A lush, green, weed-free lawn and professional landscaping add value and beauty to your home. If you’re enhancing any area of your yard with a garden, berm, rock wall, etc., read these quick landscaping and watering tips from the lawn experts at Green Head Turf. They will help you keep your lawn and landscape looking great and may help you avoid a mistake before you make it:
The Right Plants in the Right Place Make a Big Difference
Before you start putting plants in based on how they look, make sure you know what they need. Obviously, a plant that requires full sun won’t do well in the backyard under a shade tree. Nor will a shade-lover fare well in full sun. Also be aware of soil conditions. If you have a spot that is lower or tends to be more moist, it’s not a good spot for a plant that doesn’t like “wet feet”. We have found that great plants for foundations here in Kansas City are evergreens and hollys. Both stay green year round, so your foundation is never exposed. And both are able to survive the harsh winters here in KC as well. Hollys have the added benefit of bright red berries in the winter months.
Make Your Landscaping Picture Perfect
It’s important to know your plants before you place them as well. Planting any garden, be it a foundation garden, a garden in a corner or a middle-of-the-yard berm, consider where it will be viewed from. Make sure you take layering into account. Think of it like taking a picture. Plant the taller plants in the back and graduate forward to the shortest plants. If you want the garden to be beautiful from all sides, plant the taller plants in the middle and gradually go shorter in all directions. Sounds elementary, but if you don’t pay attention in the beginning, you’ll be tearing it out later and moving things around to make them look right.
When to Water Is Important
Your lawn should do well with one inch of water per week. You may think that watering your plants and lawn every day is the best thing for them, but you’d be wrong. Yes, ample water is good for your lawn, but when you apply it is just as important. For instance, you don’t want to water in the heat of the day because you lose too much to evaporation before it can soak in. You don’t want to water at night because that can promote fungus. The ideal time to water is between 4:00 and 8:00 a.m. It gives the water time to soak in before the sun comes up and the day gets hot.
Related Read: KC Weed Watch
Cycle and Soak for Best Results with Clay Soil
Our clay soil also makes watering trickier. Because we do have so much clay here in the Kansas City area, it’s better to cycle and soak than to water all at once. If you have a sprinkler system, for example, it’s better to run a zone for two 15-minute cycles than one 30-minute cycle. This allows the first watering time to soak in and moisten the clay soil so the second watering will be more readily accepted by the soil. If you water all at once, the clay cannot accept it all and you lose much of it to runoff. To get the full benefit, give it some time to soak it up.
We hope you learned something helpful from these tips and that your lawn and landscape looks great this year. If you do need help, however, don’t hesitate to call the lawn pros at Green Head Turf at (913) 645-9586.
