PREPARING FOR SPRING WHILE DEALING WITH WINTER

It has been a relatively mild winter after our December week of light snow and ice. We have treated sites a few times due to forecasts the past month and a half but January and February have been much warmer and drier than normal. Our private weather forecaster has said all month, “winter isn’t over yet” and here we go with a week forecast to have freezing temperatures and possible snow or ice.    

The late fall leaves and winter weather in December had us behind schedule with spring prep but we are catching up. Hopefully winter weather does not put us behind again as we have much more work to do over the next month to be ready for spring and the return to the mowing season.

Here are our priorities:

Rejuvenation Pruning

Much of our focus this winter has been pruning and preparing our shrub beds for the season. Are most intensive work in the shrub beds is during the winter. Some ask us if there's anything to do in the landscape during the winter and this surprises us as we are very active and believe some of the most important work that we do is during January and February. Many plants, especially deciduous ones, our best to prune during the dormant season. For us, all plants are touched up or in tensely pruned this time of year to get prepared for the coming season. Our pruning during the spring and summer is normally just to maintain height control as the best time to structurally are correct Italy prune plants is during the dormant season. 

Beginning Mowing

The warm weather in February has many lawns still growing but this cold week will slow them back down. We will soon be getting back into our mowing routine and hopefully we can get keep the drier weather to help facilitate this. We can’t mow on days that start below freezing and also will take care to not mow when weather is rainy to avoid damage from rutting. This March looks to be a challenging month for mowing. 

Finishing Pesky Late Leaf Drop

Through the winter, we spend much time in cleaning up and removing all of the leaves another organic debris in the shrub beds. Unfortunately, some trees including most oaks, still have yet to drop all of their leaves that's 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 rebar casting.

Spring Moss Control

Despite treating during the winter, we recommend a second annual moss control treatment in the early spring. Moss is very aggressive due to our dark wet winters and regrows thus requires two treatments each year to keep under control. We will again be treating for moss control in late March and through April.

Shrub Bed Re-barkdusting

We highly recommend re-barkdusting site every other year. Bark dust decomposes and it's water saving and weed control properties quickly fade after that. Barkdust is a great moisture control and weed control agent, and makes your project look dramatically better when maintain on an every other year basis.

Pansies Are Blooming

Despite the current winter weather, most pansy plantings are doing quite well. Some of the credit of this is due to the mild weather in February. Also, our ongoing winter maintenance program helps ensure regardless of whether that your pansies are healthy through the winter and into the spring.



Spring Irrigation System Servicing Beginning

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



WE ARE EXCITED FOR SPRING AND SEEING OUR WINTER WORK SHINE

Winter has been busy and spring will be busier. We're excited for the weather to improve as well as the plants to return to life and all the work that we've done this past winter to shine with beautiful landscapes the spring and summer.