Sirhornsalot
**The Official Horn Sports Landscaper and Landscap
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2013
- Messages
- 33,307
The month of February doesn’t last long and it seems every February is different, weather-wise. The last three Februaries have been relatively cold while this year we seem to be going into a warm pattern.
I bring this up because the early spring-like weather can cause homeowners and do-it-yourselfers to get out in their landscapes early (a good thing) and begin their spring regime (not a good thing). So this month’s Landscape Thread is dedicated to warning against doing certain things, early.
Fertilization
Lots of people will buy a weed-n-feed product to put on their lawn to combat weeds and late winter weeds are now trying to establish themselves in the lawn. This is a bad move. First, it’s too cool for most weed killers, especially granular ones, to be effective. Second, it is not a good thing to put nitrogen on your turf as it is coming out of dormancy. This can stunt the growth and possibly help cause fungus just prior to when the growing season really gets started.
If you’re in San Antonio-Austin-Houston, you can apply your first of the season fertilization the last week of March. In DFW, you want to wait until at least April 1. What you’re trying to do is get it down AFTER the last freeze. April 1 is usually a safe date for DFW.
If you decide to go the weed/feed route instead of straight fertilizer (without weed killer), know that you must distinguish between two products when you get to the Lowes/HD. There are fertilizers such as Scott’s Turfbuilder which is designed for Bermuda lawns. And there are other products such as Fertilome’s St Aug weed/feed and Scott’s Bonus S which are designed strictly for St Augustine/Zoysia/Centipede grass lawns. If you put the wrong product on your lawn, your lawn could suffer a dramatic setback as a result. The bermuda weed/feed products will kill St Augustine and Zoysia while the St Augustine weed/feeds will kill Bermuda grass. Make sure you get the right one when you buy.
Fertilization is a procedure whereby more is not better. Stick with the recommended ratio listed on the back of the bag. Water in well after applying.
Spring Flowers
As tempting as it might be, do not plant your spring flowers before April 1 or the latest expected freeze date. Planting them prior to that runs the risk of losing them should one of those late winter storms comes sweeping in. And that almost always happens.
Bird Houses
Now is the time to go ahead put your bird houses out again. Some breeds of birds are already arriving to scout out their spring dwelling locations. Make sure you have cleaned out your bird houses as they prefer to start from scratch each year with their nesting.
Put them in a location that is away from people/pet traffic and hang them so that squirrels and other animals will not try to rob the nest.
Each year, clean your bird houses out. Birds prefer to start from scratch with their nests and existing nesting may indicate to them that another bird has already claimed the location.
Hummingbird Feeders
It’s not time to put them out yet. If you have one still out, bring it in and clean it up. Do not put out again until after the last freeze. Come fall, make sure you remove these feeders by mid-October to encourage the Hummingbirds to move south for the winter. Keeping them out may cause them to stay around too long and be killed by a freeze.
Now that we’ve gone through some items that you should not do right now, let’s move on to some things that you should be doing right now.
Sprinklers
Now is a great time to have your sprinkler system checked for problems. Do not wait until the season begins to do this. Waiting means you’ll likely not know something is wrong until something is dead, such as turf or landscape plants. In the long run, it’s less expensive to address these things in the off season.
Pre emergent
Right now is the time to get it down. Keep in mind, pre emergent is not designed to kill weeds. So if you have weeds popping up you’ll need to spray those using a weed killing product. Pre emergent has one function and that is to sterilize soil against weed seed germination. In other words, what weeds you have will have to be killed but the pre emergent will help make sure new weed growth does not develop.
Pre emergent is commonly called “crabgrass preventer†or “weed preventer†in some products sold in retail stores such as Lowes or Home Depot.
Crape Myrtles
This is a pet peeve of mine - Crape Myrtle trimming. I simply get sick to my stomach when I see a Crape Myrtle that’s been “hacked.†When I say “hack,†I mean when they are cut short, straight across, and look like sticks coming out of the ground.
The proper way to trim a Crape Myrtle is to knub off the thin growth, remove sucker growth (at the base of the tree), and prune off weak or redundant growth. I’m including a graphic showing what to consider when trimming a Crape Myrtle.
Mid-February is the time to trim back those Crape Myrtles.
New Landscape Planning
If you’re considering installing a new landscape or redoing a landscape that’s become old and tired, now is a great time to do that. With new landscaping, you look at the month of July and try to keep your window large enough between now and then to get your plants in and on their way before that brunt of summer heat comes about.
