Lawn preparations:

Go outside and take a good look at your lawn. How has it faired this winter? What does it want? You may need to do a little repair work, to make up for winter damage. You can reseed any bald patches to fill them in and crowd out the weeds. Now is a great time to apply a pre-emergent weed killer, to prevent any weed seeds from sprouting in your lawn. Check your lawn for thatch that may have built up in the fall and for aeration issues. Towards the end of the month, you can lay down a spring dose of fertilizer, to wake up your grass and give a boost of growth.

Start seeds:

February is a great time to start your annual flower and vegetable seeds indoors! Plant seeds carefully in good quality potting soil and place them near a sunny window to start life in the warmth and safety of your home, while we wait for winter’s final days to pass. Nothing says “spring is coming” like a windowsill full of baby broccoli plants. Water them gently and rotate them often, to keep them from getting too leggy!

Repair/prepare the soil:

Check in with your soil. Get a test kit or contact us to come test it for you. Once you know the nutrient content of your soil, you will have a better idea of how to amend it. If testing is not in the cards, good quality compost will usually cover your bases, giving all plants a boost of nutrition as well as adding in live microbes back into the soil. Compost can be laid on top of the soil or mixed in. It also helps clay-heavy soil, when mixed in! Many fertilizers can be added in February also.

Plan for the coming year:

What will your landscape need in 2012? What dreams or ideas do you want to act on this year? Perhaps it’s time for a new arbor or stone pathway. Maybe 2012 is the year of the outdoor kitchen or patio! Is it time to add a water feature or some raised beds? We are here to help you both with planning and implementation for all your landscape needs. Contact DeWitt Landscaping today and we can help you achieve the garden of your dreams!

Pruning deciduous trees and shrubs in Winter is beneficial because it does not interrupt the plants’ natural food intake and growth, since they are in a dormant state. Pruning cuts do less damage in winter as well, since most fungi and diseases are also dormant in Winter and will be less likely to attack newly exposed areas.

The DeWitt Landscaping team offers a full range of pruning services.  Our expert service will prune your trees correctly to expedite healthy growth, while maintaining an attractive appearance. We will prune your fruit trees, shade trees, deciduous shrubs and more! We trim hedges, prune roses and edge all plants that need it. Winter is the perfect time to tidy up your landscape and prepare it for the growing season! Give us a call to give your yard a healthy trimming!

We serve the greater Seattle area, including Puyallup, Tacoma, Spanaway, Graham, Orting, South Sound, Lakewood, Steilacoom, University Place, Gig Harbor, Bonney Lake, Lacey, Olympia, Sumner, and Buckley.

If your task list ever gets overwhelming, contact DeWitt Landscaping in for reinforcements!

We are here for you, sun, rain or snow!

Call (253) 431-7843!

Landscape Tips:

• Don’t walk on frozen lawns; wait for the frost to melt off before beginning work around the yard.
• Remove leaves and debris from lawn areas as soon as possible.   Add them to your compost pile and make mulch.
• December is a great time to plant new shrubs, trees, and groundcovers.  As plants go dormant it is also a good time to transplant.
• Heavy pruning can be done at this time of year.
• Install a new layer of bark or mulch to help insulate your plants this winter and keep the weeds away this spring.
• Look for drainage issues:
  • Water pooling around the foundation of your house.
  • Erosion signs or water pooling in lawns.
• Clean gutters now that the leaves have fallen.  Do this at the same time you put up your Christmas lights and only make one trip up onto the roof.
• Check around your landscape for evergreen cuttings to bring indoors and use for holiday decorating.
• Don’t forget to water plants where rain doesn’t reach.  Look for areas that are dry after a heavy rain and supplement water, places like under roof overhangs or fir trees, etc.

