Spring is the best time to garden, when everything is new and fresh and you feel motivated to update your home’s curb appeal. Flash forward to summer, when the hot sun has taken a toll on your precious plants. By Labor Day you may feel like giving up—but don’t! It’s possible to have a beautiful yard with curb appeal even during the off seasons. Read on for some tips to keep your thumb green all year round.

Shift your focus. Once the weather cools down and you’re entertaining less, give your front yard some TLC. One good fall cleanup goes a long way.

• Give your trees and hedges a trim.

• Clear out your summer flower beds of leaves and dead plants.

• Cut back perennials that are done until the next spring.

These are small, easy steps that will help you see how a little effort can go a long way!

Boost with décor. Autumn is also a great time of year to have some fun with planters and decorations. Here are some of our favorite fall suggestions:

• Swap out your summer impatiens for fall mums.

• Mix in hay bales with your container mums, pumpkins, and gourds.

• Add some Halloween decorations in October, and replace them with Thanksgiving ones in November.

• Add a seasonal wreath.

Think seasonally. We seem to shift from fall to holiday decor overnight, but what about the rest of winter? We recommend placing bright pots—filled with hearty winter plants and bushes like juniper, blue holly, boxwood, or red twig dogwood—around doors, yards and walkways. Also, it’s common to put your patio furniture away for the winter months, but if you have a covered porch, adding some chairs with bright colors looks welcoming. Make sure they are for outdoor use, and don’t forget to properly cover them during a storm!

Keep supplies together. Another way to ease into the seasonal transition is to keep all of your gardening supplies organized in one place—ideally in a designated corner of your garage or basement. This helps you avoid having to search for that pair of pruners you used back in June. Label shelves and bins so everyone in your household knows where things belong, or just try this potting bench/rolling cart combo. You can transport and store all your supplies instead of running back and forth, and have a portable workspace.

Here are a few more helpful tips:

• Have all your tools in one organizer bag to save time and your knees.

• Check all of your gardening supplies, like soils and pesticides, and make sure they are sealed properly.

• Clean out all of your unused planters and pots and store them in your newly created gardening area.

• Wipe off all of your gardening tools between uses so they don’t rust.

• Put any holiday décor into labeled bins as you take it down to keep your space tidy and make it easy to find for next season.

Enjoy your year-round curb appeal. Now, if you need some help organizing your outdoor storage area before the holiday madness, give us a call!