Fri, 18 Sep 2009
Native and Adapted Landscape Maintenance Presentation Outline
1.Intro
o Me
o Red Wheelbarrow Coaching Sessions- customized to do lists
o Growing Pleasures- blog
2.The Native Landscape needs care too! Give reasons- Vigor! Save Water! Save Energy! Keep it looking good!
3.My presentation is about 45 minutes long, and there is plenty of time for questions. Feel free to ask during the presentation and I’ll be around afterwards for more complex questions.
4.I divided it into three parts, focusing on the fall season. Fall includes end of aug, sept and oct. We will talk first about what plants to leave alone in the garden in the fall. Then we can talk about fall fertilization and things we can do for all of the plants in the yard in the fall. Then we’ll wrap it up by touching on pruning techniques for certain plants that are really common in the native landscape, but I chose plants that are kind of hard and complicated to care for. I have some notes for the winter season but we may not get that far.
5.What to hold off on:
o Large shrubs like vibirnums, burford and chinese hollies, yaupons, japanese yews, texas sages, loropetalums, Texas Mountain Laurels, are all blooming or growing berries or holding onto buds for next year's blooms. At this time of year try to only prune very gently for shape. Avoid agressive pruning at this time because you will remove their buds, blooms and berries.
o Roses: prune only for shape, leave on flower 'hips' or fruit to encourage dormancy for winter
o Small trees: also avoid heavy pruning at this time. Prune only if branches are rubbing on each other or on structures or if they are hanging down in walkways.
o Turfgrass/Buffalograss: mow less frequently as temperatures cool. Leave your turfgrass relatively long in the winter to prevent weeds when it is dormant. Some people mow buffalograss at this time but I do not recommend it.
6.What to do for everybody- all of the plants in the landscape:
o Overview: this is our last chance to prune plants before winter, and to let the plants put on new growth before a chance of freezing threatens the health of new growth. This is also the time to give the plants one last gentle feeding. Basically we are trying to revive some of the plants after a long hot summer while at the same time getting other slower growing plants to go dormant for the winter. It's also a good time to take stock of the landscape- who made it through the summer? It's a good time to plant.
o In september and early October the entire landscape will benefit from a slow-release organic fertilizer like ladybug 8-2-4, cottonseed meal, etc. Water in your fertilizer with compost tea or a soil activator like Terra Tonic. I avoid using foliar feeding fertilizers like Johns recipe/ fish emulsion at this time of year because I think it encourages too much vigorous growth that can be damaged by cold weather.
o Remove summer weeds to get more bang for your buck.
o Corn gluten
Composting and mulching
7.Now the specifics- this is what i’ve been up to lately:
o Salvia greggiis, rosemarys, and other evergreen perennials like certain types of mallows/rock roses, jerusalem sage, euryops, lion’s tails,- After they are mostly done blooming:
o Prune out dead branches
o Prune out any branches that have yellowy or diseased leaves
o With rosemary, prune out some branches that make the interior of the plant too dense. The plants need good airflow.
o Remove any branches that are reaching too far into walkways
o Shear off tips of each branch using hand pruners or shears
o Woody Herbs like thyme, damianita, oregano, marjoram, Pink Skullcaps: cut back outer 1/3-1/2 of plant when they are mostly done blooming. They might not be totally done blooming but that is ok.
o Plants may look ugly at first but they will grow back.
o Inland sea oats: cut off seed heads after they turn completely brown to prevent massive spread of plants- spread seeds in area where plants are desired or share with friends! Make the cut 1/4 inch above the top leaf. Later in the season the tops of the plants will start to fade and turn brown. New growth will begin to emerge from the ground. You can trim out the old stems at ground level at this time.
o Bicolor irises and Butterfly irises: Trim out dead leaves as far down as you can reach. Cut out any leaves that are growing horizontally that are not mostly upright. Remove bulbs/corms from the center of the plant that are not touching the ground. Remove faded flower stems.
o Wiregrass/feathergrass: After they bloom the can get really matted and gross looking. Trim off the top 1/2 of the whole plant. They will look greener and healthier all winter. Pull out any dead sections from each plant. The dead sections are gray- brown rather than golden. They should pull out of the ground and separate from the living part of the plant when you use your hands to gently tug on the dead section.
posted at: 23:33 | path: /colleen0605 | link for this entry