Snow Tips:

• Spray a “no-stick” cooking spray on your snow shovel before use and repeat as needed.  Snow will slide right off!
• Be careful when using salts to de-ice around your property.  Salt is toxic to many Northwest plants.  Look for plant-friendly products!
• Watch where you shovel that snow.   You don’t want to crush any delicate plants.
• Tap or shake evergreen shrubs to prevent branches from breaking.

Outdoor equipment:

• Empty excess fuel and run your outdoor equipment dry before putting away for the winter.
• Never too early to get ready for next spring.  Check belts, change sparkplugs, change oil and sharpen blades now and don’t be caught off guard next spring.

We all know that the leaves need to be raked, the dead annuals and vegetables pulled and the lawn fertilized. But here are a few other items to add to your fall cleanup to-do list:

Fruit Trees:

Clean up the leftover debris from your fruit trees, before the winter comes. This helps greatly to prevent disease, rot and fungal growth on and around the trees. Remove any mummified or fallen fruit from both the branches of the tree and the ground around it. Rake up and dispose of all the leaves that drop, as well as any sticks and twigs. If your tree is free from disease and fungus, you can use the leaves as mulch to insulate other plants or add them to the compost bin. However, if any spots or evidence of disease is present, it’s best to put them in the yard waste bin, to avoid spreading disease.

Prepare for the Rains:

Now is the time to clean your gutters, storm drains and pathways, removing all the leaves and debris. Allow water to flow freely to prevent clogging and subsequent rotting and flooding. We know how much rain can fall, once things really get going! The last thing you want is clogged drains, overflowing water and a flooded landscape. This only adds to the mess and hassle that can sometimes come with fall weather. Taking preventative measures can really go a long way.

Avoid all the work and hassle of fall clean-ups by scheduling maintenance appointments with DeWitt Landscaping. We can rake those leaves, take care of your trees, clean the gutters and more! The cold months are almost here: we also offer winter maintenance service for your continuing landscape needs.

Click here to contact us for a quote today!

Repair your Lawn:

Lawns take a beating during the summer due to all the picnics, Frisbee, pets, kids and general summer fun. Now is a great time to give that grass a little TLC. Heavily reseed any bare patches and water them well. Apply a layer of your favorite fertilizer to jumpstart growth, before the cold weather sets in. This can also be a good time to remove any thatch (dead, matted root and leaf material) that may have built up over the year. To remove thatch, you can use a thatch rake or any metal-pronged rake to pull the matted layer out from between the grass and the soil (as pictured below).

Perennial flower bed care:

The cool weather is perfect for tending to perennials. Start by removing any dead plant material from finished perennials and add it to the compost or yard waste. Most perennials appreciate a layer of mulch to keep them warm during the winter. Try layering a few inches of bark, wood chips, straw or leaves to the base of plants. This will insulate their roots. However, a few perennials (like amaryllis, begonias and dahlias) don’t like the cold at all. These must be dug up and stored in a cool place indoors. They can be stored in soil or vermiculite. October is also a great month for planting new bulbs, including tulips, daffodils, hyacinth and even garlic! Most bulbs need a few months in the cold soil before they will grow in the spring. Make sure to plant them with the pointy ends up!

Test and Amend your Soil:

Fall is a great time for taking soil samples in your lawn and garden. You can buy an at-home soil test or call DeWitt Landscaping and we can come test your soil for you. Soil tests will measure the pH of the soil, organic matter content and the levels of some of the major elements required for plant growth, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK). It lets you know what you need to add to balance your soil. With that knowledge, you can add the fertilizer and/or compost that will help maintain healthy soil.

Clean and fix tools:

Before you store your yard and garden tools for the winter, give them a good clean and perform any necessary repairs. This will extend their longevity and get you ready for the following spring! Remove all plant material and dirt from your tools. You can use sand to scrub off any stubborn spots. Replace worn spark plugs, oil all necessary parts, and sharpen blades of all power tools and lawn mowers. Clean and fix all hand tools. Repaint handles or identification marks that have faded over the summer. Sharpen all blades and remove any rust. Store tools in their proper place indoors, never outdoors where they will rust over the winter. You will thank yourself next spring!

