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3 Tips to Add Interest to Your Cold-Weather Landscape

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Winter hits homeThe colder weather of late fall and early winter strips away leaves and flowers from plants, leaving what look like “skeletons.” But with a little creativity, it’s still possible to bring an apparently dead landscape to life and create a genuinely enjoyable outdoor environment.

1.  Add focal points

These could include sculptures, arbors, ponds, boulders or even colorful containers. Features such as these become the center of attention and cause less pleasing ones (such as bare trees and shrubs) to fade into the background.

2.  Reimagine color and form

The one surefire way to perk up a cold-weather landscape is by adding a few sturdy evergreens. If you plant evergreens behind leafless deciduous trees and shrubs, their bold greenness can help bring out the sculpted beauty in the branches of “bare” plants.

3.  Consider the power of fragrance

Plants like witch hazel have a sweet fragrance no matter how cold the weather gets. Sweet box adds a pleasant vanilla scent into the air and also produces bright black berries that provide additional color.

The one major positive about a cold-weather landscape is that once leaves have fallen, you can see more clearly how you should prune your deciduous trees and bushes. A good rule of thumb to follow is to cut out branches that are crossing or rubbing against each other and to avoid cutting back new growth.

Late fall and winter can produce exciting new landscapes – if you know how to take advantage of what you have.

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How to Create a Low-Maintenance Landscape

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cactus gardenAustin is still facing stage two water restrictions, which will likely continue into the year.  If you’re considering a lawn and garden makeover, South Austin Irrigation has three ideas to help you create a low maintenance landscape you’ll love.

1. Try clover

Instead of grass, try planting clover.  It’s an easy-care groundcover that:

  • needs very little water
  • rarely has to be mowed
  • remains relatively free of weeds
  • doesn’t get discolored from pet urine
  • is soft to walk on
  • improves existing soil condition

What’s more, when clover blooms, the flowers offer a nice aesthetic touch.  The best time to start growing clover is spring to give enough time to grow before winter.

2. Consider adding a rock garden

Rock gardens – which you can make with pebbles, gravel, rocks or sea glass – are good for outdoor spaces of all sizes.  The best thing about one is that you never have to worry about watering.  You can accentuate them with decorative figurines, birdbaths and/or succulents.  For a more dramatic look, you can use large boulders.

3. Plant drought-resistant perennials

Like clover, this type of vegetation requires very little watering.  You also have an enormous variety to choose from, including rock cress, lavender, ice plants and foxglove.  Plant your perennials on loose soil that drains well and use fertilizer when you see brown spots.  Be sure to also mulch wherever possible.

At South Austin Irrigation, we know just how much your landscape means to you.  But we also understand that saving money and water are also important.  Our experts are here to offer you the irrigation repair information you need.  Contact us today!

 

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Preparing Your Garden for Spring Flowers

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Preparing SoilSpring seems like a long way off.  But, and just like New Year 2014, it will be here before you know it.  Have you thought about what you’ll do to prepare your annual and perennial flowers for the new growing season?

To help make things easier for yourself when spring does arrive, you can start by regularly removing any debris that accumulates in and around flowerbed areas.  This includes branches that may have fallen during one of our recent storms or leaves you didn’t manage to clear out at the end of last fall.

Expect to kick your flower-planting project into higher gear around the beginning of March.  Following are some of the things you’ll need to do at that time to ensure the best outcome for your spring flowers.

De-mulch and weed

Remove and dispose of any winter mulch you have been using in perennial flowerbeds. Be careful not to disturb any flower shoots you see coming up.  Weed annual beds and throw away weeds that have seed heads.

Compost

Place a 2-3 inch layer of fresh compost on all flowerbeds.  Till the compost into the soil, taking care not to disturb the roots and bulbs of perennials. Work the soil to an 8-inch depth in annual beds and a 5-inch depth in perennial beds.

Fertilize

Fertilize all flowerbeds, making sure to use a balanced fertilizer on annual and most perennial beds.  Use specially formulated bulb fertilizer for bulb beds.

