With an unusually hot and dry spring, many lawns did not receive enough water in the growing season. It doesn’t look like rain is coming anytime soon, and our landscaping is suffering! Here are a few tips to keep your landscaping looking as fresh and healthy as possible during a drought.

Adjust your mower height during a drought

It’s ideal to keep your grass between 2 and 4 inches long, with 3 inches being the go-to length. In times of drought, keep your lawn closer to 4 inches or even a little longer. This will help the grass roots grow deeper and it will provide extra shade for the soil. Shaded soil means it will be able to conserve more moisture.

Are you following these 6 mowing tips for a healthy lawn?

Water cautiously in a drought 

While we all prefer lush, green lawns, your neighbors will overlook your browning grass because they’re going through the same thing. Only water when necessary. Wilting grass or flowers is a good sign that they probably need some water. 

Watering in the early morning hours before the sun hits your yard is the best option. If you water during the day, the sun will scorch the wet blades and leaves. Your lawn and landscaping will be able to receive and retain more water in the early morning versus other times of the day.

Finally, water as much as possible in one session. It’s much better to saturate the ground once a week rather than lightly watering every day. The goal is to get the water to the roots, not just the grass blades or leaves we see. Plants are able to retain a lot of moisture under the soil and not nearly as much above the soil.

Skip fertilizing and herbicide usage

When you apply fertilizer, you are helping your lawn and plants grow. However, growing takes a lot of energy – energy that the plant doesn’t have during a drought. Imagine running a marathon after you haven’t slept in days. Even with water and proper nutrition, it would still be difficult to get through that race!

Herbicides can be stressful on lawns, even when they are receiving enough water. During a drought, weeds will be able to grow even with herbicides because your lawn and landscaping aren’t strong enough to fight them off. 

Call Great Goats Landscaping today!

We’re pros in all things lawn and landscaping! We’d love to help you navigate this drought and figure out how to make your yard work for you. You can still have a beautiful yard even in the dry months!

Now that we’re into the summer months, it may seem like the planting and landscaping window has passed. A common misconception is that April and May are the only times to plant and work on your landscaping. Good news: it’s not too late for you to landscape! 

What kind of landscaping can I do in the summer?

While it’s great to get a start on your landscaping in the spring, there are still many things you can do in the summer!

• Plant grown flowers, trees, and bushes: plenty of nurseries and garden centers sell plants that are grown and ready to be placed in the ground. 
• Use a birdhouse or feeder to attract birds to your yard and bring it to life. Add milkweed to attract butterflies!
• Add a fireplace to your patio or a firepit to your yard – a perfect way to spend a summer night! 
• Consider a water feature such as a pond, waterfall, or fountain for a relaxing and unique element of your yard.
• Include a retaining wall or a stepping stone path to create dimension.
• Maintain what you already have! Follow these 6 tips for mowing your lawn and check out these inexpensive weeding hacks!

Which season is best for landscaping?

Believe it or not, fall! Fall is a great time for landscaping because the weather is still warm but is pleasantly cooling off. You can have an entire landscape installed in the fall as long as you water consistently until the ground freezes. Landscaping in the fall also means you get a great deal on plants because garden centers and nurseries are trying to get rid of everything before winter. Fall is also the perfect time to plant tulip and daffodil bulbs so they’ll pop up in early spring!

Call Great Goats Landscaping today! 

Great Goats Landscaping has been making clients happy for over 15 years. We pride ourselves in our quality work and believe the design process is a collaborative one. We’d love to help you meet your landscaping goals this summer. Give us a call today! It’s never too late to landscape!

Let’s face it: weeding your garden is not a fun task. There are several things you can buy from a store to kill and reduce weeds, but that cost can add up quickly. And their effectiveness can be questionable. Try these 6 inexpensive hacks for a weed-free garden:

Save your newspaper

Next time you find yourself throwing last week’s newspaper in the recycling bin, save it for your weeds! Newspaper is a great (and cheap) substitute for a weed blocking cloth. Simply place the newspapers in areas where you don’t want weeds to grow, then cover the newspapers with grass clippings, mulch, or dirt.

Don’t forget to mulch

Mulch suppresses weed growth because it blocks the sunlight. You can use grass clippings or pine needles in place of wood mulch. Be careful not to mulch too close to your tree trunks, bushes, and vegetation because you don’t want to suppress their growth!

Make your own weed killer

Weed killer can be expensive and toxic to your body. Instead of store-bought herbicide, use these household essentials:

• 2 cups distilled white or apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp table salt
• 1 tsp liquid dish soap

Mix the ingredients in a spray bottle. For best results, spray weeds on a warm, sunny day.

Create your own compost

Compost is another inexpensive hacks for a weed-free garden. Collect all your food scraps in a bucket (fruit and vegetable peels, eggshells, leftovers, etc.) and use them to kill the weeds in your garden. Not only does composting reduce the weeds in your garden, it also acts as a fertilizer for your growing fruits, vegetables, and flowers!

Weed after it rains

The ground is softer right after it rains, so it will easier to pull weeds and their roots. It’s important to get the roots and not just the top of the weed so that it won’t grow back.

Keep your lawn healthy

A healthy lawn will have the energy to choke out weeds and do some of the work for you. Follow these 6 tips to maintain a healthy lawn all summer long!

Call Great Goats Landscaping today!

We’re here to help! Great Goats Landscaping offers full-service lawn care which includes lawn mowing, fertilization and weed control, and lawn renewal. We offer a variety of other services and would love to help you bring your yard to life! Give us a call today so that we can get those pesky weeds out of your garden for good!