Just like the interior of your Arkon-Canton property, your garden also requires regular maintenance, especially before and during the cold, flaky winter season in Ohio. However, winter garden maintenance isn’t just about enhancing the look and appeal of your property with a beautiful, flourishing garden. It is also about protecting your home from the potential damages your garden can cause to the property’s structural integrity.

Confused? Read on to learn how your garden can cause home damage and prevention tips that can help you save money on repairs in the long run. 

How Your Garden Can Damage Your Property and Prevention Tips

1.    Sewage Backup

Tree and plant roots in your garden can cause sewer backup, which ultimately leads to extensive water damage like wall stains, damp floors, mold buildup, and electrical malfunctions. Sewage is also a serious health hazard as the contaminated water contains bacteria, viruses, and toxic chemicals. While trees and plants enhance the look of your property, their roots can find their way into pipes as they detect warmth and moisture during the winter and begin growing towards it. Slowly, the roots invade the underground pipes, either blocking the flow or causing leaks.

Prevention Tip

As a homeowner, you’re responsible for maintaining these pipes, meaning you’re liable for any damages or expenses incurred by the trees or plants in your garden. Therefore, to prevent significant blockages and sewage buildup, you need to schedule regular cleanups and repairs by hiring a home restoration service in Akron-Canton.

2.    Mold and Weed Growth

Akron-Canton is a city with significant rainfall with nearly 160 days of downpours and 28 inches of snow. As a result, most of the soil under the garden and home foundations is moist. While this is a good sign for indoor or outdoor gardeners, poor winter garden maintenance can encourage mold and weed growth – both of which can damage your property in different ways.

The problem with mold is that it feeds off the surface it grows on, including concrete, wood, cardboard, and plastic. When homeowners neglect its growth in their backyard, mold spores can quickly enter homes and encourage its growth in damp areas, such as the basement, under drainage lines, and bathrooms and kitchen. On the other hand, weeds can cut off your garden’s food supply by sucking up all the nutrients from the ground. Over time, it can damage the soil it grows on meaning and causes it to erode. This can be dangerous for your building’s foundation and overall structural integrity.

Prevention Tip

The best way to limit mold growth is to cut or “prune” off the affected sections of plants and/or remove any plant with mold buildup from the garden. You can also apply a commercial fungicide to kill and avoid watering the top of plants.

3.    Hardscape and Structural Damage

Just like tree and plant roots can damage your sewer lines, they can also damage your home’s foundation and surface structures, such as patios, sidewalks, and driveways as they grow under concrete or stone. As a consequence, you’ll begin to notice cracks and uneven surfaces when walking on your property. In general, it’s a good idea not to plant close to any hardscape or your property.

Prevention Tip

While there’s no way to unplant a tree in your garden, you can hire an arborist to relocate the plants to a better location in your garden. You can also hire a restoration service to create an underground barrier to redirect the root’s growth path.

4.    Pests

Poor winter garden maintenance can encourage the growth of pests that can wreak havoc on your garden and damage trees, plants, and soil. More importantly, they can enter your property and damage any organic material in the path, including furniture, wooden floors, cardboards, and clothes. Many pests seek warmth and food during winter when conventional sources are scarce, and they will eat your garden and house, causing thousands of dollars in damages or more. These include:

• Mice and rats
• Squirrels
• Cockroaches
• Termites
• Fleas
• Moths
• Spiders
• Ants
• Fruit flies
• Bees

Prevention Tips

The fastest way to prevent pests is to maintain your garden by using non-toxic pesticides regularly. However, the long-term solution is to grow plants that naturally repel pests like yarrow, aromatic herbs, mint, and fennel. If everything fails, you can always call professionals to assess the damage and rid your property of the infestation.

Renowned Home Restoration Services – 911 Restoration of Akron-Canton

At 911 Restoration of Akron-Canton, we aim to help educate our customers about the different ways they could incur damages on their properties. Proper winter garden maintenance gives you more than a chance to get outside and breathe fresh air. It also ensures that you prevent or minimize the damages caused by tree roots and plants in your garden. However, if you experience any of the damages mentioned above, our team has the expertise and equipment to return your property to its original condition in no time.

Feel free to call us for more information regarding our home restoration services.