How to maintain your landscape.

Watering Guide

The most crucial factor for plant health and vigor is appropriate irrigation. Immediately after planting and until the plant becomes established, perennials, shrubs, and trees need water to thrive. When you water make sure you are watering the soil where the new rootball is located. Never water when the rootball is saturated.

How do you know when your plants are established? In our region it normally takes one year for each inch of trunk diameter. So a 2" trunk diameter tree would take two years to be established.

The most frequently asked questions we get are how often and how much water do I give my new plants. See the guidelines below:

Lawn Care

Seed Lawns

Seed needs to be kept constantly moist in order for the seeds to germinate. Water the lawn by hand twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening for 15 minutes each time. Do not let the water puddle; rather, use a light mist to allow for even saturation. Continue watering in this way until you see green shoots emerging from the soil.

Once the lawn has germinated, cut watering back to once a day for half an hour.

Sod Lawns

Sod needs to be thoroughly soaked. The water has to penetrate through the sod and into the soil. This means watering for at least an hour each day. Be sure that the entire area is thoroughly soaked. If you are using a sprinkler, check it to be sure it covers the area evenly.

Once your lawn has been mowed 2-3 times, begin watering deeply and infrequently – about 1” once a week; less when there is rainfall.

Mowing

A first cut should be done when the tip of the blades of grass barely start to flop over. It is best to cut all lawns at 3”. It is essential to cut sod at this height. Also make sure that the mower blade is sharp each time you mow.

Warm Weather Care

Good hygiene is important to healthy gardens. Remember that your new garden is a living system, and all parts of the system need to work well for it to flourish.

Inspect your plants regularly for damage from wind and rain, insects or disease. This is a pleasurable activity when done in the morning or evening. Take a notebook with you and note what problems may need to be addressed.

Cut away any dying branches or diseased growth, in order to prevent its spread.

Encourage the birds to nest in your yard with feeders, bird baths, and bird houses. Besides being a charming addition to the garden, a strong bird population is a natural deterrent against insect damage.

Use chemicals sparingly. Japanese beetles are best hand picked off your roses, or you can purchase pheromone traps to lure them. Slugs can be sprinkled with table salt, or enticed with jar lids filled with beer and set on the ground overnight. If you must spray, try to use one of the many organic pesticides.

Black spot on roses is a problem for most northeastern gardeners who face hot and humid summers. A good organic spray can prevent the fungus, but you must start your spraying regimen before hot and humid weather begins, then reapply it every 7-10 days.

Apply fertilizer in the spring. The best fertilizers are natural ones, like manure, compost, and blood or bone meal. Commercially prepared fertilizers are second best, but are more easily scratched into the soil. Fertilizer sold by the bag is marked with three numbers, for example, 5-10-5, or 10-10-10. These numbers represent the amount of the plant nutrients present: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Ornamental garden plants should be fertilized with a product whose numbers are all below twenty. Anything higher will be too much of a good thing, and can damage your plants.

Earthworms are a sign of healthy soil, so the more you see, the better. Soil is part of the living system of your garden, so keep it alive with regular applications of organic materials - compost, manure, shredded leaves, and pine needles. Feed your soil, and the soil will feed your plants!