Pruning Shrubs with Shears

This is a good question that everyone should ask yourself towards the end of the growing season.  This also varies depending on when you get your first frost of the fall.  Here is what I like to warn people of…

When deciding when to do the last pruning of the season, you need to pay attention to when you usually get your first frost.  Why I say this, is because when pruning a bush during the growing season, you are encouraging new growth.  If you prune within a week or two of getting a good hard frost, you can severely damage the new growth and either make the bush look ugly, or kill off certain branches completely.  Obviously, this also depends on what type of bush you are pruning.  You should know by now which of your bushes grow the fastest and which are very slow at new growth.  Knowing that is crucial to knowing when to do the last pruning of the year.

Here is my solution to this problem.  If you need to prune at the end of the season, do so at least a month before the first hard frost.  This will allow the new growth to come out and harden up before they get damaged with the frost.  Or, you can wait till after that first frost and prune them while they are going dormant.  After a good frost, every plant starts going into dormancy for the winter.  They release most of their sap out of their branches and into the ground so they can rest and focus on root development.  If they are a deciduous plant, this is the time that they drop their leaves, because there is no sap to hold them on.

So by pruning after they are dormant, the plant does not know that it got pruned and will not put off new growth till the spring time and will come back very naturally.  Just pay attention to what you are doing, if you give the plant a bald spot, it will be bald until spring!  This is also a good time when they are dormant to do any of those ‘hard’ prunings you have been wanting to do.  If a plant is way over grown and you want to take it back down to normal size, do it in the winter.  The plant in the winter is not depending on photosynthesis to grow strong and will recover nicely in the spring with the new growth.

If you have any questions on specific pruning issues, don’t hesitate to ask me.

Happy Pruning

Grass Seed Germinated

If you live in Zone 6 or 7, this is what you should be looking to do very soon.  September is usually known for being the driest month of the year, but it is also known as the month for planting new grass seed.  Here in the Nashville area, September 15^th is the textbook day for planting grass seed.  Let’s talk for a minute why this is a good time of year to be doing that.

A good fescue grass seed, which is what most people want  to have because it stays green year round, takes about two weeks to germinate.  Germinate means the seed has cracked open and has a root and a stem.  So by putting out the seed the middle of September, by the first of October you will have a whole bunch of baby grasses everywhere ready and established for the usually hard and aggressive October rains.  Fescue is also a ‘cool season’ grass.  This means it thrives the most in moderate temperatures.  So in October, we typically have 70 degree average temperatures with plenty of rain and cool nights.  This is the perfect combination for growing Fescue grass.

By the time you start getting some good frost and cold weather, the grass is fully established and usually has been mowed at least once.  After the frost begins, the grass will go dormant for the winter.  As the  rains continue and you have a couple of warm days throughout the winter, you will be strengthening the root system of every little grass plant.  By spring and the heat of next summer you will have very well established grass that can withstand drought and heat with less chance of death.

With planting the grass in the fall, it will set your timing up perfectly to start a pre-emergent and weed kill program in the spring.  We will discuss this further in depth later on.

If you live very north or south of Nashville, just adjust according to when you get cold to judge your seeding time.  Also, you always want to put out a lawn starter fertilizer at the same time as the seed to help with the germination rate of the seed.  Aeration in my opinion is based on a case by case basis.  Here in Nashville, our ground freezes and thaws many times during the winter, causing natural aeration all winter long.

Happy Seeding

Skimmer Box

At this point, you are down to the nitty gritty details.  We have already discussed where to put the pond, how to dig and plan the basin, and how to build the waterfall.  Today, I want to talk about the filtration and pump system.  I first want to qualify today’s topic with saying that there are many different ways that filtration can be accomplished, but the one I talk about today is my favorite.  To me is the cleanest, simplest way to maintain clean and clear water.  And since I am the one writing this blog, I can tell the way that I like…right?

Ok, how many of you have ever paid attention to the holes in the side of a swimming pool where the water swishes in and out?  They call that a skimmer.  Anything that is floating on top of the water swishes into that hole and does not come out, i.e. leaves, bugs, tree parts, etc.  That is an easy way to have continuous filtration without working for it, it does it for you.  Well the same goes with this pond.  They make skimmer boxes that can be installed on the opposite end of the pond from the waterfall that act the same way.  They are designed to catch floating debris before it can settle to the bottom of the pond, which the only way to get it off the bottom is with a net.  Skimmer boxes are to be installed on the opposite side of the waterfall so you can create a flow from the waterfall all the way across the pond to the skimmer.

The skimmer box is designed brilliantly.  It has a multi-stack filtration system inside it that catches all types of debris before it reaches the pump.  It first have a net for the big stuff, and then it can have several types of filter media to catch all the little stuff.  Behind the filtration is the main waterfall pump.  This pump stays perfectly clean of debris and is able to pump clean water up to the waterfall box that has already been put into place at the top of the waterfall.  Then in the waterfall box, as we previously discussed, has more filter media for any small stuff, and even has a bag full of lava rocks for algae control.

With this chain of events, the maintenance of your pond will be very little.  You will want to check and/or clean the skimmer box at least weekly, and sooner during dirty times of the year (fall).  The waterfall box needs to be cleaned once per month.  The cleaning of these items is very simple.  Turn off the pump and remove the filter media, spray it off with a water hose and put it back in.  That is all it takes.  After the pond is fully built, we will talk about some simple chemicals you can use on a weekly basis to never have algae or dirty water problems.

Happy Filtration