Now is a great time to start planning your spring color beds. Annual color will provide your garden and landscape with color all spring and summer. “Annuals” is a term used to describe plants that will not live through the winter, therefore, you should plan early and plant to get the most impact. Check out this video on how to properly plan your spring color beds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN5hMYdq27I
Category → Landscape Design/Build
Planting Trees & Shrubs – Soil Preparation
Proper soil preparation is critical to the success of plantings in Georgia. Most of us have clay soils to work with, especially when planting in areas where any altering of the natural terrain has occurred (such as new homes, old fields and older homes), and we need to improve the soil in order to have a healthy garden.
For starters you will want to “lay out” (determine) where your new plantings are to go by measuring the areas and marking the bed lines (edges). Try upside down spray paint (which is relatively permanent) in case you want to do all of your marking for several days’ work. White powdered lime and garden hoses also work well for marking bed lines. Mark several spots on the ground along a proposed bed line by measuring from a permanent object such as the corner of your house, then connect the dots.
At this point make sure there are no plants still present that are not to remain. Spray Roundup brand herbicide on any plants that will come back if you are not able to dig up 100% of the roots (dandelions, bermuda grass, and japanese honeysuckle) and wait before the next step to insure that all of the weeds that you sprayed are dead.
If you are planting more than a half dozen plants at a time, it will be very beneficial to rent a tiller and till the entire planting area to a minimum depth of 10 inches. This will help the plants significantly by adding oxygen to the soil. Any money spent on tiller rental will be offset by money saved on not having to doctor sick plants which have been plugged into suffocating, compacted clay soil. If you are planting an area around and under existing trees, don’t till the soil mechanically since this will cut important small feeder roots of the tree. In areas around existing trees simply break up the soil that comes out of the hole and add compost to that soil. Scarify (break up) the soil below the root ball of your new plant and then tamp (lightly compact) it down so that the plant doesn’t settle to where the top of the root ball is below the level of the surrounding ground.
After your till your area initially, spread Erth Food brand compost over the area at a rate of 1 bag per 25 square feet and till into the soil. Establish a 2” trench edge along all of the bed lines and rake debris (clumps, rocks, etc.) out of the bed.
You are now ready for the fun part- planting the plant!
Start 2011 with a good Gardening Plan!
If you find that your landscape is riddled with “issues”, there may be some design flaw involved. The landscape design is the “foundation” upon which other landscape issues originate. This is where plant, drainage, and environment problems are either created or eliminated. So improvements in the “foundation” should lead to easier and less expensive care.
Generally speaking, the monetary value of a landscape design is inversely related to the monetary value of a landscape management program. In other words, the less one has invested in design, the more one invests in landscape management. Poor design often results in a landscape that requires excessive pruning, or performs poorly due to improper light requirements and other reasons.
Landscape Management, after installation, is far more involved and sophisticated than most people seem to realize. Just as the monetary value of a landscape design is inversely related to the monetary value of a landscape management program, as mentioned above, so it is with landscape cultural practices as related to insect, disease and nutrition problems. Put another way, the more care that’s given to mowing, pruning, cleaning, and other cultural practices, the fewer insect, disease and nutrition problems that one will have. For example, improper pruning often leads to insect and disease problems. Send us your questions to our Facebook Page!
Time to reduce your Lawn Sprinklers!!!
Hello again fellow landscape enthusiast. I am simply writing today to remind you to reduce your lawn sprinklers. We recommend completely turning off your zones that water your bermuda or zoysia lawn. With the temperatures easing and lawns going into dormancy, it is not necessary to irrigate. Mother nature should provide all that is needed until spring. If you have a fescue lawn, continue to irrigate 2-3 times per week but monitor closely and decrease it gradually into winter. Make sure you are not over watering leaving the fescue wet and soggy.
For your trees and shrubs you can continue to water once per week if we do not receive rainfall, your run time should be reduced as we go further into Fall.
Good luck, and please feel free to contact our office with any questions.
The Nature’s Team!
