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Another Deep Freeze Incoming

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Snow Covered GardenBeginning this weekend, the 17th through the 20th of January 2025 we’re expecting another hard freeze. This means it’s time again to make sure that your plants are adequately taken care of.

If you already have freeze cloth installed, don’t remove it, just leave it in place. With an adequate ground seal the frost cloth can provide as much as a 10°F increase in temperature around your plants. This means that the lows in the teens that we’re expecting this weekend will feel more like lows in the mid 20°s which may still damage some plants, but should not kill your hardy plants. It should be noted that the white frost cloth does still allow plenty of sunlight through to nurture and feed your plants with existing winter foliage or evergreen plants.

The other thing you can do to help protect your plants is to water them deeply immediately before a hard freeze – that is the afternoon and evening before a hard freeze. The addition of liquid water not only hydrates your plants and makes if more difficult for them to suffer from freeze damage, but the liquid water in the soil creates a little micro-climate underneath your frost cloth. Water requires an immense amount of energy loss before it transitions from liquid to solid ice. This resistance to what we call “phase change” from water to ice provides warmth to your plant by keeping the ambient temperature above 32°F until it has lost enough heat energy to finally change over to ice.

So what’s the plan? Simple: keep your frost cloth in place, inspect it to make sure that it has a good seal to the ground to trap warm air, and deeply water all of your plants to help provide additional protection against freezing.

To learn more about the Irrigreen systems we can install for you, visit Irrigreen.com, or give us a call at 877-558-1496.

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May flowers are here!

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Late summer blooms.The heat of summer is finally setting in, but with all the rain we’ve had in April plants everywhere are just absolutely exploding. Now is the time to start setting in your annual color. For annuals, you’ll want to get “hardened” plants and not something just out of the greenhouse. They will need time to acclimate to the heat we’re just now experiencing.

For perennials if you’re a fan of coneflowers (Echinacia) now is the time to plant them. Lantanas are another great choice for heat loving perennials and they are definitely in stock at your local garden center. Lantanas are often mistaken for annuals, but don’t be discouraged if they seem to die completely away in the winter. They will die back to the ground and come back with the first heat of summer. Of course there are many other options for annual colors, such as pentas and violas as well.

For your lawn, if you’re considering adding sod, now is the ideal time. St. Augustine is a fantastic choice for full sun and heavy clay soils, but bermuda and zoysia will also work. For shady areas, Titan fescue is a fantastic option. Additionally, now is the perfect time to fertilize your lawn. We recommend an all nitrogen fertilizer along the lines of a 15-0-0. That being said, we highly advise against any “weed and feed” additives. They can severely hurt woody shrubs and trees.

Late summer blooms.While we’re discussing lawns, this is the time to inspect your St. Augustine for Take All Root Rot (TARR) which is a fungus that can decimate your lawn. You can identify this through a general “yellowing” of the grass, or if it is farther advanced you will notice bald spots and a general lack of structure of the root system which will appear dry and brittle. Acidification through a peat moss treatment, or chemicals such as aluminum sulfate will help your turf beat back the fungus. We recommend a minimum of 1” of peat moss well raked in so that the grass is poking through the layer.

Mulch seems to be a common topic that we discuss here, but it’s importance cannot be over emphasized. In addition to weed suppression, it plays a major role in helping the soil to retain moisture. That may not yet be a problem now, but once we get into June and July you’ll want all the help that you can get with soil moisture. If your existing mulch is more than a couple of years old you may consider raking out the old mulch and replacing it.

Along those same lines, if your irrigation system is not functioning properly this is the time to address repairs. The El Nino system that has blessed us with abundant rain this spring seems to be changing to a La Nina system, which means that natural rainfall will decrease through the end of the summer and into autumn and winter. It may just mean a little adjustment is needed for some spray heads, or perhaps a valve just needs to be rebuilt. Regardless, now is the time to address any irrigation problems before the Texas heat hits us in full force.

It certainly is an exciting time of year, and Desiree Gardens is always here to help. Need help with your irrigation or sprinkler system? Does your garden need an overhaul or just a general checkup? Give us a call at 817-202-4808, or drop us a line and contact us here, to find out how Desiree can help you create a wonderful garden with a budget you can afford.

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And remember, don’t forget to play in the dirt!