Crepe Myrtle Pruning

Your crepe myrtles will start leafing out with new growth in a few more weeks so this is the time to do any pruning you might need.

Light pruning will help to keep a nice classic tree form as well as promote stronger blooms this summer. Ideally, you want about 3-5 stems forming the trunk, and the canopy height should equal the height of the trunk. If the canopy gets too big your tree might look more like a shrub and could get top heavy and bend over from the weight of the blooms.

A hard pruning is also an option if you need to control the size of your crepe myrtle tree. This pruning strategy is not ideal for the long term however, so you might want to consider moving the tree and replacing it with a tree that is adequate for the space.

Pine needles and mulch

RIGHT NOW is the best time to get pine needles or mulch done for the following reasons:

• We are offering our best deal of the year on pine needles during the month of January.
• The needles are red and fresh and look great right now.
• Theres not much color in the landscape right now and fresh pine needles and mulch really make a big difference.

Please contact us to get scheduled during January.

Winter Landscape Projects

As leaf season winds down, its a great time for us to schedule some of those miscelaneous landscape projects that have been on the back burner. I like to keep my guys as busy as possible over the winter so I can usually offer a better deal on labor related projects.

The next 3 months are a great time to do some of the following:

• Remove worn-out shrubs, and replace with new shrubs and trees.
• Fresh pine needles or mulch (I always offer a discount on this in January)
• Expand or reduce natural areas.
• Stone borders around beds.
• Landscape lighting system.
• Fix drainage issues.

Feel free to let me know of any ideas you have for the winter project you want to complete.

Annual Flower Beds

Nothing makes the landscape shine during the winter like a bed of healthy, colorful pansies. Unfortunately, sometimes the healthy and colorful part can be tricky. After consulting with my horticulture advisors and testing some products, I have come up with the ultimate combination of soil amendments to get the healthiest plants with constant robust blooms.

Here is the “secret” formula:

1. Build the bed with one part top soil, one part Sustane organic fertilizer, and mulch with a fine pine bark soil conditioner. Because the Sustane is made of composted turkey manure, it provides rich organic nutrients through the season. The soil conditioner gives the bed a fluffy consistency to allow easy root growth.

2. Sprinkle over 2 cups per 100 sq ft of granular fungicide and insecticide and lightly work into the bed. This allows the plants to absorb these pesticides systemically and will last through the season. It will prevent aphids from feeding on pansies and winter fungus from blotching the leaves.

3. Start with healthy robust plants with established root systems. We get the bigger pots from Roundtree Nursery and stay away from the small 6-pack containers.

4. Spray pansies with Macron ornamental fertilizer and deer repellent. This additional fertilizer treatment is key to getting maximum blooms from your pansies. We will spray Macron on the pansies twice the first month, then every other month for the rest of the season.

5. Deadheading through the season to promote more blooms.

This is what we deliver when we install your pansy beds this fall. Only the best products and cutting edge techniques to get great results.

Please give me a call if you would like to create a new pansy bed in your landscape or decorate with pots.

Shrub Trimming

Now that the first round of new growth has fully flushed out an hardened off, its time to do a basic shaping of your evergreen shrubs. For most plants we don't want to do a hard prune down to the wood this time of year (do that in early spring) but just maintain the shape to control size and leave a clean manicured look to the shrub.

Please contact us to get on our shrub trimming list. If you are on our list we will go through the shrub trimming schedule during the month of June and get to you this month as you fall on the schedule. If you have an event coming up that you need trimming done before, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible.