Ways to Extend the Life Of Your Landscape

Every living thing has a life cycle. Depending on the size and type of material planted, a well-designed landscape can typically grow and mature for about 5-7 years before it needs to be adjusted or upgraded. While you can’t expect your plants to last forever, there are some things you can do to extend its life cycle. In fact, your lawn care in the first 1-2 years after your initial landscape installation is the most critical to its long-term success. Regardless of how big or lavish your landscape is, it’s life expectancy depends on three main elements – pruning, fertilization and irrigation.

Extending the Life of Your Landscape

#1 Hand Pruning

Pruning involves the selective removal of branches from a tree or shrub. While each plant or tree demands different techniques, the overall goal is to remove unwanted branches to improve the tree’s structure and encourage new, healthy growth. Doing the job by hand means using your snap-cut handsaws, loppers or other hand pruning tools to accomplish this. It is common for homeowners to need some professional guidance on pruning, as more aggressive and technical pruning becomes necessary as the plant matures.

#2 Fertilizing

We all need food to survive! To establish healthy, long-term growth, it is important to choose a balanced tree and shrub fertilizer to spread throughout the entire planting area. Soil tests can be extremely helpful in determining what nutrients your plants really need. These can be performed every few years.

#3 Managing Irrigation

Too many homeowners make the mistake of assuming more irrigation is better. The truth is, overwatering is a sure way to kill your landscape. While frequent watering is crucial during the first period of installation and new growth, your landscape will require less moisture as they mature. Make sure you understand which plants are more drought tolerant so that you can manage your irrigation schedule accordingly. You should consider an irrigation audit every few years to ensure you are not overwatering.

If caring for your landscape and extending its lifespan overwhelms you, confuses you or simply stresses you out – call the experts of Pannone’s Lawn Pros & Landscaping. It’s what we do best. We offer affordable landscape installation as well as customized lawn maintenance plans. How can we help you extend your landscape life and maximize your lawn care investment?