Kansas City Landscaping and Lawn Care Ideas

There has been a near media blitz this year informing Kansas City Gardeners.  However while looking at an Overland park landscape last week I saw more mulch volcanoes. 

I can fin no excuse that there are professional landscaping companies out there who still continue to pile mulch around trees.  It make me very sad to know that there continues to be companies and residents who are having there landscaping ruined by either ignorant or careless landscapers.

Here you can see the results

Notice how the bark has already started to rot away.  The darker color indicated the bark that was dying and ready to peel off.  Additionally, the picture doesn’t show it well.  However there were also multiple insect holes in the bark under the mulch.

This year, Kansas City Landscaping has seen a Spring that was more gradual than in past years.  This has been good for the plants and lawns in Kansas City .  Consistently cool Kansas City temperatures with only rare and short warm-up have allowed us to gradually slip into Spring and avoid the landscaping pitfalls of moving too fast.  Landscapers like slow springs because very few plants have been hurt by April freezes this year and although it has been fairly dry the plants have faired well.  However, gradual will soon give way to rapid growth as soon as we get some heat.  Lawn Mowing will soon be the most common weekend chore for most Kansas City homeowners. 

Blue Grass and Fescue lawns have thrived in this slightly cooler temperature.  They have been growing laterally and down for the last several weeks.  The imminent heat will spur rapid upward growth – we will soon be mowing VERY often!

One of the negatives of this low soil temperature ahs been for any new spring lawn seeding.  The grass has not grown much at all if any.  That is again due to cooler than normal soil temps.  This may not be a great thing for Spring seeded lawns since it simply will not have the time needed to grow before summer heat sets in.  However, if my inside sources at NBC Action News are accurate, we may have a cooler than normal Summer which would be good for all of Kansas City’s lawns. 

Rain Gardens can be a great way to solve landscaping problems in Kansas City.  landscapers can use them to effectively deal with drainage issues that have been plaguing homeowners for years and are often  better solution than simply sending the water further down the hill to the neighbors yard.

Here is a concept rendering for a rain garden I will be installing soon in a customer’s landscape.  I will chronicle this build and update the blog with its progress including before and after shots.

If you have any questions about rain gardens please be sure to leave a comment and I would be happy to share what I know,.

It is time for Kansas City Landscapers to prepare for the heat.  Weather forecasts are showing that Kansas City will soon be hitting 90 degrees for the first time this year.  This tends to be a  tipping point for the lawns and landscapes.

You can help your landscaper and lawn care service by taking care of your lawns watering needs.

New Trees or Plants

Water new trees or plants when the top 3″ of the soil dries out completely.  Water the plants slowly and deeply allowing the entire root system to become soaked.  larger plants take more time.

This is very important.  You cannot give a time to water because every soil will absorb water at a different rate.  The goal is to water the plants entire root system and then let the entire roots ystem dry out just before adding new water.

Lawns

Lawns should be water with 1″ of water per week.  This is best done with one long slow watering if your soil will absorb that much water.  Most Kansas City lawns will do just fine with one long irrigation.  Depending on the type of sprinkler being used — This may require up to 1 hour of watering.  It is best to measure the water rather than guessing.  I use a straight sided margarine tub placed int he middle of the sprinklers path to tell.

Watering is an essential part of maintaining your landscapes.   It does not have to be difficult but it does have to be consistent and done correctly.  If you have any watering questions feel free to leave a comment to this post and I would be happy o help you out.

This spring has been a landscaper in Kansas City’s dream.  All the plants are doing well with mild temps and ample rain.  The only negative so far has been that all the rain has made it nearly impossible to do landscaping or lawn care work.  It is just been too wet.

As Charles Dickens would have said “It has been the Best of Springs – It has been the Worst of Springs”

Landscapes in Kansas City will soon be hitting the deep freeze.   Well, maybe not the deep freeze.  However even with temperatures reaching down into upper 20’s — it is important to have all the information necessary.

First of all this is not at all like the freeze of 2007 — although the dates are not that different.  The difference lies in the weather of March.  In 2007, Kansas City’s weather was unseasonably warm.  Plants were a good 3 – 4 weeks ahead of normal development.  Last year I already had Iris blooms poking up in my yard.  This year, I barely have leaves coming through last falls leaves.  Freezing temperatures this weekend will only be a slight problem for landscapers and homeowners in Kansas City.

Different plants will need different amounts of care this weekend.

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