Horticulture News You Can Use
Spring Hort Report
Spring has finally arrived. The long days of winter are behind us and its full speed ahead for the maintenance and the up keeping of our lawns. As the weather changes you will be visiting different nurseries and home improvement stores to get ideas on how to keep your landscape looking its best.
Soil Evaluation and Improvement
Flower bed preparation is the key before planting anything in your garden. The best thing you can do for your plants and be water wise is to build deep, high quality soil. A minimum depth of six (6) inches of good soils is desirable but 12 to 18 inches is preferred. Native and adapted plants do extremely well with native soils, but improved soil benefit most plant species.
Incorporating generous amounts of compost and landscape soil into planting beds will reward your landscape with a larger reservoir of moisture-holding material.
Plant Selection
Plant selection is very important to your landscape. We take a water wise approach to our plantings. Throughout city facilities planting beds have different varieties of xeriscape plantings.
These include:
These plants require less water and will still provide for a nice landscape. Using trees, shrubs, and ground covers that are either native or adapted to our climate and soil is the best way to achieve success with reducing water needs.
Turf Areas
Turf grasses generally require more frequent watering than native or adapted plants. Be sure to use grass in functional areas that can be efficiently watered. For example, instead of grass, put ground cover in areas that are narrow, small, sloping, and odd shaped, or close to pavement. Many ground cover plants are more water conserving than turf grass and require substantially less maintenance.
Watering
Watering plays a major roll in the way our landscapes look. Watering early in the day minimizes water loss from evaporation. The sun is less in tense and wind likely to be light or absent. Water only when plants need it. Too much water not only wastes water, but also can push nutrients away from the plant roots and leads to more weeding and pruning. Excess water also causes development of shallow root systems and encourages more disease and insect problems.
Appropriate maintenance
- Weed lawn and garden as needed. Weeds rob plants of valuable water
- Inspect irrigation systems for leaks
- Control insect and disease problems when they arise and feed and fertilize as needed
- Mow grass at proper heights
Water Conservation
Cities, businesses and residents need to be concerned about water conservation.
Water Conservation Information - information on landscape irrigation use and general conservation practices.
Helpful Links
Tarrant County Master Gardeners – for advice on gardening in Tarrant County
Texas A&M University's Earth Kind – Horticulturists at A&M have developed the Earth Kind program combining the best of organic and traditional gardening and landscaping principals. This site includes the Earth Kind plant selector, which allows you to search a database to find plants suited to your region with the best drought, heat and pest tolerance.
North Texas can call the Texas Agricultural Extension Service for Horticulture information sheets, soil test kits and landscape advice – 817-884-1578.
For questions or information call the City of Euless Parks "Horticulture Hotline" at 817-685-1652.
