The shovels are finally back in the garage after a January of heavy snow and lingering ice, but for College Park homeowners, the real work is just beginning.
Local experts say now is the critical window to inspect yards and homes for hidden winter damage before the spring growing season takes hold.
“It’s as simple as assessing the situation first and then reacting,” homeowner Kamthorn Clary, president of the North College Park Community Association, said. “If there’s nothing to react to, then it’s planning and preparation.”
The January storm initially blanketed the streets in sparkly powder, but prolonged frigid temperatures turned it into solid ice.
“If we only have snow, it can actually help the plants [because] it insulates them,” Karen Petroff, director of landscape and special services at the University of Maryland, said. “What we had wasn’t really snow; it was … a lot of ice.”
This mix of snow, sleet and ice damaged homes and vehicles.
“I’ve heard of leaks,” Clary said. “There have been frozen pipes, vehicular damage from the ice freezing to the cars and people trying to remove it preemptively … but mostly for property owners.”
Clary advised homeowners to inspect every aspect of their properties after every storm.
“It’s taking that step back, looking at your property and then identifying immediate issues,” Clary said. “You can do it in an hour.”
As temperatures rise, the focus shifts to the landscape.
“One thing [homeowners] will want to do as the weather warms up is actually inspect their plants and see if any of the limbs are broken,” Petroff said, “because sometimes with weather, that breakage can leave a tear down the stem or down the trunk.”
Petroff warned that homeowners shouldn’t assume a plant is dead if it doesn’t turn green as early as usual; it may simply be windburned.
“Usually that’s just a leaf problem, and those leaves will fall off and new leaves will replace them,” she said. “People shouldn’t overreact. Give it some time.”
Homeowners should also check their lawns for damage.
“Just the physical weight [of the snow] and the fact that it’s been covered for so long, there might be a bare patch in a lawn that could be reseeded,” Petroff said.
To optimize growth, she recommended raking the lawn and covering it with seeds and soil to encourage spring germination.
According to Petroff, the best time to start growing a lawn is when temperatures consistently stay above 55 degrees.
She pointed to forsythia as a reliable natural indicator.
“That particular plant is just very predictable about how it reacts to ground temperature,” Petroff said. “That means the soil is getting to a temperature where roots are starting to regrow, [and] seeds are starting to germinate.”
Homeowners should also watch for road salt damage.
“[It] increases the salt concentration and it dries out the roots of the plants,” Petroff said.
While this can be mitigated by rain or ground gypsum, Petroff advises physical removal where possible.
“You want to try and keep all of it away from the soil or any plant material, because it changes so many things in the soil,” she said.
Finally, Petroff noted that crape myrtles and cherry trees may experience diminished blooming.
“Flower buds are actually much more sensitive to cold than vegetative buds, [so] it might be that they don’t flower as well,” she said.
Regardless of the season, Clary advised staying proactive about home and lawn maintenance.
“Don’t assume this is never going to happen, because even if it happens once every 10 years, it only takes one [storm] to severely damage your property,” he said.