Soil PH, water, light levels; brushing up on your plant disease knowledge sure does a lot to maintain your home’s lovely landscaping. We wouldn’t be surprised if your yard is the envy of the neighborhood! That being said, there’s an aerial threat you may not have considered when it comes to the health of your yard and beloved flower arrangements: your gutters.
While well-maintained, properly installed seamless gutters can coexist peacefully with your landscaping—even protect it—gutters that aren’t taken care of can outright decimate nearby plants. What’s worse, until you get them fixed, it may almost be impossible to grow anything underneath them!
Below, Tony’s Lifetime Exteriors, your Sauk Rapids team of gutter installers, discusses the relationship between landscaping and your gutters—and how you can make sure the two work together in harmony to keep your home looking great.
What Ailing Gutter Installations Do to Landscaping
Gutters have one job, and one job only: to direct rainwater and meltwater away from your home’s foundation. When they’re working well, they keep the plants and the soil underneath them relatively dry—but when they begin to leak or overflow, you’ll notice quite a few undesirable outcomes.
Soil Erosion
When water consistently spills out onto the ground surrounding your landscaping, that soil will slowly begin to flow away and degrade. Not only does this have drastic consequences for your foundation, but your landscaping certainly won’t appreciate it, either. Most plants need relatively stable ground levels to grow, lest their roots get exposed.
Overwatering
You don’t need to ask a gardener to know that plants can be finicky when it comes to their water requirements. Anyone who has attempted to grow even a cactus can attest to this! Unfortunately, when your gutters clog up, they will fail to manage rain and meltwater as they should. Overflowing frequently occurs, which can give your beloved plants too much water for their own liking, resulting in poor growth or even an untimely death.
Root Rot
It’s fun to say, but not so fun to deal with! According to The Spruce, Root Rot is a plant disease that “can be caused by waterlogged soil or various kinds of fungi.” Overflowing gutters are amazing at causing the former, as they dump water onto areas that don’t otherwise have many ways of draining the stuff off. This nasty garden nemesis can manifest as yellowing, dropping leaves, and eventually rotting away from the plant’s root, making it tricky to identify, as you don’t have visual access.
What’s worse, this plant disease can spread, according to Hydrobuilder—meaning that, if left unchecked, it can infect every inch of your landscaping. And all because your gutters were making puddles that didn’t drain away!
How to Improve the Health of Your Plants and Gutters
Whether it’s through ruining the soil, providing too much water, or even outright causing disease, it’s clear that gutters that don’t work mean landscaping that doesn’t thrive. So what can you do to make sure both parts of your home maintain their curb appeal while also remaining functional and/or living?
Regular Gutter Checkups Are Essential
Your home and condo contractor should do these ideally twice a year. A professional eye can not just spot existing problems, such as storm damage, but foresee future ones and nip them in the bud before they begin to hurt your plants. Don’t underestimate your own role in overseeing your gutters, though! Homeowners aren’t helpless, and with regular walk-arounds of your home, you’ll easily catch damage in time for a pro to come and save the day.
Clean Your Gutters
At minimum, just like checkups, cleanings should happen twice a year—once in the fall, when you’re dealing with heavy debris, and once in the spring, after the snow has drained away and some trees begin shedding their seeds (some strangely do this with leaves during this time, too). Lack of gutter cleaning can result in the dreaded clog, which is not a problem you want festering, as it can cause overflow.
Looking for ways to make this chore a little easier? Check out our gutter installation blog for some tips.
Go Seamless
Seamless gutters are the cream of the crop. Because they have fewer ridges where debris can get caught, they’re a smart choice for homeowners who care about the landscaping below. Less potential for overflow means happier plants. Fewer seams also mean fewer weak points, which means a smaller chance of breakage—and again, happier plants.
At Tony’s Lifetime Exteriors, we’re huge fans of this gutter type; check out our condo contractor blog that fully explains why.
Keep Your Home Looking Great With the Help of Tony’s Lifetime Exteriors
Our professional roofing contractors and gutter experts would be happy to help you maintain your home. Reach our Sauk Rapids office today at 320-252-9086.