Landsape Blog

rain

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:08:00 +0000

The rain yesterday 1/25/2012 will certainly help but we are still in drought. There will be new legislation & new rules . How many and how effective only time can tell. But for sure the lakes and aquifers will have more demands put on them as the areas population grows and there will be more years with heavy water restrictions.

New plantings should reflect that. Mostly just think more about drought survivability than before , that does not mean only cactus & yuccas , I saw a lot boxwoods & pittosporums struggle to stay healthy last summer in full sun or on the western side of houses . But they did fine in shade and on the northern side of the house, they tolerate shade well & their water requirements are far less than in the direct sun. You do not have to make major changes just always keep in mind we will have more summers with water restriction in the future when planting new things.

winter pruning

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:13:00 +0000

As i drive around I see work that can be done in the yard now, most leave until spring. Pruning dead canes or limbs off perinials, treating for weeds in the grass, Pruning roses around mid February. raking leaves of course. But do not put down lawn fertilizer until mid March putting it down now will only promte weed growth , the turf will not grow until it gets warm enough. Tree pruning for most trees is a winter job , less chance of infection on open wounds from pruning. Get some of this out of the way now, and some of those nice spring days you have less to do in the yard.

planting in winter

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:09:00 +0000

As long as it is not one of our few winter cold spells planting in winter is is not only possible it is better than planting in the summer. Most people plant in the spring but anything not established enough by June suffers in the brutal central Texas heat. In the winter trees & shrubs only need to be watered once a week to get a good start and are on their way to being established before the annual summer inferno. There are some things it is best not install in winter:

sod is better left to early spring , of course annuals would die first freeze (a few exceptions dianthus, sweet allysium, snap dragon, pansies) . You can plant perenials but of course they freeze to the ground next cold spell. Most perinals still will come up anyway in the spring just like they were planted the spring before, but it takes a little more plant knowledge to know which ones. So if you find it is a warn winter day take advantage of it.

Cold Weather

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Raining weeds

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:30:00 +0000

WE are getting much needed rain this week 12/16/2011. It has not been enough to fill the lakes yet but it will do wonders for weed growth . The grass has thinned in many yards so weeds will have a better chance of germination .

If you start to handle the weeds in january rather than waiting until March like most people results will be better.

Salt & Roses

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:28:00 +0000

A client of mine called to tell me that a lot of his plants had dropped their leaves for no reason while he had been gone for a week. I thought well maybe it was the changing weather had dropped a couple of leasves. Boy was i wrong a lot of plants; in particular the roses in one area had defoliated . After a little investigating we determined that his automatic pool cleaning machine was the culprit , it had went haywire spraying salt water all over the place. The plants will recover I gave them some compost tea & acidifier the change the soil ph a little. But it makes you remember each yard in a little micro climate , with shade, poor preforming sprinklers, animals, kids, cleaners well you get the message.

survivors

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 02:49:00 +0000

There a few plants that preformed much better in the drought than i would have thought a couple being roses , knockout roses in particular did well even with little or no water . I saw a pink rose in a field blooming well this week it was proof that an established rose can survive a brutal drought with no help. Of course not all of them are that way it is best to stick with antiques , or other proven varieties. Also plumbago if in partial shade did well with little extra water. And i have a sego in a pot that receive water about 4 times all summer it is still thriving. As the population increases and the lakes stay the same size , plants that can survive emergency water restrictions will become more of an necessity to the gardener in the area.

Compost prices

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:23:00 +0000

The drought caused the cotton crop to be much smaller then normal most of the bagged compost is made from cotton burrs. Because of this compost has almost doubled in the last 60 days. Also in Canada it has rained so much the peat harvest is down. Also because of the drought cattle is being sold off in higher than normal numbers in Texas as there is little hay and feed. So the amount of cow manure may be a lot less in 2012 than usually. I expect compost to become down right costly next year. But at least there will be less Bull**** in an election year who would have thought that would ever happen?

Doc Avery's Haunted House

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:18:00 +0000

I f you have a chance check out Doc Avery's Haunted House in Avery Ranch . Lots of fun, info at http://www.docavery.com/ We got into helping supporting it in a small way last year since I know some of the people involved.

Jeff

Xeriscaping

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:39:00 +0000

With the outdoor watering currently illegal in Round Rock & Georgetown It is time people learned more about Xeriscaping. Xeros greek for dry and landscaping come together for the concept of Xeriscaping. Or simply put A method or style of landscaping promoting or using less water resources. Most people think cactus, but just look at the green belt anything still living after this summer without irrigation would qualify I would think . Live oaks , red oaks, algaritas, sumac, i have even seen lantana still blooming with no water added except rainfall recently. Of course you can add a little water and have a much larger list of plants. Much to my surprise the plumbago in my yard in shade as happily bloomed all summer & fall with surprisingly little added water, the key here is location in the full sun it's requirement would have increased dramatically no doubt. The key is a more sustainable water usage level. This can be accomplished various ways if you let your bermuda lawn go dormant from lack of water that would certainly work to reduce water usage , but may not be the most pleasing way to go (even if your HOA will let you). I urge people to read up on the subject , as both a landscaper & irrigator I know I will need to .

plants that need extra water

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:42:00 +0000

A good designed landscape has plants with water needs that are the same in each sprinkler zone. However sometimes factors such as shade, age of plantings , or maybe you just saw that plant at the nursery and new it would look perfect in that spot. Makes plants in a sprinkler zone need more that others. You can add extra water by a water hose (works well for a new planting ) , or you can over water the rest of the plants in the zone. But that wastes water.

