Plant Care Information

Taking care of your new lawn and landscape after installation is just as important as the installation itself. Below you'll find step by step information on how to take care of your new investment, as well as some good tips on caring for your plants and trees from season to season.

New Installation Instructions

New Grass

Water daily for the first two weeks. Then gradually cut watering back to your normal schedule, see our watering guide for more info. Note: If your sod has been installed during the summer it may need to be watered more frequently.
Reduce watering if you see water puddling or the ground is still soggy.
Make sure when watering that all areas of the new grass are being covered. Corners tend to dry out quicker and are easily missed by irrigation systems.
Don't mow or allow any heavy traffic on newly planted sod for at least 3-4 weeks after installation.
Make sure to mow at the proper height for your grass to avoid damaging your new lawn. St. Augustine - 2 inches and Bermuda Grass - 1 1/2 inches

New Plants

Water every other day during cooler months (Spring, Fall, Winter). Water daily during the Summer. Continue this for the first two weeks after installation. Then gradually cut watering back to once a week to establish deep roots.
Make sure to check soil moisture of plants often for the first two weeks by sticking a stake or your finger about 2" into the ground near the plants you're watering, if it is dry water more often, if it is still soaking wet then skip watering for a day.
Reduce watering if you see water puddling around the new plants or the ground is still soggy.
Make sure to water in the evening or early in the morning.
Spray weekly, especially in warmer temperatures, with a good liquid fertilizer to help the plant establish itself.

New Trees

Water 1" per week by slowly soaking it. Do this for the first 6 months, after that the tree can be watered by the sprinklers as they are turned on for the grass and bed areas. Make sure you don't over water, it can be just as harmful, if not more, as under watering!

Trimming Crepe Myrtles

There is a large misconception about proper trimming for crepe myrtles and the results are what some refer to as "crepe murder". If you look around town, you will see a lot of beautiful crepe myrtles, but you will also see crepe myrtles that have been excessively pruned. This kind of pruning can be detrimental to the tree. It causes the tree to have a distorted shape, so that the bottom of the tree is much bigger than the top. When the tree eventually starts to grow back, the branches are very fragile and weak, which makes the entire top of the tree fragile. These branches stay thin, so when the tree starts to produce blooms in the summer the flowers can actually be too heavy, causing the branches to lay over or even brake off. Some people believe that this kind of pruning promotes better flowering in the summer, but this could not be farther from the truth. There are many crepe myrtles that have never been pruned which have beautiful blooms in the summer.

The proper way to prune crepe myrtles is by pruning only the small branches, pencil size and smaller, dead branches and any suckers coming out at the bottom. This will help to keep a good flow of air blowing through and help reduce problems with powdery mildew. The only exception is if you have branches that are rubbing on your house or other buildings. In this case it would be ideal to trim back the branches to avoid any damage. There is also no reason to worry about removing the old seed pods, but if you prefer to remove them it will not hurt the tree in any way. The best time to do all crepe myrtle pruning is right before spring, in order to avoid any freeze damage. If you follow these simple steps than you will have beautiful crepe myrtles to enjoy year after year.

If you already have a crepe myrtle that has been overly pruned year after year, and you would now like it to grow properly, the best solution would actually be to cut off the tree at the ground and let it grow back naturally. Although it may take a while for your tree to grow back in full, its beauty will be worth the wait.