Autumn Maintenance Tips & Fun Ideas

Autumn is my favorite season. To me, the colors are even more beautiful and grand then the flowers you get in the spring. It means holidays are approaching — including Halloween, Thanksgiving and of course Christmas. It also means snow is around the corner for all those who love a winter wonderland — especially those anxious Colorado skiers.

There are some basic autumn maintenance tips that can really insure that your landscape will not only survive well through the winter but come out healthy and energetic next spring.

First, make sure you give your lawn a final fertilization with a "winterizer" fertilization blend. Watch the low temperatures at night and drain your sprinkler system if needed. If nice weather continues, drain it for good around Halloween — then let your lawn go dormant. Wrap all your young trees with tree wrap to prevent sun scald from the south sun reflected off the snow (we will do this for you in November if you are a first year customer). Wean your plant material off 2-3 watering times weekly to 1-2. And finally, don't forget to winter water your plant material! Trees need it the most, then evergreen shrubs, then grasses and transplants. Use your hose to saturate the root ball on days above 40 degrees during dry spells.

Even though the cold is coming there are still some fun ideas to make sure next year looks even more colorful. This is a great time to plant bulbs. They usually don't require extra water, flower in that transition time before regular plants emerge, their leaves dry out and blow away and then they multiply so that they are even larger next spring! This is also a great time to seed your lawn or native areas. The seed will lay dormant and then come up with the spring rains. Have some fun with the season and do a pumpkin, squash and corn stalk arrangement to personalize your landscape.

We are entering one of our landscapes from two years ago into the annual "Excellence in Landscape" awards this year. It is sponsored by the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado and we will find if we win this December. It is a Japanese Garden we designed for a front yard landscape in Littleton for an Hawaiian customer who missed the ocean and her home state. We have included a picture here. Stay tuned!

As always, thank you for your support, and have a safe and wonderful Autumn this year.