But sometimes if you have several plants with higher water needs in a zone (say plumbago around a cactus) you might consider drip irrigation . i recently added a drip zone to give extra water only to a few plants in 2 zones , they get water when the regular goes off then when the drip goes off only they get extra. The total water usage is less than before but the landscape now looks better.

Cooler nights

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:49:00 +0000

August 17, 2011 shrubs leaves are brown, grass is patchy, & trees are becoming defoliated . But the nights are cooling down. This helps plants cope better with the drought remember they are outside 24 / 7. Now we just need rain.

Its gotta rain sometime.

no matter how much i water

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:40:00 +0000

i have seen chinch bugs in the lawns in the last 2 weeks they can cause serious damage to St Augustine grass . Although hard to see you can find them by cutting both ends of a coffee can & pushing it down on the grass to make a seal then putting a couple inches of water in it. Chinch bugs come to the top to get air. If you have them either treat with an appropriate pesticide or have a professional do it . You can not water enough to offset the damage they do once population reaches a high level.

Dry Spots Everywhere

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:50:00 +0000

In the current drought problems in your irrigation system show up fast. You should check your system once a month or so , it takes only a few minutes & can save you money and precious water.

Use the test feature of your control box if you have one, this runs each zone 2 minutes allowing you to walk through the yard and look around. If not go to manual start and go through them one at a time, 2 people help with this method one to advance the system & one to mark problems. The most common problems are broken sprinkler heads & heads not properly adjusted. If you need to replace a sprinkler head make the size is correct, I see heads installed that are too short to clear the grass frequently, a head too short will not clear the grass and therefore not water properly. The riser also plays a part the head should be at ground level not above it or below . Also take note of the distance it is supposed to spray, there are nozzles for different distances the wrong nozzle will either cover too much or too little.

And don't forget to look at direction the head faces watering the side of the house or street wastes water.

new technician

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:11:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce that : Michael McKellop has become a licensed irrigation technician . We are proad of Michael and expect him to help serve our customers better.

News

Mon, 09 May 2011 04:55:00 +0000

Price Lawn & Landscape is pleased to announce That Derek Morales Has become a licensed Irrigation technicia

This should help us respond quicker to sprinkler repair calls that we receive. Congratulation Derek

aeration

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:20:00 +0000

Spring check out

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:32:00 +0000

Many probably most people do not check out their sprinkler system before turning it back on for the spring. I am not saying you should not water in the winter, but most people don't so before you just put the system on automatic you should walk through the system once to see if pipes have broken over the winter, valves have quit etc. Finding out in a month or even two can waste water or result in a area not watered in the lawn. i found one this week with two sprinkler heads spraying 20 feet in to the street & one watering the house next door, not the best use of resources.

Sprinkler repair correctly

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:43:00 +0000

I ran across a broken pipe this week filled silicone & duct taped. Would you believe it still leaked? I do not know the circumstances that led to this but if you wish to repair a problem probably a little more effort to finding out how to do it would be in order. This attempt simply made a muddy mess in the yard after a while.

Types of sprinkler heads

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:45:00 +0000

In doing sprinkler repair for people this month i noticed several yards where on the same section or zone spray heads have been mixed with rotors or rotator nozzles . They are not compatible on the same zone. Why? even though rotors or rotator nozzle sprinklers throw water farther making people think they are making the system more efficient, nothing could be farther from the truth. Sprinklers should have as close as possible "matched precipitation" meaning it should put down water equally as possible throughout the zone. Although the amount of water a spray head puts out per minute is not that much different than rotor or rotator nozzle, a spray head with a 15 foot radius covers about 176 square feet (use Pi times radius squared) , a rotor covering 20 feet though covers about 314 square feet it will need more time to water as much per square foot as the spray head. If you are not covering the area as well as you should this is not the solution.

Removing jasmine

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 03:17:00 +0000

Asiatic jasmine starts slowly year one not putting hardly any growth, year 2 growing a little , year three it grows like crazy. After a few years it can get out of hand. Jasmine has a waxy leaf & so is resistant to chemical control.

However it is shallow rooted and digging up 3 inches of soil with it works well. Sometimes if it is over desirable root systems I don't won't to damage i just sharpen a square nose shovel and dig about 3/4 of an inch in to the soil. i have had good (although not perfect) success with this approach (shown in pictures) . You will get a few plants that come up later so don't plant for a few weeks so you can get rid of stragglers.

turning off sprinkler system

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 01:47:00 +0000

If you have a broken sprinkler main line leaking or maybe even gushing water out of the ground. You need to know how to turn it off without turning off the water to the house.

Suppliers

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:13:00 +0000

Although It has been cold this week I have had several calls this week wanting to know where to buy Plants & also soil products for do it yourselves crowd. Here in Round Rock I recommend Whittlesey's Rock & Stone at www.989rock.com for soil, compost and rock & stone. And Round Rock gardens for plants . Both are knowledgeable about there trades & I have done business with both for over 10 years. I have been meaning to mention them here for sometime but noticing their tenacity in the cold weather reminded me. I myself have stayed in the heat this week.

Stay warm

new fence

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:04:00 +0000

always check out your sprinkler system after a new fence is installed.

No rain

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 01:18:00 +0000

12/15/10 We have had no rain for weeks in Austin & many plants are showing the effects . You should water at least once in a while to keep your landscape healthy . It needs far less than in the summer but still needs water , especially before a cold front moves in. A little water now means a better landscape in the spring. Maybe the weather will help us out and rain soon.