Spring is time that Springtime gets your landscape ready for another beautiful High Desert summer. Here are a few additional services Springtime offers to prepare your landscape for success:
 
De-thatch and aerate your turf
If you are walking across the lawn and it feels like the mattress, it’s time to think about aerating and thatching. Due to evaporation and ease of getting water to the root zone, lawns in this condition will require longer watering times to stay green and healthy.
·        Aerating increases your turf’s ability to uptake oxygen, nutrients, water and fertilizer
·        De-thatch turf with more than 1/2” of thatch. A thick thatch layer can prevent moisture and nutrients from penetrating effectively into the soil and create an environment that fosters disease
 
Prune plant material
·        To minimize stress and risk of pest problems on deciduous trees and shrubs, prune while plants are still dormant, prior to leaf emergence
·        Any perennials and grasses that did not get cut back in the Fall should be cut prior to new growth emerging
 
Prepare beds
Another benefit to your landscape can be the installation of bark mulch or compost. Adding a 2” to 3” layer of mulch to a landscape not only helps slow water evaporation rates, it is a good insulator during those hot summer days and freezing winters.
·        Re-mulching controls weeds, regulates soil temperature and retains moisture
·        Mulch thickness should be between 2” and 3”
·        Remove branches, fallen leaves, pine needles and other debris from beds
·        Raking through beds monthly reduces compaction and fungal growth and increases water penetration
·        A pre-emergent herbicide can be put down in beds early in spring to get a jump start on weeds before they have a chance to germinate
 
Fertilize
With our soil types, nutrients quickly flush through the root zones requiring regular fertilizing to maintain plant health and green lawns. Springtime uses custom blended fertilizers made specify for our region, organic fertilizers are also available on request.
 
·        Plant material should be fertilized early before buds break on branches
·        Begin fertilizing your turf in early May
 
Irrigation scheduling
A soil probe is a very valuable and inexpensive tool to see how much moisture is in the soil. The average root depth of most landscape material is 6-24 inches with the exception of larger trees that can average around one foot per caliper inch, and lawns which average 3-12 inches. When observing the soil in the probe, it should appear moist but not saturated; this is also a good time to check for the presence of mold and insects. Check your soil conditions throughout the year and make corrections to the irrigation controller as needed. Central Oregon exhibits a very coarse, large particle, sandy soil with very low water retention capacity. Because of this condition, Springtime recommends an every-other-day watering schedule The more water, less frequent watering schedule may not be the most conserving method to use, due to the ease of water drainage though our type of soil.
Springtime offers custom irrigation monitoring and audits of your system to make sure your watering needs are meant.                       
 
Consider an irrigation upgrade:
The number one waste of water is when shrub and lawn areas are watered by the same zone. As a general rule, lawns require twice as much water as shrubs, so watering both together means that you will either be under-watering your grass or over-watering your shrubs. Besides wasting water, plant material is more susceptible to insects and disease when over-watering occurs. Drip irrigation is by far the most conservative and healthiest means of watering plants, but another option are new nozzles for fixed spray heads that can better equalize your landscape's watering requirements. These nozzles also work in situations where fixed spray and rotating-spray heads are combined in the same zone. The general rule is that fixed spray applies twice the water per square foot as rotary sprays.
 
Check your controller to see if it has a Water Budget (Seasonal Adjust, % Adjust, etc.) feature. This function is used as a one-step method to change all the watering times in a given program. The default display on this feature is 100%, so if your controller still has summer watering times, adjusting to 50% will cut all the times in half. This works great for the spring and fall seasons and could have an average monthly savings of $32.00, while conserving 24,000 gallons of water (Based on a 4 zone system). When dealing with unseasonably high temperatures an adjustment above 100% will also work. For example: 150% would add half the time to the original settings. Another option is to upgrade to a Smart Controller. New technology allows the controller to self adjusts its schedule based on current weather conditions saving you water and money.

For assistance in scheduling your controller or an estimate to upgrade give our service department a call.