During the fall and winter, we are able to offer our clients many options to enhance your landscape that are unavailable in the hot summer months.  This is a great time to apply a fresh layer of mulch, allowing your plants to retain moisture after the rainy months. Just in time for the holidays, our team can spruce up your gardens with cool, crisp, colorful annual flowers, signature Poinsettias, or a pre-party service call. We are looking forward to creating your Florida winter wonderland! Please contact us for more information, pricing, or to schedule a professional consultation.

This season features a small renovation completed in March 2009 of a home in the Oyster Bay community of Sarasota.  The homeowners are primarily winter residents, and wanted a clean, crisp approach to maintenance.  Our team has developed an individualized program for this landscape, so that our clients come home each winter to plants in optimum condition.  A specific palette was selected during the design phase of this project to showcase plants whose peak time of year coincides with the homeowners' residence here.  It is a pleasure to work with these discerning and knowledgeable clients to design and maintain the landscape they envisioned and enjoy, each time they come home.

October means it's time to fertilize turf. Once again we are pleased to be using Florikan premium turf fertilizers on our clients' lawns. St. Augustine lawns will receive an application of 20-0-20 and Zoysia accounts will receive a 9-0-24 blend. Both blends have high levels of potassium, a key component in preparing your lawn for the coming winter months. Potassium is responsible for deep root development, cold hardiness, drought and wear tolerance, and disease and insect resistance. This fertilizer application is a six month blend that will noursigh your turf through April 2010.

The fast-approaching cooler weather also means we can now safely apply post-emergent broadleaf herbicides. Heavy summer rains favored the growth of dayflower, lenotweed, dollarweed, apurge, and a host of other weeds. Cool weather allows us to control these weeds without adversely affecting turf.  A note about the crabgrass you might see invading your St. Augustine turf: while we are sometimes able to chemically control crabgrass in Zoysia turf, there are no chemical controls available to us for crabgrass in St. Augustine turf. In these cases, simple hand-pulling is best.  Upcoming frosts will also help to control the invasive species.

Insect and disease problems in turf during winter months are usually isolated and light. Serious problems can arise however if turf is wet from irrigation on nights it frosts or freezes. Remember to turn off irrigation clocks on nights a frost or freeze is predicted. Insects that we will be looking for in plant material include aphids, scale, and assorted worm species.

Please contact us with any questions, and enjoy the cooler weather!

Ken G. Kiger, Licensed Horticulturalist /Pesticide Applicator

Michael A. Gilkey, Inc. Maintenance Division

This is the optimum time to schedule a professional irrigation inspection, ensuring your system is operating at maximum efficiency before next growth season.  During the dry months (typically March through June), a fune-tuned irrigation system can make all the difference in the health of your plants and the efficiency of your water use.  Nozzles and rotors have life spans due to wear and tear and need professional replacement.  Please contact us to schedule a professional irrigation inspection today.

During these cooler months, it is critical to protect our plants and turf from freezes and frosts.  Typical temperatures are not low enough in our climate to kill your turf.  However, if your irrigation clock is set to water on a night with frost or freezing temperatures, your lawn has little chance of survival.  If forecasters predict frost or freeze, please turn off your irrigation clocks for the evening.  It will save you water, money, and quite possibly your lawn.

How long are your irrigation zones set for?  Your turf rotors should run 40-45 minutes, your turf pop-ups 20-25 minutes, and your shrub pop-ups and risers 15 minutes.  Please contact us to schedule a professional irrigation inspection for a complete analysis of your watering times and efficiency of your system.