The Outback Blog

It’s been a crazy busy week and you finally have a blissful window of time to yourself.

Woo hoo! What should you do?

Pop some corn and curl up with a movie?  Make a date with ESPN? Choose a new commercial landscaping company?

Just when you thought it was time to stow the garden tools for the season, you get this news: winter is great for pruning.

In fact, winter is the best time for pruning trees and shrubs. You can wait a bit for grasses, but it’ll still be chilly when they need a trim.

Sure, it's more comfy for YOU to tackle this task in July. In shorts. Holding an icy lemonade. But your plants prefer it now.

Here are 6 benefits of winter pruning.

Winter has a way of making everybody sort of sluggish. 

Bears hibernate. Your couch is extra popular. Even your sprinkler system is out there lazing around, asleep under its blanket of snow. 

But spring is like a jangling alarm clock. Time to kick things into gear — including irrigation system spring startup.

The sound of water makes everything better.

Boss driving you crazy, moving up deadlines? Kids bickering over the fudge pops again? Brother-in-law still sleeping on the couch? 

Head outside to your patio, where your bubbling fountain is an automatic stress reliever. Take a stroll out to your gurgling garden pond teeming with koi. Plop down next to your flowing stream and listen to the birds twitter.

Fireplace? Or fire pit?

Either way, we see you toasty and cozy on a chilly Idaho evening, warmed by a flickering glow, sipping hot cocoa topped with a mountain of fluffy marshmallows or warm spiked cider with a fragrant cinnamon stick, captivated by the flames and happily content under the shimmering stars.