Creating A Lush and Welcoming Landscape

January and February are still the middle of winter in many parts of the country, but spring is quickly approaching -- and along with it is the time to begin planning for planting and managing your yard's growth. Your lawn is getting ready to come out of its dormancy as soon as the temperatures rise, and you can begin planting many types of cold-hardy, early-spring plants and seeds when the soil warms up. Here are some tips to help you manage and protect the spring growth in your lawn, garden, and bedding plants, and get the growing season off to a good start with regular irrigation:

Check and Adjust Lawn Watering Coverage

Your lawn will begin to grow in the early spring after the snow has melted and the soil has begun to warm from the sun. Most lawns won't need to be watered for several weeks, depending on the amount of snow or rain you received over the winter and early spring. However, if it has been a dry winter and spring, plan to begin watering your lawn when the soil dries out and your lawn shows signs of drought stress.

You should also turn on your lawn sprinklers to begin watering your lawn in the spring when you apply a spring fertilizer and there is no precipitation. Without proper moisture, the fertilizer can burn your lawn. Check to make sure your sprinklers work properly and have formed no leaks or damage over the winter. Repair or replace any damaged sprinkler heads or underground lines that have leaks.

Manage and Check New Plantings

After planting in the spring, you should watch the condition of your seeds or seedlings to make sure they make it through the first critical few weeks. Replanting seedlings, for example, puts quite a bit of stress on the plant, and it needs to readjust to its new soil and take root to continue its growth. Often a seedling will have slow or no growth for the first few days to weeks after planting, because of this stress. Be sure your seedlings have enough water to help them adjust to their new environment, but not so much that the soil is continually saturated and the seedlings drown or wash away in the soil.

Planting seeds has its own set of problems you should be aware of and manage, as the seeds need to be kept continually wet in their soil until they germinate, which can be up to two weeks. Make sure you water them regularly but not too heavily with an aerial sprinkler, as it can cause erosion.

Drip irrigation is more beneficial to promote germination from seeds, as it does not deliver the water unevenly over the soil, but in a more regular soaking and directly onto your seeds. The regular water pattern you can have with drip irrigation prevents soil erosion that can wash away your seeds.

For more information about your irrigation system, contact landscaping professionals like those at the Wagner Sod Company.