SPRING HAS ARRIVED

It has been a long and variable winter with rain, snow, ice, and drought. We can all put that behind us as Spring arrived yesterday, Sunday, March 20^th at 8:33am. We have been working hard this winter through the changing weather including snow and ice and are excited as spring begins for us all to enjoy our efforts these past 3 months. There is always work to do in the landscape but spring is the most exciting time to see plants come to life, leaves to come back onto trees, most plants begin blooming, and everything growing again. Let’s pause and enjoy the landscape coming into bloom.

SPRING ISSUES AND PRIORITIES

WET WEATHER MOWING 

The variable weather this winter had lawns growing when it was warmer and slowing when it cooled. We avoided mowing until late February as the ground is usually too soft and we want to avoid damage. We have been mowing the past several weeks but the rainy weather has complicated things. We avoid mowing soft lawns on or right after rainy days to avoid damage from rutting. March is always a challenging month for mowing so it will be variable, based on weather. Weekly mowing will begin sometime in April as it warms and dries out.

REJUVENATION PRUNING CONTINUES

As we have been discussing all winter, there are likely some shrubs in your landscape that naturally grow larger than the location they are planted in allows. In keeping them pruned to the appropriate height, many shrubs get out of hand and too big over time. To correct this, we recommend rejuvenation pruning to bring them back into size. This can sometimes be achieved by thinning pruning, but other times they need to be cut down to the ground and allowed to regrow at a shorter height and more naturally. The problem is that when we make the cutback, it looks like we killed the plants. However, they almost always grow back and look much better by the end of the season.

LATE SEASON LEAF DROP

Through the winter, we spend much time in cleaning up and removing all of the leaves and other organic debris in the shrub beds. Unfortunately, some trees including most oaks, still have yet to drop all of their leaves. This work continues into the early spring. Part of this work is to just keep sites looking cosmetically clean, but it also is to prepare shrub beds for pre-emergent weed control application and rebarkdusting.

SHRUB BED REBARKDUSTING

We highly recommend rebarkdusting sites every other year. Bark dust decomposes and barkdust is a great moisture control and weed control agent, and makes your project look dramatically better when maintained on an every other year basis. However, it's appearance fades with time as does its water saving and weed control properties.

SEASONAL COLOR MAINTENANCE

Most pansy plantings are doing quite well. Some of the credit of this is due to the mostly mild weather this winter, but our ongoing winter maintenance program helps ensure, regardless of weather, that your pansies are healthy through the winter and into the spring. Pansies are starting to grow again and the bloom will be spectacular over the next 2 months before it is time to change out to summer flowers.

IRRIGATION SYSTEM ACTIVATION SERVICE

As wet as it is outside right now, irrigation season is only a month or two away. We have been busy for the last month and will continue through April to get our system serviced and ready for the irrigation season. We have started irrigating as early as April 1, but normally irrigation season starts sometime in May. If you see the sprinklers on in the next month, it is likely because our staff is on site tuning up your system for the season. 

SPRING MOSS CONTROL

Moss is an ongoing problem in our wet climate, especially in shady locations. We recommend treating lawns twice each winter, December/January and April/May as once does not provide season long control. We treat early to stop it from taking over during the winter but it comes back by spring where we treat it again to eliminate before summer. Twice yearly has proved effective to allow lawns to keep healthy.