|
Most of the
visitors to this section are customers who recently had a project
completed by Stonehenge, and are here looking for help on how to care
for their new plants. Our customers are who this was written for,
but certainly everyone is welcome to share our assistance.
Watering
New plants in your
landscape need to receive approximately 1" of water per week to
heal in and begin growing. Rain water counts in that 1".
Both shrubs and trees benefit from a slow, steady watering. But if you
can only water one group of plants that way, make it the trees. The
ideal would be to have a ‘soaker hose’. If you don’t have a soaker
hose, just use a regular hose, and turn it on so there is barely a
trickle. Let that run for 10-15 minutes on each plant, or if using a
sprinkler for several shrubs at a time, let it run for 20-25 minutes
total. The reason you want a slow watering is to give the soil a chance
to absorb the water. With a short blast of water, the first ½" of
soil get saturated within the first 30 seconds and won’t accept
anymore. The rest of the water just runs off. Do this for the first 2-3
weeks.
Fertilizer
The plants you have in
your yard were able to grow in the wild without any help from us. By and
large you should not have to fertilize them to keep them healthy, but
fertilizer can help a plant to grow more quickly, flower more
fully. The best time to fertilize is in the fall, and if you want to
fertilize twice, give a small quantity in the spring. And the best
fertilizers are those that provide a slow, steady source of Nitrogen
(N). Fast, heavy doses of N can burn up your plants and void your
warranty!
Pruning
This topic is already
large when we’re just talking about trees. With shrubs and other
plants this topic is twice as big. Because we can’t take an
all-inclusive look, instead we’ll provide you with some general
information that should be helpful. If you have further questions you
can always call us. We should mention that Stonehenge Brick
Paving & Landscaping, Inc. can do your pruning for you. We prune
according to the standards recommended by the American Horticultural
Society. That way, you don’t have to worry about whether it’s being
done right. Please call us if you’re interested. The second thing
we’ll tell you is that we can give you a brief overview of when to
prune which general groups of plants:
Deciduous Plants
The best time to
prune is early winter through early spring (before budding) – The
wound will be open the least amount of time, it stimulates growth,
and most pests and diseases are not active at this time. Always
start by pruning out dead and diseased branches, then those branches
that are rubbing against others. Consider what the shape of the
plant will be before you make each cut (it’s too late afterward).
Do not prune in mid-late spring, when buds are out. Besides the
stress to the plant, diseases and pests are most active now.
Plants that bloom on last year's growth should be pruned after
dieback of the blooms.
Evergreen Plants
There really isn’t
much to prune here unless you’re trying to achieve a special
effect. In general, if you want to slow growth, in June trim the new
growth (candles) to ¼ to 1/8 their original size.
We hope you’ve found
this helpful. If you have further questions or want to schedule pruning
for your plants, please call us at (920)788-4550, or e-mail us.
|
|
