Whether you manage school grounds, a sports club, or commercial premises, winter conditions can be an incredibly challenging time for maintenance. Shorter daylight hours and harsh weather conditions, including frost and rain, take their toll on outdoor spaces. This concerning combination not only poses risks to ground users and the health of your plants and trees, but also shortens the window in which it’s possible to tend to them.
To keep your grounds safe, functional, and looking as good as you know they can, there are a number of key grounds maintenance tasks you must stay on top of during the winter months. We’ve outlined these in this blog, alongside the support the Arborcure team can provide you with to keep on top of them.
1. Winter Gritting
As soon as the temperatures start to drop for winter, the likelihood of frosty or icy surfaces creeps up massively. These freezing conditions are particularly hazardous and pose a significant risk to anybody using your grounds, whether that’s on foot or in a vehicle. Regular winter gritting, including both paths and car parks, is therefore essential to reduce the chance of slips and trips.
When it comes to winter gritting, it’s not enough to just react. Gritting needs to be a regular and proactive process, conducted at sensible intervals when required throughout the winter months and ahead of especially cold weather to ensure it has the desired impact before ice can form. It’s therefore wise when the weather conditions require it to have a regular schedule of gritting activity; this is something that the Arborcure team can help you with, giving you peace of mind that your site remains accessible year-round.
2. Snow Clearance
With colder temperatures can even come snow. Snow is not something that happens all too frequently here in the South West, and this means it has the potential to totally halt grounds usage and operations when it does arrive. It can block pathways, make car parks dangerous, and prevent visitors from accessing your grounds.
During snowy weather, snow clearance must be a grounds maintenance priority. This task might involve a combination of both mechanical ploughing and manual clearance of smaller or trickier areas like footpaths, but both ensure your space is usable and safe in even the toughest conditions.
3. Tree Care
Both planned and unplanned tree care are likely to form part of your winter grounds maintenance schedule. On the one hand, more unpredictable weather can increase the potential for tree or branch failure, especially if there are defects present, and this may lead to the sudden need for tree removal or the help of an emergency tree surgeon.
However, November onwards is also the perfect time to prune your fruit trees (like apples and pears) as this is their dormant season. By using this time of year to tend to your trees and effectively complete regular maintenance as part of a wider grounds maintenance plan, you can be certain that they will be healthy come the growing season in spring. But, please remember, pruning should be avoided during frosty conditions as this can cause damage at the point of fresh cuts.
4. Pathway and Surface Maintenance
Don’t underestimate the impact that constant wet weather and frost can have on the integrity of the hard surfaces in your grounds. You might even start to notice unsightly and dangerous cracks, or surfaces starting to become uneven. If so, pathway and surface maintenance is a critical winter grounds maintenance task. This might involve remedial work like resurfacing, alongside ongoing and proactive work such as clearing moss and debris to limit slip and trip risk while simultaneously keeping appearance levels high.
5. Seasonal Planting
Even during winter, there are some great opportunities to keep your grounds visually appealing whilst also preparing for the months ahead. This makes seasonal planting an important aesthetic component of winter grounds maintenance. For example, you can use this time of year to plant evergreen species, winter-flowering plants, or bulbs ready for spring. These activities will both add colour and texture to your site now, and ensure it’s looking fantastic come spring too.
6. Events Preparation
Events don’t stop for the winter, and whether it’s ongoing sports fixtures, festive parties, or parents’ evenings, you’ll need to prepare your grounds for visitors. Think ahead and work out how you need your space to function and when, and schedule any work like clearing pathways or setting up temporary access areas ahead of time.
Winter Grounds Maintenance From Arborcure
With a wide range of tasks to complete as part of your winter grounds maintenance, it pays to be proactive and tackle things in a methodical and scheduled way. At Arborcure, we understand this can feel a little challenging and are here to help. With over 25 years of experience carrying out all aspects of commercial grounds maintenance across the South West, we have all of the tools and expertise required to keep your premises safe and functional throughout the winter months.
From one-off jobs to year-round relationships, we can work with you to ensure that your grounds maintenance is as effective and timely as it can be. Simply give us a call or get in touch online to discuss your grounds and requirements, and we’ll identify how we can help.