Fall cleanup:

Plants that display lovely color in the fall are a joy to behold. However, those leaves do eventually come down. Leaves should be raked and especially kept off of the lawn, to prevent the grass from rotting. Pile them up for other uses (see below). Remove any other dead plant material from the garden including spent annuals, dead foliage from perennials and dead flowers. Trim back any dead branches but take care not to do any heavy pruning this late in the season. It could lead to ill-health this winter! Depending on how big your yard is, fall cleanup can be a really big job. If it gets overwhelming, just call in our maintenance team and we’ll finish up!

Uses for fallen leaves:

The leftover leaves can be put to good use-so don’t waste them! Leaves work great as winter mulch for almost any perennial, shrub or tree. Stuff the leaves in layers, around the base of plants and out as wide as the roots go. This provides insulation for the winter. Tamp leaves down a little, to keep them in place, but do not press them down too much. Air circulating through them keeps mold and early rot from setting in. For especially cold-sensitive plants, pile those leaves high around them, even up the stem, to insulate them further. You can chip or shred extra leaves and add them into your soil, for additional nutrients. They will be fully decomposed by the spring, adding valuable minerals to the soil. If you still have leaves left over after that, you can add them to the compost pile or the yard waste bin.

Plant a cover crop:

Your annual beds can strongly benefit from the planting of a cover crop. A cover crop is usually a grass (like rye) or legume that is planted heavily over an area, in between other plantings. Farmers practice this all the time but it can be very beneficial for the home garden as well! A cover crop holds the soil in place throughout the winter, preserving nutrients and preventing erosion. In the spring, you cut or mow it down and till it into the soil, adding back in all those great nutrients. If you plant a legume (like clover, vetch or cowpeas), it has the added bonus of fixing nitrogen into your soil. Just remember to cut them down in the spring, before they go to seed!

Plant fall veggies:

Plant cold-hardy vegetables now for an early winter harvest. Here’s a good rule of thumb for Pacific Northwest gardeners: anything that grew well in the spring will also grow well in the fall. Try leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, spinach and chard. All the members of the mustard family love the cool weather so plant some broccoli, cauliflower, kale and brussel sprouts (they are even sweeter after a light frost). You can even try growing a second crop of peas and root vegetables like radishes, beets and carrots. We are lucky to have a mild climate where this is possible. Still, it’s a good idea to mulch and/or cover them with row cover during hard rains and cold nights in later autumn.

Happy fall everyone! Leave a comment below with any questions or thoughts on September gardening.

WATERING ADVICE

Water your lawn and plants in the morning, before the day heats up, to reduce evaporation and any potential leaf-burning. You don’t need to water your yard every day, however. Quick, daily watering is actually inefficient and wasteful. Plants will do much better with deep, infrequent watering. So, instead of a quick sprinkle, give plant roots a long, deep soak every few days. I like to turn the hose on low, put it at the base of a plant and just leave it there for a few minutes. I take the opportunity to weed a little or just enjoy the summer morning. By watering plants for a longer time, we can conserve water and encourage plants to grow deeper roots. You can also save yourself the hassle of watering by hand by having irrigation installed. DeWitt Landscaping designs and installs a wide selection of irrigation systems for all types of landscapes. Click here to request a quote!

MULCH

Mulch does wonders to keep the soil cool and increases moisture retention. It also helps to prevent weeds from sprouting, adds nutrients and deters some pests. Some examples of common organic mulches are straw, wood chips, leaves, newspaper, cardboard, and pine needles. Apply mulch heavily around the base of plants and on top of any exposed soil in between, to help the soil retain moisture and act as a natural insulation, to keep roots cool all summer. If you already applied mulch to your plants, check the soil underneath the layers sometime in August. Does the soil remain somewhat moist and cool between watering? If not, add another layer of mulch on top of what you already have to conserve water and shelter roots from the August heat.

