DAYTON -- Miami Valley landscape companies are getting ready to shift business away from their snow plows and focus on the growing season. Spring is just around the corner and local landscapers are ready to get planting.When the weather breaks our great local contractors can get out and build these things, said landscape architect Eric Sauer. I know they're all itching to get out.Sauer says with all the snow covering the Miami Valley, plants will have a tough start to the season. We've got mountains of snow covering everything up so we're talking June for some of these piles to disappear, said Jessie Aycock of 5 Points Landscaping Snow Removal. We've gotten a little bit colder which some of the more sensitive material we may have some problems with, Sauer added.More or less some of that stuff has been destroyed because of the snow and ice, said Chip Orum, who has 18 spring thaws of experience landscaping with All Phase Landscaping company. Your beds, your retaining walls start shifting from the moisture in the ground, Orum says. Pavers will be the same way I'm sure that we'll have to fix a lot of that kind of thing, Aycock added. With the damage that's been done from the weather, there are some steps you can take to make sure your garden blooms this spring. The experts say its all about planning. Aycock says, Basically get a vision of what you want with your flower beds, plants, that kind of thing. Obviously we're going to be replacing some of them with the cold weather. All you can do with the snow and ice is trim them back from the residence, properly pruned, stuff away from the roofs, said Orum. Weeds will also need attention. The thawing soil will make their seeds start to grow first.The big thing is getting your pre-emergents out to keep the weeds blocked for the rest of the season, Aycock said. For Chip Orum, spring can't come soon enough. I hope that this is the end of it. It's time to warm up and get to trimming some trees here.
