This blog post was inspired by a young landscape foreman who was sure his site was “pimp”. Meaning, there wasn’t any work to be done, which is highly unlikely. But even if you’re a homeowner, you can still take away some hints from this post.
It’s important to train your landscape eye to identify tasks that should be performed in your garden. So let’s take a look at one corner of our allegedly “pimped” site. You will see that it was far from clean.
Staircase area
Considering this work was done in February 2026, it’s shocking how much leaf debris I pulled out from one corner. I think the leaves were just blown under the rhododendron and out of sight. That’s not what consider good landscape maintenance. This site can’t be leafy this close to spring.
Now, if you look up, you’ll see prickly bramble sticking from the laurel hedge, which looks awful. That’s something that shouldn’t be tolerated in any season. Remove the whole cane, or at least prune it out of the hedge.
The two balled shrubs are still spikey, which isn’t a huge fail but still, they should be tighter. You can expect to shear them several times a year. They don’t have to tight, formal balls, but they should be tighter.
Also notice the brown Spirea shrubs between the railing and the rhododendrons. They tolerate power shearing, and I recommend a hard prune every winter. They will push out, don’t worry. If you skip this step, the new growth will poke out into the staircase, which isn’t ideal. You want people to pass through there easily.
Last step
Clean up blow is always the last step, so I’m assuming that will get done. The last step I’m referring to is the least popular step: weeding! You can see weeds in the beds, and in the stairs. Use hand tools to dig them up and keep them clean by doing a nice rotation through your site. Hit every corner of your site or garden.
There is always work in landscape maintenance. You just have to learn to look for it. And that’s good advice for young foremen and new home gardeners.