Re-mulch and transplant

Apply a fresh 2-3 inch layer of new mulch to flowerbeds once the soil begins to warm up in mid- to late spring.  Be sure to transplant annual flowers outside only after the danger of frost has passed.

Whether you’re a beginning or veteran gardener, South Austin Irrigation is here to help.  Our experts can also give you all the information and service you need to ensure your irrigation system is ready for the challenges of the new watering season.  Contact us today!

 

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Brighten Your Summer Garden With Heat Loving Flowers

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Celosia flowers
Celosia flowers

Austin summers are long, hot and humid, which is enough to kill most flowers. But four native Texas blooms do exceptionally well in these conditions and can make colorful additions to a landscape that’s also been parched by drought.

Black-eyed Susan
This hardy plant blooms between June and October on stems that can measure 1 to 2 feet tall. The flowers are a cheerful bright yellow and surround a dark brown cone-like center. Leaves and stems have small hairs on them that give the plant a coarse texture. Once established, a black-eyed Susan plant can grow in full sunlight and survive even the driest conditions.

Blackfoot daisy
Blackfoot daisies grow in busy masses that stand between 6 and 12 inches tall and 1 and 2 feet wide. Their cream-white, notched petals of the daisies themselves surround star-shaped, yellow flowers that bloom between March and November. The best growing environment for these flowers is well-drained soil that tends towards dryness.

Mexican petunia
If you’re looking for an evergreen perennial that can grow in almost any type of well-drained soil, this plant is for you. From late May until late November, the Mexican petunia produces blooms in pink, blue, violet or white on the end of stalks that can measure up to 3 feet tall. On the dwarf variety, flowers will sit anywhere from 8 to 12 inches above the leaves.

Celosia
Celosia comes in three varieties: plumosa, cristata and spicata. The plumosa flower looks like a large feather duster with a pointy tip. The cristata flower looks like a rooster’s comb or a ribbon with folds that are light-colored inside and darker on the outside. And spicata blooms look like stalks of wheat. Celosia colors – orange, rose, pink, purple, red, yellow and cream – are as eye-catching as its varied flower shapes. These plants can be as small as 4 inches or as large as 3 feet tall and do best in full sun and well-drained soil.

Deciding on the right flowers for your summer landscape can be a challenge.

Call South Austin Irrigation at (512) 534 7449
for your irrigation needs!

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4 Trees for a More Colorful Autumn

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Red autumn oak tree

One of the great pleasures of autumn is watching tree leaves turn different shades of yellow, orange and red. But here in Austin, the changes in color are less dramatic than they are in more northerly climates.

That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the best show of the season. Texas has several native trees that do color highly during this time of year. With a little planning, you can create a vivid autumn spectacle for your landscape.

1. Bigtooth Maple

This tree, which sometimes looks more like a shrub, matures at 15 feet or taller on good soils. During the fall, the leaves turn a beautiful bright red and gold.

2. Flowering Dogwood

Though most noted for the white flowers it produces in the spring, the leaves on this tree – which can grow as high as 40 feet and requires acidic soil – produces gorgeous scarlet red leaves in the fall.

3. Texas Red Oak

This species of oak grows up to 30 feet high and has foliage that turns a bright orange-red when the weather cools. It tolerates poor and rocky soils and is also resistant to Oak Wilt.

4. Eastern Black Cherry/Escarpment Black Cherry

These two trees are native to Texas Hill Country and can grow to 25 feet and sometimes taller. Both have pendulous branches and leaves that turn a lovely shade of yellow in the fall.

5. Carolina Buckthorn

The Carolina Buckthorn is a multi-stemmed understory tree growing 15-20 feet tall and wide. In autumn, its leaves turn yellow. Red berries provide additional interest and color.

 

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Our sprinkler repair service areas include:

  • Austin, TX
  • Lakeway, TX
  • Spicewood, TX
  • Horseshoe Bay, TX
  • Dripping Springs, TX
  • Wimberly, TX

Give us a call for sprinkler repair and service in your area: (512) 534-7449

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