the joints between the pavers, rake it back in, and blast away stains and fungus with a pressure washer.

What are Some Minimalist Lawncare Tips?
Less is sometimes more, and that can certainly hold true for lawn care. Nature has a way of taking care of itself, and even overzealous homeowners with the best of intentions can actually make their lawns worse by trying to do too much with them.

Keeping a low-maintenance yard looking good requires just a basic understanding of the three pillars of lawn care, which are watering, fertilizing, and weeding. Watering is a fundamental part of keeping greenery alive, whether it's grass, trees, or flowers. The trick to successful watering is to water deep and early, i.e. before there is a drought or water shortage. However, homeowners should make sure to avoid watering too frequently, which can cause grass and flowers to rot. The frequency of adequate watering varies depending on the system of watering used, the type of grass in the yard, and the climate. If you are using a sprinkler-style lawn mowing system, note that you should leave the sprinkler on only until the water has permeated six inches into the soil, but no more. You can check the depth with a screwdriver, which you can put into the ground every 15 minutes. In a temperate climate, you should have to water the lawn with a sprinkler system no more than two mornings per week. If you can't be there to check the water depth yourself, considering getting a garden hose and using a timer, which will simply make the water supply shut off after a certain period of time.

Often considered a preventative measure, proper weeding can also be an effective and minimalist form of lawn care. Your best bet when it comes to pulling out weeds is to start well before weeds become a chronic and widespread problem. This can be as simple as walking your yard every few days to check for new patches of weed growth. One of the best times to check for and eliminate weeds is after a fresh rain. At this point, the roots will be less attached to the soil, which makes it much easier to pluck the weeds out. After removing the weeds, you can even add them to a kitchen compost pile to recycle them. When weeding, remember to use gloves, as some weeds can cause skin irritation. If you can't pull up the weeds before they become a more serious problem, you can try spraying them with a commercial spray, which is a faster way to eliminate pesky growth than pulling weeds out manually with your hands.

The third category of lawn care is fertilizing. Like weed pulling, fertilizing is ideally done when the yard is wet. You can fertilize the yard either with a commercial mix or by spreading the remains of your compost pile over the grass. The type of fertilizer that your lawn requires will vary depending on the climate, time of year, and type of grasses that are growing. Ideally, you should contact an expert to get a better idea of what fertilizer, or combination of fertilizers, will be best for your unique situation. If you're using compost as a fertilizer, make sure to spread it evenly across the grass by using a tool like a broom or a rake.