Time to Shine

Flowers are the best way to create color in a landscape. These come in the form of annuals and perennials. Because there are millions of different types of flowers that come in a rainbow of colors, heights, textures and sizes, the decision of which to plant can be very overwhelming. This decision is made easier when you know when you need your garden to shine, and for how long.

It is a good idea to start by deciding when you want your garden to be at its best. If you are only in town for the holiday, then you want to consider only plants that bloom early to mid summer. For the folks that are here full time, or visit several times over the course of the summer, a mixture of early, mid and fall blooming plants, will give you constant color as the season progresses. You should space out your plants based on their bloom times throughout the garden, so your whole garden is always blooming, even though all the plants are not.

Any flower regardless of when it blooms can have a prolonged blooming season if they are “Deadheaded.” This is the process of pruning off the old flowers, when they are finished blooming and starting to die back. This encourages the plant to continue re-blooming. If you have annual containers deadheading will keep your pots looking their best for the entire summer. The job of deadheading spent flowers is fairly easy. There are a couple “rules of thumb” to easily accomplish this task. The first rule is to deadhead tall plants by cutting the stem at the base of the plant. The second rule is to deadhead bushy plants with a pair of shears or pruners, and trim them back, as if you are giving them a haircut.

In the Rocky Mountains it is not uncommon to experience snow and below freezing temperatures into June, and starting again in September. Because our season can be so short, we recommend giving the plants some help by fertilizing. At local garden centers, there are several options to boost plant growth and promote blooming. This is especially helpful if you are hoping to see significant color and growth by the 4th of July holiday. Before planting the correct plants, fertilizing, and deadheading, the most important thing you can do to ensure a colorful garden whenever you see it, is proper water amounts. Every time you are in your garden, we recommend checking to make sure your soil is not too wet, or too dry. If these steps are taken, the results will give your garden vibrant color any time during the season.

Get Instant Color for Vibrant Spaces

Planting flower pots and boxes is one of the most effective and easy ways to dress up a terrace or balcony. A dull outdoor living space instantly becomes brighter and more interesting. Harsh corners can be softened and vacant areas can be filled. Your gardens become more dynamic and new elements of interest and beauty are displayed by adding vibrant living plant material to containers surrounding your gardens. Who better to help you achieve this than us?! After all, we are the most trusted and experienced team of garden experts in the Colorado Mountains.

Adding flower containers to your outdoor living spaces will help create the feeling that nature is creeping into straight-lined structures. Containers can also be filled with an “herb recipe” to give your home-cooked meals that fresh from the garden taste. To ensure that you get the most out of your container gardens, Land Designs will start growing your plants in a greenhouse in April and deliver them in June. You get overflowing pots while your neighbors flowers barely peek over the top. You can awe your guests and ease your mind by having living color surround your home not only in your gardens but also on your relaxing outdoor spaces.

Getting Your Garden Ready for Spring

The landscaper’s first task in the spring is to clean up, and prepare the landscape for optimum growth. While there may not be much going on above ground, there is an incredible amount happening underground. It’s important to complete spring clean up and maintenance early so you don’t have to work around new growth.

Gardens
We start by removing any leftover growth from the previous year and lay down a top dressing of composted cattle manure and cotton burrs. Typically fall cut back has left 4-6 inch stems and some low lying foliage. These materials can harbor disease pathogens so they need to be removed along with any remaining tree leaves or debris from the previous year. The compost provides a fresh source of nutrients to encourage new growth and can be tilled into the soil once it has served its purpose. This compost helps to break up difficult, Rocky Mountain soils. In addition, it provides an attractive texture and neat appearance as we wait for plants to come up and fill our gardens.

Shrubs and Trees
We prune any dead, damaged, or broken members, evaluate any support stakes, remove old mulch and replace it with fresh. Care must be taken when pruning as it is possible to unknowingly transmit disease by not disinfecting tools between cuts. It is also easy to stunt growth and flowering by accidentally removing buds on spring flowering shrubs.

Turf
If you have turf, it’s time to de-thatch. Dethatching severs rhizomes and stolons (underground stems) promoting new growth resulting in a more dense, lush lawn. Dethatching must be timed with irrigation start-up or else risk damaging your lawn. You should apply a pre-emergent herbicide with a little fertilizer mixed-in at the same time as de-thatching to help to minimize weed growth and give the turf a boost of energy. Our Plant Health Care Division applies a precise blend tuned specifically to our Rocky Mountain soil conditions.

While it is fine to repair damage from snow plows, pests, or otherwise in the spring, true overseeding, should be performed in the fall. If you overseed during spring at the same time that you are applying a pre-emergent herbicide, the herbicide will hinder the growth of the new seed. Pre-emergent herbicides are designed to prevent the germination of weed seeds. They cannot discriminate, however, between weed seeds and sewn grass seed. Applying grass seed in combination with a pre-emergent herbicide (or most any herbicide) is a recipe for disaster.

Most importantly, spring is a time to plan. It’s a time to look back at your garden and consider what you liked and disliked, what worked and what might do better elsewhere in the garden. Once everything is growing and full, it becomes harder to see beyond what’s in place. Spring clean up provides a beautiful, blank canvas upon which one can imagine endless possibilities.