Grow with Harvester: Seasonal Planning

As the seasons turn in Colorado, so do the needs of our landscapes. Seasonal planning means anticipating these changes and scheduling your landscaping projects and maintenance for the optimal times of year. I’m a proud member of Harvester’s team, and I’ve seen first-hand how a thoughtful year-round plan can transform Colorado yards. In our high-elevation, semi-arid climate, knowing not just what to do for your landscape, but when to do it, is essential for long-term success. By planning ahead and aligning your projects with the seasons, you ensure every part of the year brings out the best in your outdoor space.

Winter: Dream, Design, and Plan Ahead

Winter in Colorado may quiet the garden, but it’s the perfect time to lay the groundwork for the year ahead. With plants dormant and the ground often snow-dusted, homeowners and HOAs can take advantage of the “off-season” to dream and design without the rush. At Harvester, we encourage clients to use these colder months to brainstorm and work with our design team on plans for spring. Once temperatures rise, landscaping requests surge – many who wait until April find installation calendars already full, so securing your spot in winter is wise.

Planning in winter offers many advantages: you have the time to refine ideas, order materials early, and handle any paperwork long before shovels hit the ground. Permits and HOA approvals can take weeks or even months in Colorado, so tackling them now means you’ll be ready to break ground by the time the soil thaws. This is also a great time to evaluate your yard’s structure – without leaves, you can see the “bones” of your landscape and decide where to add interest.

Perhaps you’ll notice a blank corner that could use an evergreen tree next year, or realize a new patio would capture winter sun perfectly. Our Harvester designers often meet homeowners over warm coffees this time of year, reviewing site photos and crafting detailed plans. By winter’s end, you can have a complete design in hand, your project scheduled, and all the prep work (from measurements to permitting) done. When spring arrives, you’ll be steps ahead – ready to turn those winter daydreams into reality.

Spring: Installation and New Beginnings

Spring is the season of action. After the last frost melts away (around mid-May in much of Colorado’s Front Range), it’s time to bring your plans to life. Thanks to winter planning, you’ve reserved your contractor and lined up materials, so now the excitement begins. Spring (roughly mid-March through early June) is one of Colorado’s ideal planting, offering moderate temperatures that reduce stress on new plants. This is the time to install those landscape features you’ve planned – whether it’s laying a new flagstone patio, planting a row of aspens, or installing a water-wise irrigation system.

Homeowners and HOAs should think of spring as “groundbreaking” season in more ways than one. You’ll start by prepping the soil and performing any needed spring clean-up (clearing winter debris, lightly pruning, refreshing mulch). Then the big installations and plantings happen in earnest: trees and shrubs go in so their roots can establish before summer heat, perennial gardens are planted or divided and moved, and lawns can be seeded or sodded in the cooler spring weather. Because you plotted your design in winter, you’re not scrambling – you’re executing a well-timed plan. For example, if you’re aiming for a lush green lawn, you might lay sod or seed in spring so it roots deeply before summer. And if a late frost sneaks in (as it often can in Colorado through May), you’ve scheduled accordingly or chosen hardy species, so no work is lost.

A key benefit of spring installations is efficiency and plant health. When you plant in spring’s mild conditions, your trees, shrubs, and perennials get a strong start before facing summer extremes. That means less watering and lower risk of transplant shock compared to a high-summer project. By planning ahead, you also avoid peak-season price hikes on materials and ensure availability of your desired plants (nurseries can sell out of popular natives by summer). As your Harvester team, we’re right there with you through this flurry of spring activity – coordinating schedules, delivering plants, and making sure each project stays on track. The result? By the end of spring, your landscape’s new additions are in place and ready to flourish.

Summer: Nurture, Adjust, and Enjoy

With the heat of a Colorado summer, the focus shifts from major installations to nurturing what’s been planted – and of course, taking time to enjoy your beautiful outdoor spaces. If you’ve followed a seasonal plan, by summer you’re relaxing on that new patio or admiring young trees that are leafing out, rather than rushing to start projects in 90°F weather. Summer is when maintenance is key: regular watering (in the cool early mornings or evenings), efficient irrigation adjustments, mowing and weeding, and mid-season touch-ups keep your landscape thriving.

For homeowners and HOAs, summer is a great time to assess how the spring changes are settling in. Are there dry patches in the lawn? Maybe your watering schedule needs tweaking or a shade tree you planted will help in future summers. Harvester’s maintenance crews often visit in summer to check irrigation systems – ensuring sprinkler heads are covering properly and programming controllers to match the hotter, drier conditions. We also keep an eye out for any pests or diseases that might crop up, addressing them before they spread. By planning ahead, you anticipated these needs: for instance, you installed drip lines in flower beds back in spring, so now your perennials are getting targeted moisture and you’re not dragging hoses around in July. And if you did miss something in spring, no worries – you can always plan a small fall project or start dreaming for next year.

