How to take care of lawn, landscape in Orlando, FL?
How to take care of lawn, landscape in Orlando, FL?
How to take care of the lawn and landscape in Florida?
So, you are fond of a spectacular lawn. If you reside in a home having a landscape with beautiful trees and grass, it is wise to protect and enhance these value-enhancing features. Proper plant nutrition, along with pest and disease mitigation are crucial in maintaining a healthy landscape. On occasion, plant inhabiting insects can infest your home. This can range from ants to the much more harmful termite. Ants can contaminate food and spread diseases, while termites can cause structural damage to your home. As far as termites, there is nothing more protective than a termite bond, however, termites infesting wood from trees or woody ornamentals are best controlled or identified as part of your ongoing lawn and shrub care program, rather than going unnoticed until there is damage to the home.
Water and Nutrition for Grass
Florida turf grasses require certain things to be as healthy as possible. The obvious things are proper water and nutrition. Watering should be sufficient to wet the top 8-12” of soil. This helps to create a deep root system that leads to an overall healthy turf stand. Watering should also occur during the hours of 10 pm and 6 am. This is important in the summer because it waters during the time of the day when the sun is not out to steal the water via evaporation before the water can percolate into the soil profile. In the winter, wetting the turf during these hours allows us to wet the grass when it’s already naturally wet from the dew, helping to prevent winter fungal pathogens such as large patch fungus.
Feeding Florida turf grass is also vital for optimal health. St. Augustine for example requires between 4-6 lbs of nitrogen, per thousand square feet, per year. Secondary and micronutrients are also important. Ensuring that the turf receives a blended fertilizer containing all of these essential macros and micronutrients is critical for proper turf health.
Mowing
Mowing your Florida turf grass is also an important factor for health. Some turf cultivars need to be mowed around 4” in height, while others are happier around 2.5”. Understanding which turf type and cultivar that you have, and what height it should be maintained at are all important factors. Mowing should also occur every 7 days during the growing season and every 14 days during the non-growing season. Not removing more than 1/3 of the total grass height during a mowing is also required to avoid causing turf stress. Learn more about how to maintain grass in a warm climate in winter
Florida’s subtropical climate is host to a myriad of turf and plant damaging insects. Not to mention the various fungal and disease pathogens that can pose serious risks to your lawn and landscape. Understanding which insects and disease pathogens are active during various parts of the year in Florida is required in order to scout the lawn and landscape for these potential issues and apply the necessary treatments to mitigate them.
This is a brief encapsulation of care requirements in order to maintain healthy turf and landscape. It can be overwhelming to the average homeowner, or even hobbyist in the lawn and landscape field.
One sure-fire way to provide protection of your investment and agents of curb appeal is to hire professionals to handle this arduous and complex task for you.
The professionals at Protex Lawn and Pest control are extremely well versed in this area as it is what they are trained to do for a living. Whether investment protection or curb appeal is what you seek, look no further than the professionals at Protex.
