Are you and your landscape ready for spring?

The groundhog has made his debut and predicted six more weeks of winter, so what does that mean for you? It means that you need to start preparing your landscape for spring. A good start would be to apply pre-emergent to the turf and bed areas. Pre-emergent is generally applied in a granular form and watered in to create a barrier to which weeds are unable to germinate. It is usually applied a week before Forsythia blooms, in our area it is the second week of February. This is also a good time to check out the irrigation system. Check the clock to ensure the correct time and day, if it is digital replace the backup battery as well. Next, go to each station, turn it on and observe for leaky heads, a broken line and water spray overlapping on to the concrete. You would be surprised just how much water is wasted due to these common issues. Once you have made your repairs and adjustments, setup the runtimes of each station to ensure adequate watering times, but to prevent runoff. These are just a couple of the many things you can do to prepare yourself and your landscape for spring. Check back for more!

Rainwater harvesting allows you to keep a green lawn even in a drought!

Everyone who went through this past summer knows how hard a drought can hit your lawn, especially when a water ban is enforced. But for many of our clients, the water ban wasn't an issue, because when it did rain, their lawns got roughly triple the benefit of other lawns because they installed a rainwater harvesting system.

For most people, when it rains, it's a brief respite from the slow death of their lawn. But with a harvesting system, you can capture water that would normally end up as runoff, and use it at your discretion by re-introducing it into your watering system. This means that you are free to water your lawn even at the height of a drought, ban or no ban, keeping your lawn lush, green and the envy of the neighborhood.

The Best Defense – A little work now can prevent major hassles in the spring

1. Water your lawn – this not only keeps your grass healthy, but can give it the head start it needs to keep the weeds at bay in the spring.
2. Clear out and replace debris – Fall has come and gone, and if all that debris is left alone, it can cause rot and attract a whole host of tiny evildoers to your lawn and landscaping.
3. Pre-treat with weed killers – The weeds are germinating right now, just waiting for spring to explode into full glory. Put a stop to that now.
4. Plant for Spring – November and December are the ideal time to plant bulbs for spring color, as deep cold actually activates the germination process.

The Importance of Insulating Plants for Cool Weather

When you or your kids leave the house when it gets cool, you make sure they're bundled up, right? And it's not just for comfort, it's for their health. Well, your plants are no different. Cold can have adverse effects on your landscaping, just as it can on pets and family.

Of course, they don't make mittens and mufflers for shrubbery. Instead, you want to make sure you insulate your plants against the cold with pinestraw or some other plant bedding that will hold in air and keep the frigid air from freezing the ground around the root systems.

With just a little attention, you can keep your lawn happy and healthy year round, and ready to spring back to life when the weather warms up again.

Rainwater Harvesting Lowers Your Water Bill

We're not sure why rain is associated with the blues. For many of our clients, rain brings smiles to their faces...and a sigh of relief to their pocketbooks, because their rainwater harvesting systems save them as much as 60% on their water bill.

A rainwater harvesting system lets nature help save you money by taking the water it gives you and putting it to work around your house. Lawncare, flushing toilets, doing laundry---all of these tasks can be handled just as well by collected rainwater, filtered by your system. Studies show that only 40% of your household water use requires the sort of potable water delivered by your local water works. By harvesting rainwater, you could end up paying only for that 40%!

Planting Late in the Year

Planting late in the year? Don't worry! Fall is one of the best times to plant and transplant many perennials, shrubs, and trees.

These plants tend to have a hardy root system that can withstand cooler temperatures and aren’t focused on providing nutrients to new growth or blooming flowers at this time of year. I’ve seen a number of people waste good money on expensive plants in the spring only to find they are dead by mid-summer due to improper care. But in most cases, if you start with a healthy plant come fall and put it into the ground, it will become well-established by spring and have a good chance at survival.

A good rule of thumb is to try and get the plants in the ground about 6 weeks before the first frost, so don’t wait too long!

How to Prepare your Lawn/Plants for Fall

Caring for your lawn in the fall is as important as in spring and summer. Regular care is the key to an attractive and healthy lawn through the fall and winter months.

Fall fertilization is the key to prolonging fall color and promoting early spring recovery of the lawn. It helps produce a dense turf that resists winter weeds. Fertilizer used in the fall should be higher in nitrogen and potassium and lower in phosphorus. Grasses fertilized this way have shown greater survival during winter months than those fertilized with high phosphorous.

Also, when your lawn goes dormant during winter months, it is important to remember the grass is living and needs moisture for survival. During the winter, if it doesn't rain for several weeks, then the lawn should be irrigated. Irrigation before a hard freeze is helpful in reducing freeze injury to the grass. It takes much colder air temperatures to lower the temperature of a moist soil than that of a dry soil.