By: Mary Genson | C&G Newspapers | Published April 10, 2026
METRO DETROIT — Now that the snow has melted from yards, it is the time of year when homeowners start working toward a thriving garden and landscape.
Local experts in landscaping and gardening shared some of their top tips for prepping yards and gardens this spring with C & G Newspapers. Tips consider spring cleaning, early planting and more.
Prepping shrubs and perennials to come back better
Charles Mutart, manager at Piechnik’s Garden Gate, said many people are not sure when the right time is to prune or trim back shrubs and perennials.
“For perennials, you’d want to wait until you get new growth at the base,” Mutart said. “If you have shrubs, it kind of depends if they are spring-blooming or summer-blooming. If they are a spring-blooming, you want to wait until after they flower, because they’re going to flower kind of soon here, but if they bloom later in the summer, you can prune them now.”
Coral M. Sifre is the manager and event coordinator at Auburn Oaks Garden Center in Rochester Hills.
“If you start cutting down shrubs that bloom in the spring, you’ll lose their blooms,” Sifre said.
Mutart said that a sprinkle of a granular fertilizer around the base usually helps the flowers and leaves look healthier when they come back. Adding mulch at the base of the plant can help keep moisture in and keep weeds out.
Sifre said that while mulch is beneficial, it is important not to put too much mulch too close to the base of the plants, since it could choke them.
Managing weeds
Tylor Benson, from Eclipse Lawn & Landscape in Shelby Township, recommends using a pre-emergent early in the year to prep landscaping this spring. Pre-emergent, such as the brand Preen, is a herbicide that can be used to help prevent weeds.
“Our No. 1 thing is the Preen to manage weeding and things like that in the landscape bed,” Benson said.
Spring cleaning
Benson said that getting leaves and fall debris out of landscape beds is a priority to prevent them from choking out bushes.
“By the middle of summer, you’ll see some dead bushes and things like that, and that’s because all the leaves around it are not letting rainwater get to bushes, so they’re not making it,” he said.
Sifre advises to wait to do spring cleaning until the weather is consistently 50 degrees and warmer.
“All of these beneficial insects are inside of these leaves and sticks that are all over our garden, so we don’t want to disturb them,” Sifre said.
For those who want to prune their perennials and shrubs, she recommends putting the organic material in a hidden part of the garden, allowing time for the insects to get out re it is thrown away.
If a homeowner puts burlap around a plant to protect it over the winter, Sifre said now is the time when they can start lifting the burlap off.
Early plantings
For growers looking to add color to their gardens early in the year, Sifre said it is a popular time to start preparing pansies.
While pansies do OK in the cold and can survive after some snowfall, they do not do as well in the heat. Sifre said many growers pull their pansies out later in the season and add annuals. To prolong the life of pansies, Sifre suggests putting them in a shaded area.