Design & DIY 7 yardwork mistakes that you don’t know you’re making By Cottage Life Published: May 1, 2024 share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Copy Link Cancel View in Fullscreen 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 By Aleksandrkozak/Shutterstock You prune trees at the wrong time Pruning too much during spring and summer (the tree’s growing season) can hinder its growth. When you remove leaves, you’re taking away the tree’s way to photosynthesize (and make food). Don’t steal your tree’s groceries! Mid-winter tends to be a better time for maintenance pruning; damaged branches will be more visible on a bare tree. Tip: regardless of the season, don’t prune with dull tools. The blades can tear the bark and wound the tree. View in Fullscreen 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 By DreamHomeStudio/Shutterstock You don't dispose of invasive plants properly Sure, identifying and removing invasives is good. But it won’t help if you don’t dispose of these species the right way. Mowing them down or ripping them out at the roots and tossing them into the compost heap is a bad move. For most plants, experts recommend putting them in a heavy duty, black plastic garbage bag, sealing it—make sure you tape up any tears or holes in the bag—and leaving the bag out in the sun for about a week. Invasive plants are like vampires: sun is their enemy. View in Fullscreen 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 By New Africa/Shutterstock You over-water (or over-mulch) your trees Excessive watering can suffocate the tree’s roots. If that’s happening, you’ll start to notice lesions on the leaves. Another sign of over-watering is an explosion of mushrooms around the trunk. So how much water is enough? It depends. Saplings are the thirstiest; they need about 20 mm of water per week. (If water is pooling around the base of the tree, that means you’re giving it too much.) Once a tree is about three years old—assuming no drought conditions—it shouldn’t need supplemental watering. Regardless of rainfall, mulching a grown tree once or twice a year with wood chips is a good idea. But a layer of more than four cm thick—or mulch mounded volcano-style—is excessive. You’ll starve the tree’s roots or cause them to overheat. Or both. View in Fullscreen 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 By Margarita Reshetnikova/Shutterstock You don’t tidy up enough As we all know—thanks to the Second Law of Thermodynamics—the universe tends towards disorder. So does your property. And that’s not good for deterring nuisance wildlife. Clutter under the cottage, shed, or deck—leftover lumber, for example—makes the space attractive to denning animals (so clear that stuff out and keep the area open). A jumbled woodpile that isn’t raised off the ground, meanwhile, makes a great home for mice, squirrels, and other rodents. (Hey, no problem—except when they get tired of the woodpile and move into your cottage.) And we guarantee that if you leave a sit-inside kayak lying around, somebody will turn it into a litter box. View in Fullscreen 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 By Serhii Bobyk/Shutterstock You over-groom We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: a lawn isn’t great at the cottage. Unlike native plants, grass doesn’t benefit the wildlife that you want to support, in particular, pollinators such as bees and butterflies, and the birds that we know you love: hummingbirds, orioles, and chickadees, to name a few. A manicured lawn will, however, draw the one bird species that you don’t love: the Canada goose. If you must keep a lawn, at least don’t mow as frequently. Geese dislike long grass because the blades become fibrous and distasteful as they grow. Letting leaves lie where they fall, instead of raking, is also beneficial: it enriches the soil, providing nutrients to help plants flourish. Fallen leaves also act as nesting material for birds. View in Fullscreen 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 By bakoslaszlo77/Shutterstock You plant the wrong species You know that you shouldn’t plant invasive species. Because at this point, the entire earth knows that. But even filling your property with flowers, groundcover, or trees that are non-native but benign—they don’t actually disrupt the local ecosystem—still isn’t the best strategy at the cottage. For example, adding fast-growing Swedish columnar aspen to your lot—hey, it’s a natural privacy barrier—might seem like a great idea. But a non-native tree won’t benefit the local critters. And it’s less likely to thrive. A tree that evolved in a different country doesn’t have the same built-in defenses to an assault from Canada’s native insects or animals. Ultimately, that won’t be a win for you. View in Fullscreen 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 By RITANE/Shutterstock You remove dead trees Obviously, if a tree is a hazard—if it could fall on a building, car, or person—it needs to come down. But a dead or dying tree (assuming it’s not riddled with invasive pests or disease) can be a benefit to your woodlot. Snags—that is, dead trees that are left to stand upright and decompose naturally—provide homes for cavity-nesting birds and other tree-dwellers; they support the growth of mosses, fungi, and lichen (food sources for many critters); and they become hiding spots for food-caching species such as chipmunks. Similarly, a fallen log at the shoreline can add helpful nutrients to the lake and act as shelter for turtles and fish. So if you don’t have to remove it, don’t. View in Fullscreen Related galleries This Quebec cottager built her very own Finnish-style sauna—from scratch This hobby artist found an unexpected niche—carving personalized screen doors This tucked-away treehouse is a modern take on a childhood dream 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 7 yardwork mistakes that you don’t know you’re making Spring is the time to roll up your sleeves and knock off some chores—indoors and outdoors—before the cottage season really ramps up. Tackling the exterior property maintenance tasks first? Don’t make these seven common yardwork mistakes. Related Story Are cottagers responsible for placing and maintaining buoys on their lakes? 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