Year-Round Guidelines for Virginia Lawn & Tree Care

These are the best months to do specific tasks to maintain your Virginia yard:

 
January

• Inspect trees for structural defects
• Prune trees to thin for health and structure
• Apply lime to lawns as determined by soil analysis 

February

• Prune fruit trees
• Treat trees with dormant oil
• Pre-emergence for lawn weed control
• Pre-emergence for perennial beds
• Prune Butterfly bushes, grapes, summer flowering perennials 

March

• Treat Boxwood to control Psyllid
• Pre-emergence weed control for lawns/perennial beds
• Fertilize trees
• Prune trees
• Lawn Aeration and over seeding 

April

• Fungicide treatments on trees to control rust, leaf spot and related diseased
• Anthracnose treatment on Dogwood
• Broad leaf weed control and fertilizer on lawns
• Pruning trees, Forsythia, Lilacs and early blooming perennials
• Mulching 

May

• Treat Dogwoods to control
• Anthracnose: Treat spruce to control needle cast
• Broad leaf weed control and fertilization on lawns
• Treat for Lace Bugs on Azaleas, Rhododendron
• Monitor for Spider Mites
• Monitor for and treat Gypsy Moth Caterpillar 

June

• Treat spruce for needle cast
• Treat for Bagworms late month
• Treat for Spider Mites on evergreens
• White Grub treatment Prune Rhododendrons and Azaleas
• Prune shrubbery, Boxwood
• Treat Hemlocks to control Hemlock Wooly Adelgid 

July

• White Grub treatment
• Tree and Shrubbery pruning
• Prune spring flowering perennials after blooming
• Water lawn and landscape plants as needed in drought conditions
• Brush control 

August

• Lawn renovation
• Lawn fertilization
• Tree Pruning 

September

• Lawn fertilization
• Lawn Aeration and over seeding
• Prune trees 

October

• Tree fertilization
• Broad leaf control and fertilization on lawns
• Tree pruning
• Treat Hemlocks to control Hemlock Wooly Adelgid 

November

• Tree pruning
• Tree fertilization
• Lawn fertilization
• Boxwood pruning 

December

• Tree pruning
• Boxwood pruning
• Late lawn fertilizer
• Water evergreen plants such as Rhododendron and Azalea before cold weather and soil freezing