As a homeowner, you want a year-round beautiful landscape. But there can be a lot involved in seasonal plant care.
People tend to assume that the plants in their landscape are largely self-sustaining, but this isn’t the case. Healthy plants require services like fertilization, watering, and more to continue to perform optimally.
In this article, we’ll talk about how to keep plants alive throughout the year. We will cover seasonal plant care for each of the four seasons.
We’ll also talk about why investing in professional plant health care can help you maintain the best possible landscape.
Different seasons mean different needs for the plants in your landscape. Some problems are also more prevalent than others depending on the season.
Here are a few things to anticipate depending on the season.
Spring is the start of the active growing season for your landscape. A lot of plants will be coming out of a period of dormancy from the winter. This is a time when you will see new growth and blooms appear.
Fertilization is very important at this time. Plants need a well balanced diet of nutrients of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus for their new growth and flowers. These nutrients need to be delivered 6-8” below the surface of the soil to have optimal effect.
Some of the plant health maintenance in the spring also includes tasks like mulching, watering, and assessing for signs of trouble. Avoiding plant diseases and pests is important in the spring as this is the time when some of these problems can start to emerge.
There are more than 55 common tree pests here in the Louisville region. Pests can damage plants and trees in many ways from chewing on leaves to boring holes in the bark itself.
Plant diseases are also lurking in the landscape. Here in Louisville, there are more than 25 common plant diseases that we see pop up. Landscape diseases can be serious and need to be diagnosed by a professional. At the very least, diseases can cause cosmetic damage that will leave plants unsightly.
Spotting disease and pest problems early on can make a tremendous difference in preventing serious damage.
The summer can be a particularly tough time on your landscape as the weather heats up and drought conditions become more common. This is a time to pay extra attention to avoiding plant diseases and pests as these problems are more likely in plants that are already struggling due to summer conditions.
This is why proper watering is also critical in the summer. Plants commonly experience drought stress in the summer and supplemental watering is likely needed when Mother Nature isn’t supplying it.
Water needs to be delivered slowly and steadily so that it can percolate down to the root zone where it is needed the most. This can be achieved with a hose or an irrigation system in your plant beds.
If you are watering trees, a slow-release watering bag is a great way to deliver water.
Mulching also plays a valuable role in the summer as it can help retain moisture and protect plant roots from intense heat.
As the weather cools down in the fall, you can likely back off on some of your watering efforts. Fall brings more natural rainfall and there is also less evaporation. The soil tends to remain moist.
This is the second most important time to fertilize your plants as they prepare for dormancy. Your plants will need the same nutrients as in the spring, but in different amounts.
The winter is the dormant season for plants here in Louisville. However, you might want to consider soil and plant bed preparations for the spring toward the end of the season.
Over the winter, keep an eye on the temperatures and if some KY frost is coming, cover your plants with burlap, sheets, or blankets to trap warm air. Cardboard boxes can also work.
Coming out of the winter, you can evaluate any plants that might have experienced freeze damage. It’s best to take preventative steps to avoid this type of damage.
Some of the plant health care tasks that homeowners handle themselves include mulching and watering. But it makes a lot of sense to also invest in professional plant health care in order to keep your landscape looking and performing its best.
That’s because the best way to produce healthy plants that are more resistant to problems is with proper plant care. Specifically, Plant Health Care services involve a customized program with treatments that are designed for your property.
These services include fertilization, which can make a tremendous difference in supplying vital nutrients and growing the healthiest possible plants. Plants in the suburban landscape are commonly depleted of nutrients and fertilizer can replenish them.
Professional plant health care can also play an important role in avoiding plant diseases and pests.
These services might include:
In many cases, Plant Health Care can PREVENT problems from occurring in the first place. That’s a big deal as problems generally cost at least twice as much (if not more) than simply investing in routine care.
By making this investment, you are making an investment in protecting your landscape. You have to consider the fact that plants can succumb to problems (like pests and diseases) and end up dying. Now, you’ve got a hole in your landscape and will have to invest in new plant material to fill it. If it was an ornamental tree or shrub, that can be a costly fix.
And even when you do replace that tree or shrub, you still might have a hole that isn’t quite filled right if it was a mature plant that died.
At Limbwalker, we can help you protect your plants from problems in the landscape. There are some key reasons to consider choosing Limbwalker for plant health care in Louisville.
Our products are safe for people, pets, and plants. We also use text notifications before and after each visit to keep you completely in the loop of what we’re doing.
We feel that you deserve to enjoy your landscape without worries. When you invest in plant health care, that’s exactly what you can do.
If you’d like to learn more about plant health care for your Louisville home, get in touch, get your quote, and get back to enjoying your yard.
