Plant Care, the Natural Way
Plant Care Guide: Caring for your Plants
To maximize the success of your gardens please follow our simple-to-use guidelines for your new plants and lawn.
1. Your gardens can be watered by hand, with drip hoses, sprinklers or professionally installed irrigation systems. The average tree, shrub, perennial, ornamental grass and vegetable requires consistent watering at least once per week. For annuals and if your gardens receive full sun, watering twice per week would be ideal. Always check soil moisture prior to watering your new plants! To determine when your new plants will require supplemental watering, probe into soil around root ball of plants to approximately 4 inch depth. This can be accomplished with fingers or hand spade. If soil is moist at four inch depth, you need not water, if dry, water plant until soil is saturated. If using drip hoses, sprinklers or irrigation, plan timing for 1 hour to start and adjust appropriately to your system. Most plants needs supplemental watering throughout the first year of growth. Keep in mind that over watering plants is as harmful as under watering. Plant leaves wilt with too much or too little soil moisture. Water your new plants for at least six months as described, and then, as needed.
2. All new plants should be fertilized with an organic fertilizer at least twice per year. Once in the spring and again in the fall. Our organic fertilizers are readily available for pick up by special order for self application. To optimize success of your plants, fertilize in the early spring, late spring, early fall and late fall with our custom blended organic fertilizers and weed control products. Be sure to fertilize appropriate plants with appropriate fertilizer, visit our eco-friendly products webpage for more details. Go to our products page.
3. Proper upkeep and maintenance of your gardens will promote plant health and longevity. Please contact us to discuss a maintenance plan customized for your needs.
Lawn Care:
If you have a newly restored or recently installed lawn, following these simple tips will ensure success. Water your newly seeded lawn every evening for 30- 45 minutes, EXCEPT IF IT RAINS FOR COMPARABLE AMOUNT OF TIME THAT DAY. Once new grass seed has germinated and achieves a high of 3 inches, fertilize with our organic fertilizer. Avoid mowing and allowing dogs on area until your newly seeded lawn areas until it reaches a height of 5 inches. Maintain a 4 inch cutting height. Apply organic fertilizer in late spring and late fall. Apply organic weed and feed in early spring and early fall. Please visit our products page for more information.
No-Mow Seed Care:
Watering is essential during the first one to two months, increasing germination rates and seedling survival. Seeds should be watered every other evening/morning for 15 to 30 minutes during the first four to six weeks after planting. This is especially important if planting on dry soils, or in late spring when temperatures are higher. Once established, the grass should be watered during dry periods. Occasional thorough soakings are better than frequent, light sprinklings. Deep soakings encourage deep root growth, and makes your turf more drought resistant.
It is not recommended that you mow your No Mow Lawn closer than 3.5 inches during the growing season. Close mowing will eventually damage the roots and weaken the turf. Fescue grasses often produce seed heads up to two feet tall in early to mid-June. To maintain a more manicured appearance, mow at four inches when the seed heads appear. This is usually the only mowing that will be required, unless a more manicured look is desired.
Late in the fall when night time temperatures have been below freezing for an extended period of time (November to early December), the No Mow lawn can be mowed close to the ground to clean away the year’s growth and remove the mat layer. This can be done by setting your mower on its lowest setting, or by using a weed whacker to mow right down to the ground. The mowed material should be bagged during mowing or raked up afterwards. However, it can be done safely in late fall once the grasses enter winter dormancy. Close mowing in early spring is much more difficult, as the grass becomes matted down over winter, and is often wet and harder to mow.
Your No Mow Lawn will form a soft, four to six inch tall flowing carpet of grass. In fall, leaves should be raked and removed to prevent them from smothering the lawn. An option to raking is to mow with a mulching mower after all the leaves have dropped. This shreds the leaves and encourages decomposition over winter. The nutrients from the mulched leaves are all the fertilizer your No Mow Lawn should need!
Dethatching – The thatch is removed manually using a dethatching rake, or with a machine that aggressively “combs” out the thatch from the grass. Dethatching is best done in fall, but is also effective when conducted in mid-spring.
Generally, we do not recommend using fertilizers on No Mow. Fine fescue grasses require only a minimum of Nitrogen. Never apply fertilizers that are high in Nitrogen as this will encourage undesirable thatch. We recommend use worm castings which we have in stock.