DEADHEADING

Deadhead your plants throughout the year, as flowers bloom (remove spent flower heads). This encourages the plant to produce more flowers and gets rid of the unsightly dead petals. To deadhead a plant, remove the entire flower head from it, including any developing seed pods or fruit. For roses (Rosa sp.) this means removing not only the petals, which fall off readily anyway, but the stamens and bulbous rose hip underneath. If they do not break off easily by hand, don’t force it. Instead, use pruners or snips to cut the fruit and flower off of the plant.

LAWN CARE

We are lucky, here in the Pacific Northwest, to live in a very green area. In most of the country, people’s lawns have been dried out and brown for months. Either that or they’ve been paying a small fortune in water bills to keep the grass green. Our lawns stay pretty green throughout early summer and only just now, in August, do they need extra water and care. I don’t recommend adding fertilizer in August because your lawn is already susceptible to burning from the heat. Adding fertilizer will only make that worse. Instead try leaving your grass a little taller than usual. Set the blades on your lawn mower up a few inches (or let us know that you want it tall, when we come to do maintenance). This helps to keep a lot of moisture in while shading the root system. It’s also important to irrigate your lawn regularly: 2-3 times a week (during hot weather) should be plenty to keep the grass green without running up the water bill too much.

Envision a peaceful retreat of your very own, right in the backyard. It’s a place where beautiful plants surround the landscape while the quiet water laps the edges of your own personal pond. This can be a spot on earth where you can escape to relax, read a book or sit for quiet conversation with a loved one. It can become the focal point for your entire landscape, accented with aquatic plants and unusual fish to really make it the oasis you deserve.

A DeWitt Landscaping professional can help you create a custom built pond that will transform your yard into a serenity garden. Choose from many designs, depths and sizes to find the perfect one for your yard. The DeWitt team will survey, design and dig your pond, according to the topography of the land, any underground pipes or wires and, of course, your preferences. Our installation includes filling the pond and outfitting pumps and filters to keep it clean and running smoothly. Our rock and foliage borders help to hide any unsightly wires or pipes. We can even install outdoor lighting to surround your water sanctuary, for enjoyment on a warm evening.

Our skilled team will work with you on placement and will blend it perfectly into your landscape with the use of complimentary foliage, like Willows, Japanese maples and Hostas. Small trees and shrubs near a pond create habitat for birds and tree frogs, adding nature’s music day and night. We can even add a patio or bench nearby, so you can rest and enjoy the entire scene. Call or write us today to discuss your vision and get this project going!

By using sustainable landscaping practices, we can produce significant economic and environmental benefits. Savings will include reduced labor, water and fertilizer costs, lower hauling expenses and disposal fees.

Using a mulching mower, composting, and mulching landscape beds returns valuable organic material to the soil, which increases the water-holding capacity of soil, reduces erosion, and conserves water.

Proper watering, fertilizing, and pruning along with Integrated Pest Management (IPM) can encourage healthier, disease-resistant plants and can reduce the amount of pesticides, fertilizers, and other toxic runoff entering storm drains and polluting our waterways. IPM just means using several different methods together to keep plants pest-free. For example, attract beneficial insects and use deterrents, along with pesticides, to reduce usage of chemicals.

Sustainable landscapes feature plants that rely less on chemical pesticides and fertilizers, minimize water use, and reduce waste generation and disposal. They also require less maintenance and alleviate groundwater and air pollution problems.

Look at your landscape; does it fit your lifestyle?  Are you an empty nester or a family with small children that use the lawn primary as an outdoor play area?  Empty-nest households can look at removing the lawn and replacing with water conserving and low maintenance plants.