Summer is also the season to simply enjoy your Colorado landscape. Host that barbecue under the pergola you built in spring or watch the kids play on the healthy lawn you seeded earlier. With a bit of mid-season TLC and awareness (like boosting watering during a heatwave or giving the garden a late-summer fertilization if needed), your landscape will carry its vigor through the summer. The advanced scheduling and smart timing you invested in will pay off in lush blooms, cool shade, and happy plants even under the intense high-altitude sun. And as you enjoy, you can start to note any ideas – perhaps you’ll decide this is the year to plant some aspens in fall for more shade, or add a pollinator garden next spring. A true seasonal plan is a circle, always looking ahead even as you relish the present.

Fall: Harvest, Seed, and Prepare for Renewal

Fall in Colorado is a season of preparation and even a second chance at planting. As temperatures cool in late August through October, a lot of wonderful things can happen in your landscape. Think of fall as the time to finish strong and set the stage for next year. Many homeowners are surprised to learn that fall is actually one of the best times to plant trees, shrubs, and perennials here. The soil is still warm from summer, encouraging root growth, while the cooler air helps reduce stress on new plantings. For example, if you add a tree in September, it can spend autumn quietly growing roots, so by spring it’s already established and ready to burst with new growth. In fact, planting in fall gives woody plants time to anchor before spring, leading to stronger, healthier growth.

Fall is also ideal for seeding projects. If you’ve ever wanted to start or refresh a lawn, early fall is prime time – the window from late August to mid-October offers cool nights and moderate days perfect for grass germination. You might overseed thin lawn areas or plant a native grass meadow in fall, so the seeds lie in wait over winter. This dormant seeding strategy can actually outperform spring seeding with less irrigation, because it capitalizes on winter and early-spring moisture (like melting snow) to get grass established. By seeding in fall, you reduce watering costs and often see fewer weeds competing, giving your new grass a head start when temperatures rise. (As a bonus, you won’t be as tied to your sprinkler in those precious spring weeks – your seeds will be ready and raring to grow when nature cooperates.)

Beyond planting, fall is all about wise wrap-up and preparation. Homeowners and HOAs should use these months to tidy and protect the landscape. This means harvesting any vegetable gardens and clearing out annual flower beds, performing a fall cleanup of leaves and spent plants, and winterizing systems. You’ll schedule the irrigation blowout before the first hard freeze to protect pipes. It’s also the time to plant spring-blooming bulbs like tulips and daffodils – an easy task now that rewards you with color as soon as winter breaks. We recommend adding mulch in fall around young plants to insulate roots (and that mulch will also help retain precious moisture through dry winter spells). If you planned ahead, you might also install any final features now in the cooler weather – for example, finishing a flagstone path or putting in a few more native shrubs while they can establish easily. Every task you tick off in the fall is an investment in a vibrant spring ahead.

Crucially, seasonal awareness saves money and yields better results. You’re not paying extra to water new turf in the peak of summer, because you smartly laid it in spring or seeded in fall. You’re not losing half your new plants to a surprise late frost, because you knew to wait until after Mother’s Day to plant tender flowers. And you’re avoiding the cost of re-doing or replacing failed projects. One example we’ve seen: a neighborhood HOA tried planting a bunch of trees in July without a watering plan – by the next year, many had struggled. If they had planted in early fall and watered through winter, those trees would have had a far higher survival rate with much less hand-holding. In short, doing the right thing in the right season leads to hardier plants and lower maintenance costs over time. At Harvester, we love educating our clients on these timing tricks. We’ve found that a well-timed landscape project can reduce ongoing water usage and prevent issues, which means savings on your water bill and fewer costly fixes down the road.

Seasonal Planning with Harvester’s Design Team

A beautiful Colorado landscape doesn’t happen by accident – it grows from foresight and seasonal savvy. The good news is, you don’t have to navigate it alone. Harvester is here to help you stay ahead of the calendar, ensuring you never miss a prime planting window or critical maintenance task. We offer advanced scheduling for our clients, even a year-out planning calendar if you want one. Our design team can work with you in winter to map out a project, our crews can be ready in spring to build it, and our maintenance folks will check in come summer and fall to keep it thriving. We’ll even send you friendly reminders (for example, when it’s time to schedule that fall sprinkler blowout or when to winterize your pond) so nothing falls through the cracks.

Seasonal planning is truly the gift that keeps giving to your landscape. When you partner with Harvester, you’re investing in a long-term vision for your property – one that unfolds gracefully through winter snows, spring blooms, summer sunshine, and autumn hues. Let’s plan now to harvest the rewards later. If you’re thinking about improvements or simply want to get on top of maintenance, now is the perfect time to start. Reach out to Harvester’s design team for a warm, no-pressure planning chat. We’d love to hear your ideas and help craft a season-by-season roadmap to achieve them.

Together, we’ll ensure that your Colorado landscape flourishes in every season for years to come. Let’s grow ahead, together!