Watering: As the weather begins to warm, your lawn will need to be watered one inch of water two times a week. If the temperature is over 90 degrees, bump that up to 3 times a week. Sticking to an every day or every other day schedule all summer may not provide the depth moisture that your grass is needing. To measure one inch of water, get a free watering gauge at the farm or you can use a flat bottom can (like a tuna fish can or cat food can). Place the container in your yard, turn the sprinklers on and time it to see how long it takes to fill up to one inch. This is how long you will want your sprinklers to run. The depth moisture applied with a couple of days for soaking in and drying again, will help the grass roots to go deeper; therefore making the grass tougher in the long run. (Please see our Caring For Your Lawn page for more information.)  If you are seeing some hot spots (grass turning brown in patches), use a hose and sprinkler head on real low and supplement those hot spots for and hour or two.

Your trees will need 20-25 gallons of water every 4-5 days. This should be given all at one time to establish a deep root system. More water – less often will give you a beautiful and healthy tree. You should not be watering your trees more than two times a week unless the tree is newly planted. Newly planted trees will need to be watered three times per week. Newly planted smaller potted trees and trees with small root balls will need 15-20 gallons of water each time you water. Newly planted trees with big root balls need 20-25 gallons of water each time you water. We consider a tree newly planted until it has completed its first winter in your yard.

Please keep watering your trees deeply and as long into the fall as you can. If the temperatures stay just right, this will help promote some great fall colors when the daylight hours become shorter in September and October!

Your shrubs and plants will need to be watered two to three times a week, 5 gallons of water each time. This will ensure a strong root system and healthy plant.

Pruning: This is also a good time to do any light pruning or manicuring on your trees and shrubs.

Fertilizing: Look ahead to fertilizing your lawn around Labor Day weekend. This will give you a long autumn season of green grass. As far as trees and shrubs, we recommend no further fertilizing on them this year. We don’t want to encourage a bunch of new growth and then have an early freeze in September and kill all the tender new growth.