We Can’t Say Our July St. Louis Landscaping Tip Enough: WATER! WATER! WATER!

First of all, let’s start off with a very basic statement. Don’t rely on mother nature to water your lawn or your landscaping! Rainfall can be very deceiving.

You think the great 45 minutes of thunderstorm just watered your plants beautifully, but half of it ran off into the lawn because it rained so hard, and only the top couple of inches of the mulch is wet. Unless it rains a light, soaking rain for at least 4-5 hours, don’t even consider natural precipitation as “watering”.

You want to make sure you water long enough for it to saturate down to the roots, and do so every two to three days. Shallow watering will make roots go upwards to reach moisture.

You should water your lawn in the morning hours and refrain from waters at night to avoid fungus.

Tip For July: WATER! WATER! WATER!

Also know that you’re probably not going to water too much. We’ve only seen this on a couple instances over the past decade here. The overwhelming majority of property owners underestimate how much water their plants should receive on a weekly basis instead.

In addition to that beautiful, green lawn that you’d like to have, you’ve probably just invested in having Environmental Landscaping install new trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals or groundcover plants in your landscape, and would love to see them survive.

Realize right upfront that standing with a hose for a few minutes is not good enough most times. It may work for tiny flowers with 2″-4″ of a root system, but if you think standing there with hose in hand is going to make a difference to that new tree or shrub, you’re not doing enough.

Watering these plantings properly is the most important factor in getting your investment to pay off. When it comes to watering trees and other landscape plants, there are a lot of misconceptions and assumptions like these for St. Louis area homeowners that need to be cleared up.

You’ve spent good money (and time if you planted them yourself) on these plants, and though the water bill is going to go up you’re really going to be spending money to replace them if they die.

Another misconception you may have is spending time wetting the leaf tissue. Those little leaves might look thirsty to you, but most plants cannot absorb water by spraying them; it must be drawn in by the roots and roots only. In fact, spraying the leaves can even promote fungal diseases by wetting the leaf tissue. Water at the base of plants so the roots can take in the water.

If you follow these tips and advice for watering your St. Louis landscaping and lawns you’ll see your investment in the outside our your home truly pay off in the end.

Environmental is one of the top rated landscapers in all of the St. Louis and Metro East areas, including neighborhoods like Sunset Hills, Manchester, Ladue, Frontenac, Creve Coeur, Maryland Heights and Des Peres. For any questions or to get a bid on your next project, call one of our experienced experts at (636) 225-3848 and tell us you found us online, or contact us online directly if you’d like! We’d love to show you the difference between the guaranteed work we provide in comparison to other, less-experienced St. Louis landscapers.

Tory Catanzaro – Owner, Environmental Landscaping