Helpful Tips to Organize and Spruce Up Your Yard

I love spending time outdoors in Spring! The temperature is comfortable and the humidity is not a problem yet! It’s the perfect time to go outside and get yard work done! Does your yard need some TLC? Keep reading because I have helpful tips to motivate you to organize and spruce up your yard!

Helpful strategy to organize your yard

l use the 6/P strategy to organize the yard! I originally developed this strategy for indoor spaces. However, I quickly discovered it could be used for outdoor areas! Follow the six steps below to transform your yard into an area you will love!

To help you with this task, I developed printable sheets to use as a guide. The printables are free to our email subscribers. If you would like to have access to the printables click here.

Prepare

Collect the tools you will need for weeding and pruning your landscaping. Grab several heavy-duty outdoor garbage bags.

Purge

Remove debris, like fallen branches and dead leaves from the yard and flower beds. Continue the purge by trimming your trees and shrubs. Next, remove the weeds and any dead plants from your landscape beds. Finish by edging around your sidewalk, driveway, and landscape beds.

• Trash- Place all debris in the trash bags or start a compost pile.
• Donate- if you have any lawn furniture or outdoor decor you no longer want, donate it if it is in good shape.
• Relocate-remove any items that don’t belong in the yard and set them aside.
• Replace-if you have outdoor sculptures, decor items, planters, or furniture move them out of your way.

Polish

Now that the yard is clear of debris, it’s time to spruce it up! Here are my suggestions:

• plant annuals/perennials or divide perennials if needed
• mulch flower beds
• clean out planters and replace them with new plants

Personalize

It’s time to personalize your yard.  Take this time to visualize what your dream yard would like!

Use the personalized printable to make your yard space more functional and beautiful.  The printable is free and all you have to do to get it is sign up for our weekly email. 

PLACE

Trash- Set trash bags out for garbage pick-up.

Donate- If you have items to donate, take them to the donation center soon!

Relocate-Place any items that don’t belong in the yard back where they do belong.

Replace-Place lawn furniture and decorative items back where they belong.

Put Back

Think of your outdoor areas the same way you think of your indoor areas, and don’t let clutter pile up. Always put away yard games and tools when you finish with them!

We hope this strategy will help you organize your yard!

Helpful tips to make yard work easier

There’s nothing like a good hack to make a hard job easier! These three helpful tips will come in handy when you’re ready to organize and spruce up your yard. They will also help reduce your time working outside!

TIP 1: Easy clean up after TRIMMING SHRUBS!

To keep clean up a breeze cut two large heavy-duty garbage bags down the side seams. Lay one bag down on the left side of the shrub, and lay the second bag on the right side. Lay an empty garbage bag on the ground, in an open position, next to the shrub.

Let the leaves fall on the plastic bags. When you’re done trimming, roll up the plastic bag and place it inside the empty garbage bag. Shake out the leaves inside the bag. See what I mean about super easy clean-up!

Tip 2: Easy tip for trimming stray Branches

It never fails, after a few weeks, my shrubs get pesky stray branches that pop out! No need to use the electric trimmers so I use a pruner and a garbage bag!

Put the handles of the garbage bag over your wrists.

Cut the stray branch from the shrub.

Drop the branch inside the bag and walk to the next shrub!

Tip 3: Only handle mulch one time

Clean out your landscape beds before you purchase your mulch. When the beds are prepared, go to the home store and purchase the number of bags needed. Remove mulch from your vehicle and lay the bags directly in the bed.

Cut the bag from top to bottom, and turn it over, so the mulch easily falls into a pile. Use a rake to level the mulch around the shrubs and trees.

How we organized and Spruced up our yard

the Purge

I enjoy the purging process! It’s fun to trim bushes! I guess that’s the hairdresser coming out in me! Instead of shaping the hair on someone’s head, I’m shaping the leaves on a shrub with a different type of clipper!!

Trim trees

The first thing we will purge is the palm trees. Lots of dead and drooping palm fronds need to be removed.

Here is the after picture of the palm trees! They look so much better now! I still can’t believe I have palm trees in my front yard! It’s a dream come true! Now I need to add some tropical trees to my backyard! I’ll be sure to add that to my personalized printable!

Trim shrubs

The next item to purge was the shrubs in the front yard! Some are growing like crazy, and others not so much!

Now they look like individual shrubs! I took this picture a week after I cut them and there’s already a new shoots sticking up! How does that happen??

Next, I trimmed all the shrubs in the backyard! They had grown at all different heights and rates!

I’m trying to trim them in a circular shape. It’s much harder than I thought it would be. Hopefully, I’ll get better each time I do this job! At least they are much more even now!

Remove weeds

I must be honest, this is my least favorite part of yard work! This is why you need to keep a good amount of mulch on your beds, so weeds can’t grow!! Unfortunately for us, most builders in Florida do not put gutters on houses. Without gutters, we had several places in our yard where the mulch was washed away. So, we used part of my furniture budget to buy gutters! Such a sacrifice, but I guess it was worth it in the long run!

As you can see, all of the mulch washed away from this area and weeds sprouted up! I will say, it’s a lot easier to weed in Florida than in Kentucky! I guess that’s because plants slide easily out of sand compared to red clay, I mean dirt!

Edge

To keep the grass from growing into our paved driveway and sidewalk, we need to use an edger. Plus it looks so nice to have a clean edge.

The right side is edged, but the left side is not. We did not own an edger so Rich had to buy a new “toy” to get the job done right!

Here he is in action with the new purchase!

Polish

Now that we’ve purged by trimming the trees and bushes. Removing weeds and unwanted grass by the sidewalks and flower beds. Now it’s time to polish it up and make it look nice. An easy way to do that is to add mulch.

mulch

Mulch not only makes your plant beds look more beautiful but it prevents weeds from growing in the bed and reduces the need to water!

Decide what type of material you are going to use as mulch. The builder used pine bark nuggets and we do not want to completely replace them at this time so we are using the same product.

Remember, the color of mulch will fade over time. If you still have plenty of mulch in your bed, rake it around to make it look fresher.

Here is the before picture of the bed on the side of the garage

Here is the after picture! Wow, it looks so much better and now it will take much less maintenance on our part!

Most of the mulch was washed away from this part of the bed in the backyard.

Here’s the after picture with a new layer of mulch! It looks so great and is better for the health of the plants and provides less maintenance on our part!

We hope our tips were helpful, and you can use them to spruce up and organize your yard! Get outside now, before the weather gets too hot!

If you are interested to see some of my other outdoor projects click on the following posts:

• How to enjoy your porch this Spring.
• How to give new life to an old potting bench.
• Garage and tool organization made simple.

Blessings, Rich and Donna