That will wrap things up for this edition. I’ll open things up for questions if anyone has any they want to ask. I’m here to answer them for you.
I bring this up because the early spring-like weather can cause homeowners and do-it-yourselfers to get out in their landscapes early (a good thing) and begin their spring regime (not a good thing). So this month’s Landscape Thread is dedicated to warning against doing certain things, early.
Fertilization
Lots of people will buy a weed-n-feed product to put on their lawn to combat weeds and late winter weeds are now trying to establish themselves in the lawn. This is a bad move. First, it’s too cool for most weed killers, especially granular ones, to be effective. Second, it is not a good thing to put nitrogen on your turf as it is coming out of dormancy. This can stunt the growth and possibly help cause fungus just prior to when the growing season really gets started.
If you’re in San Antonio-Austin-Houston, you can apply your first of the season fertilization the last week of March. In DFW, you want to wait until at least April 1. What you’re trying to do is get it down AFTER the last freeze. April 1 is usually a safe date for DFW.
If you decide to go the weed/feed route instead of straight fertilizer (without weed killer), know that you must distinguish between two products when you get to the Lowes/HD. There are fertilizers such as Scott’s Turfbuilder which is designed for Bermuda lawns. And there are other products such as Fertilome’s St Aug weed/feed and Scott’s Bonus S which are designed strictly for St Augustine/Zoysia/Centipede grass lawns. If you put the wrong product on your lawn, your lawn could suffer a dramatic setback as a result. The bermuda weed/feed products will kill St Augustine and Zoysia while the St Augustine weed/feeds will kill Bermuda grass. Make sure you get the right one when you buy.
Fertilization is a procedure whereby more is not better. Stick with the recommended ratio listed on the back of the bag. Water in well after applying.
Spring Flowers
As tempting as it might be, do not plant your spring flowers before April 1 or the latest expected freeze date. Planting them prior to that runs the risk of losing them should one of those late winter storms comes sweeping in. And that almost always happens.
Bird Houses
Now is the time to go ahead put your bird houses out again. Some breeds of birds are already arriving to scout out their spring dwelling locations. Make sure you have cleaned out your bird houses as they prefer to start from scratch each year with their nesting.
Put them in a location that is away from people/pet traffic and hang them so that squirrels and other animals will not try to rob the nest.
Each year, clean your bird houses out. Birds prefer to start from scratch with their nests and existing nesting may indicate to them that another bird has already claimed the location.
Hummingbird Feeders
It’s not time to put them out yet. If you have one still out, bring it in and clean it up. Do not put out again until after the last freeze. Come fall, make sure you remove these feeders by mid-October to encourage the Hummingbirds to move south for the winter. Keeping them out may cause them to stay around too long and be killed by a freeze.
Now that we’ve gone through some items that you should not do right now, let’s move on to some things that you should be doing right now.
Sprinklers
Now is a great time to have your sprinkler system checked for problems. Do not wait until the season begins to do this. Waiting means you’ll likely not know something is wrong until something is dead, such as turf or landscape plants. In the long run, it’s less expensive to address these things in the off season.
Pre emergent
Right now is the time to get it down. Keep in mind, pre emergent is not designed to kill weeds. So if you have weeds popping up you’ll need to spray those using a weed killing product. Pre emergent has one function and that is to sterilize soil against weed seed germination. In other words, what weeds you have will have to be killed but the pre emergent will help make sure new weed growth does not develop.
Pre emergent is commonly called “crabgrass preventer†or “weed preventer†in some products sold in retail stores such as Lowes or Home Depot.
Crape Myrtles
This is a pet peeve of mine - Crape Myrtle trimming. I simply get sick to my stomach when I see a Crape Myrtle that’s been “hacked.†When I say “hack,†I mean when they are cut short, straight across, and look like sticks coming out of the ground.
The proper way to trim a Crape Myrtle is to knub off the thin growth, remove sucker growth (at the base of the tree), and prune off weak or redundant growth. I’m including a graphic showing what to consider when trimming a Crape Myrtle.
Mid-February is the time to trim back those Crape Myrtles.
New Landscape Planning
If you’re considering installing a new landscape or redoing a landscape that’s become old and tired, now is a great time to do that. With new landscaping, you look at the month of July and try to keep your window large enough between now and then to get your plants in and on their way before that brunt of summer heat comes about.
That will wrap things up for this edition. I’ll open things up for questions if anyone has any they want to ask. I’m here to answer them for you.
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