WATERING PLANTS

Watering your new plants on a regular basis for the two seasons is the most important thing you can do to establish healthy landscape plants.

• Water several times a week for the first three months after planting.
• On average, plants should receive 1" of water per week. Soil and weather conditions dictate how often and how much water to apply and how frequently.
• Check soil prior to watering by pulling back mulch or rock. Feel the soil at least 4-8" below the surface. If the soil is dry or slightly damp, the plant will need water.
• Water new plants the entire season, until the ground freezes. This will help to ensure the plants have plenty of water entering into the winter months.

SOD

Sod takes two to three weeks to establish and root into the yard.

• Water sod once a day for the first two weeks. Lift an edge of the sod and make sure the soil beneath the sod is saturated.
• Hot and sunny areas, slopes, and areas exposed to wind may require more watering.
• Minimize walking on new sod to prevent lumps in the yard.
• Sod can be mowed in 2-4 weeks after installation. Pull up a corner of the sod. If it does not lift, it is ready to mow.
• Once established, mow and water as you would any established lawn.

Your Success is Important to Linder's

Please contact your designer with questions about your landscape installation, plant materials, or maintenance.

CARING FOR YOUR LANDSCAPE THROUGH THE SEASON

EARLY SPRING (APRIL – EARLY JUNE)

• Remove leaves and debris from planting areas.
• Cut back perennials and ornamental grasses that were not cut back in the fall.
• Prune shrub roses.
• Apply a weed pre-emergent (such as Preen©) for weed prevention.
• Top-dress planting beds annually with 1". This will maintain the optimal depth of 3-4".
• Fertilize perennials and roses according to labeled directions.

EARLY FALL (SEPTEMBER)

• Remove weeds.
• Stop fertilizing and pruning. Plants have stopped growing and are starting to go dormant.
• Cut back perennials that look untidy or start to die back (cut back to the base of the plant).

LATE FALL (OCTOBER)

• Water all landscape plants (especially evergreens) to ensure they go into dormancy with adequate soil moisture.
• Cut back perennials to the base of the plant. Perennials and grasse that add winter interest can be cut back in the early spring.

PRUNING, LAWN CARE, ROSES, ANNUALS AND MORE!

The Linder's website has many care sheets to help you with your yard and garden questions.

When we design our landscape, we often think in terms of the beauty it brings in spring, summer and into autumn. Most of us give very little thought to designing our gardens for interest and color year around. Creating a landscape that includes interest throughout our long winter can be a challenge. With some thoughtful planning, your gardens can be as alive during the winter as they are in summer.

Most winter interest in the landscape comes from the underlying structure of your landscape or garden. This includes the stems, branches and the winter shapes of trees and shrubs. It also includes structural elements in your landscape such as arbors, pergolas, statuary, and even boulders.

Additional winter interest in your landscape can come from the color and texture of stems and bark. The stems of the Red-Twigged Dogwood and Willow, muted during summer, shine in winter, adding much needed color. Many of our landscape shrubs serve us in several seasons. The flowers of Hydrangeas catch snow and create the appearance of large snowflakes. Viburnums, Winterberry, Chokeberry and Elderberry display their showy fruit. Sumacs and Burning Bush show off their architectural forms best in winter. With their leafless silhouettes, trees add an important architectural element to the landscape. The bark of many trees, such as Birch, Cherry and Oak becomes very noticeable in winter against a snowy landscape.

Evergreens are very important in the winter landscape, bringing color and structure with their columnar, pyramidal, arching, and globe forms. Often in the background during the summer, evergreens become dominant in winter, softening an otherwise stark landscape.

Ornamental grasses take the stage in winter. Little Bluestem, Karl Foerster, Switch Grass, Indian Grass and Flame Grass have strong, structural forms, adding movement and a fountain-like appearance to the landscape. The strong stems of perennials such like Sedum, Coneflower, Rudbeckia, and Astilbe, stand up in snow, often peaking through the snow cover with snow caps.

Our landscapes need not look drab and lifeless in winter. Take a look at your landscape this spring, with an eye towards next winter. Make a plan to add plants that bring beauty all year around.

Attract even more birds to your yard by incorporating wildlife attracting plantings into your landscape. When selecting trees and shrubs this spring, consider those that will provide food, shelter, and nesting places for birds. Oaks, Maples, Cedars and Birch are good choices for larger trees. Hawthorns, Crabapples, Fruit Trees, and other smaller ornamentals provide fruit for many species. Evergreens provide nesting places for birds and year around shelter from the weather and predators.

Dogwoods, Viburnums, Sumacs, Winterberries, and Elderberries all provide an important source of food and shelter for wildlife. Ornamental Grasses and the seed heads of many perennials provide seed. Natives are always a good choice for attracting wildlife

Diversity is important when creating a landscape to attract wildlife. Incorporate a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers that bloom at different times of the year.