Utilizing drip irrigation will save water used and reduce weed growth in flower beds, resulting in lower water bills and fewer herbicides applications.  Converting your existing irrigation system to drip is easily accomplished.  The hydraulic design of your existing irrigation system should be more than adequate to convert to drip.  With drip irrigation you can tailor the water application to fit each individual plant in your landscape.  This is accomplished by using different emitters.  New installations of drip irrigation are usually less expensive to install than traditional systems.

Using these techniques, we can still have beautiful landscapes that have a more beneficial impact on our planet.

Now that the weather has started to warm up, it’s time to get fired up about your lawn. Nearly every homeowner desires an attractive lawn. Healthy, attractive lawns are not an accident but the result of a regularly and carefully executed maintenance program. This applies to the soil as well as to the turf grass itself. So, here are a few lawn care tips to help get you started. Don’t have time to take care of these things yourself? Call DeWitt Landscaping today!

TEST YOUR SOIL

Do you have issues with your lawn (moss, red thread, etc.)? Most of these and many other lawn-related issues are caused by improper growing conditions.

A soil test is the analysis of a soil sample to determine nutrient content, composition and other characteristics, including contaminants. Soil characteristics can vary significantly from one spot to another, even in a small lawn. Taking samples from multiple spots from around the lawn is a great idea to determine overall health. It is crucial to get the most accurate measurement you can. This mixing of soil from several locations helps to create an “average”.

Tests include, but aren’t limited to, major nutrients – nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), secondary nutrients – sulfur, calcium, magnesium, minor nutrients – iron, manganese, copper, zinc, boron, etc. It tells key nutrient levels, as well as pH levels, so you can make the best choice when purchasing fertilizers and other nutrients.

AERATE YOUR LAWN

If you haven’t aerated within the last year, now is a great time. If you haven’t noticed, it rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest. Rain and irrigation increase soil density by compacting soil particles and reducing large air spaces where roots may readily grow. Intensively used lawns are exposed to stress from traffic. Walking, playing and mowing are forms of traffic that compact soil and stress lawns.

Lawn aeration benefits:
• Promotes better moisture and air penetration into compacted soils
• Oxygen gets to the roots and soil allowing it to “breathe”.
• Fertilizers and other nutrients get access to the root system.
• Reduced runoff.
• Improved turf grass rooting.
• Helps to break up thatch.
• Compacted soil is loosened up, allowing the root system to grow.

HAVE THATCH?

Excessive thatch – more than 1/2 inch- has become a problem in many highly maintained lawns. Thatch is a tightly interwoven layer of living and dead tissue existing between the green vegetation and soil surface. It is composed primarily of products from stems, leaf sheaths, and roots that are fairly resistant to decay. Although a little thatch improves the wear tolerance of a lawn, excessive thatch harbors disease organisms and insects making the lawn more susceptible to damage from disease and drought.

In many lawns, organic matter is produced faster than it can decompose and thatch gradually develops. Removal of thatch can be best achieved with a vertical mower (also called a power rake). These machines have steel knife-like or spring-like tines that rotate perpendicular to the ground surface. To be effective they should be set so the tines bring a small amount of soil to the surface with the thatch debris.

APPLY LIME

Turf grasses will not grow well in highly acid soils, and since most soils in Western Washington are acidic by nature, well established lawns will require applications of lime. If your soil pH is too acidic, now would be a great time to apply lime. Moss is a sign of lime deficiency but a soil analysis would tell you how much your pH is off, what type of lime is needed and how much you need to get back to 6.5 to 7.0. Acid conditions of soils can be brought about by the leaching out of calcium and magnesium, the alkaline constituents, from the soil; yearly applications of nitrogenous fertilizers; the use of organic materials, such as compost or peat moss, used to condition the soil or as a top dressing; and the washing of sulfur from the air by rains into the soil.

APPLY FERTILIZER

Many homeowners tend to throw down way too much fertilizer at the first sign of green grass. In reality, the best thing to do is to apply a light amount of fertilizer in early spring, and then apply a larger dose a bit later in the season, after the initial growth rush.