Whether you’re a new homeowner, have recently moved to a four season state, or just need a little extra help bracing your home and garden for winter, the tips below should help you feel more prepared.
Let’s start with winter prep tips for the home. Prepping your home for winter is more than just throwing down road salt on your front doorstep. Winter can reap serious damage on certain parts of your home if not properly prepped.
Close the Valves
If you have a sprinkler system and outdoor faucet (which most homes do) it is very important that the water is turned off well before any opportunity to freeze in the pipes. Depending on your location and annual weather changes the exact date may change, but I typically turn my water off sometime in late September to early October when the temperature drops and I no longer need to run the sprinklers. Start by removing all hoses from the outdoor faucet. At this point you may want inspect your faucet because some valves are frost free. One way to tell is if the valve knob is perpendicular to the house, it means the valve is frost-free. If the knob is at a 45 degree angle, it’s not. This is a general rule and might not apply to all valve types so make sure you’re certain which type of valve you have. The location of your water shut off valve will be different from home to home. Often times you can follow the water line from your main water shut off (typically in the basement) out to the street. Every home is different so if in doubt, call a plumber!
Tune Up Heating System
Even if you think your heater is working fine, it might be a good idea to have an HVAC technician perform a routine tune-up before the coldest months of the year. This service usually costs less than $100 making it a fairly affordable step to ensuring your home is prepped for winter. The home owner should also make sure to replace or clean their furnace air filter very often during the winter. Consult your furnaces manual for further cleaning instructions.
Weatherstripping
Weatherstripping is one of the most common and cost effective ways to winterize your home. This process involves making an extra tight seal around problem doors and windows. Most windows and doors will benefit from applying weatherstripping. Single-pane windows and doors with improper seals are the most common places to apply weatherstripping.
These are the most common winter prep ideas for your home but keep in mind that every home is different and the area you live in makes a big difference in how and when you prep your home.
Garden Prep Ideas
For some of us, the garden is our personal sanctuary. Winter puts a damper on things in the garden but if we do some basic prep in the fall we can ensure a beautiful reprieve come spring time.
Clean Up Leaves
Raking leaves is underrated. This typically passed off chore is actually really important to our lawns health and the potential health of our flower and veg gardens. Dead leaves that are left on the lawn can rot and sometimes kill the grass underneath. Therefore, it’s important to rake up as many leaves as possible before the snowy season. Now what to do with all those dead leaves? Some cities will pick up lawn refuse during the spring and fall. Consult with the city you live in to see if this is the case. However, I personally recommend you compost your dead leaves. You can start an open compost area in your yard or you can make or buy a compost bin. If you love your garden, you should compost!
Remove Evasive Weeds or Unwanted Plants
If you have evasive weeds or dead plants that you want gone, the fall and early winter is usually a good time to take care of them. Once the weeds/plants have died and dried out they will be much easier to remove. If the weeds are seed free, throw them in the compost!
Prep Soil for Spring
This last tip is often overlooked even by experienced gardeners. We don’t think of the fall as gardening season but this is a great time to be thinking about the warmer months. If you have an area in mind for a garden, use the fall to aerate and put nutrients into the soil. First use a till to stir up the soil. You do not want to remove any soil, you are simply turning the soil to allow air and nutrients to properly enter the soil. After this step, add a layer of compost or loam to your garden plot. Taking this step will ensure that your soil is ready for planting as soon as the last frost date.
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