Preparing your Lawn for Spring!

Finally, the spring is almost around the corner! Gardeners and lawn enthusiasts will be preparing their gardening tools, mulch, plants, and other tools for the new growing season as soon as winter steps out of the way.

Remove Fall and Winter Debris – Rake away the debris from the fall and winter months, including leaves, sticks, and stones. Doing this will help give your lawn a fresh new start for spring! Raking in itself has the additional benefit of loosening the surface of your lawn’s soil, which encourages healthy airflow.

Keep It Short – Once the growing season has begun, go ahead and cut your grass short and collect the clippings. Detatch the lawn if you don’t do it in the fall – use a garden rake or thatching rake to dispose of any dead vegetation.

Use More Grass Seed – Are there any areas in your lawn that look dead, balding, or weak? Use a strong rake to open the surface of your lawn and mix in some grass seed with the new, healthier soil. Spread this soil and grass seed mixture over the surface, water regularly, and get ready to enjoy a fuller, healthier lawn!

Start Mulching – Want to protect your plants while making your lawn look fantastic? Grab some mulch! The protective covering will help lock in moisture in the soil beneath it and will help keep your plants and shrubs happy and protected. For better results, place mulch 2 to 4 inches deep around the base of your trees, shrubs, and in your flowerbeds.

Water Your Lawn Deeply – Do you water your lawn frequently but with little water? You could be doing your lawn a disservice! Instead of doing it frequently with less water, do it when your lawn needs it and with a lot of water, like a good rainstorm. This will help you train the grass roots to dig deeper into the soil, which helps it become richer and better hydrated.

Want a fantastic lawn this year but don’t have time to put in all the effort?

 Zion Landscaping & Masonry will be there to make sure your lawn is glorious and perfect all year round! 

Call us at 631-423-8082 or visit us: Zion Landscaping & Masonry

Safety Guide for your Pets - Winter Hazard -

Safety Guide: Even though they may be indoors, you’re dogs still need to get outside.  With winter comes shorter days and darker nights.  For this reason, it is a good idea to get them (as well as yourself) some reflective wear whether it be a leash, collar, or coat to be more visible during nighttime walks.     

But what about that salt?  

For many pets, the salt can be irritating causing an almost burning like sensation.  If they happen to be more curious, eating the salt can also be toxic causing increased thirst, vomiting, and even convulsions or kidney damage in larger amounts.  There are pet safe forms for your driveway but a city won’t likely be using this on sidewalks & roadways.  Consider boots for your dogs or make sure that you wipe their feet before coming in the house.

 As a last reminder, for all those stray cats outdoors looking for a warm place, don’t forget to knock on your car hood or check inside before you get a start on your day.  I hope that you all will have a safe and healthy winter season!  Stay warm!!

Reason to Compost

 6 Reasons to Compost:

Compost  is simply decomposed organic matter, but it’s the best gift you can give your garden. Here are just a few of the many benefits of compost.   Compost can be used to feed and condition the soil. It can be applied as a mulch, incorporated within planting holes or used as an ingredient in potting mixtures. 

1. Compost Protects from Drought: Compost encourages the formation of soil clusters that soak up water and hold it like a sponge.

2. Compost Improves Soil Aeration:  Adding compost to soil creates air pockets between soil clusters.

3. Compost Stops Erosion: Soil that contains lots of humus (compost) resists erosion from wind and water.

4. Compost Nourishes the Soil: 

Compost acts as a nutrient storehouse, gradually releasing nutrients to plants throughout the growing season.

5. Compost Prevents Disease: A thin layer of compost spread over the soil’s surface will fight plant diseases better than any chemical fungicide.

6. Compost Reduces Waste: Composting makes use of grass clippings, leaves, and kitchen scraps that otherwise would take up space in a landfill.

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Ponds Seasonal Care

Fall and Winter Maintenance

In the fall, water is almost always very clear because of the cooler temperatures and the full, lush plants. Enjoy the good water quality

There may be an increasing numbers of yellow leaves this time of year, so prune them off all of your plants. Your lilies - tropical and hardy - should still be going strong until the first frost

Stop fertilizing when the weather becomes cooler. This lets the plants know the season is coming to an end
When the water temperature is around 55 F? (10? C), stop feeding your fish. Continuing to feed them could cause health problems or death for them, since their digestive systems are beginning to slow down for the winter.

As leaves falls from nearby trees, you'll probably have to empty the debris net every day to keep up with the influx of leaves. Some of them will undoubtedly sink to the bottom, try to remove as many as you can, however a few left in the pond will give insects and frogs a place to over winter.
If you leave too much organic matter in your pond, the water may turn brown. If this happens, remove the excess debris and add activated carbon to clear the water.

As it gets colder, your aquatic plants will have all but died for the season. Now you can cut back the dead plant material and remove the tropicals. Cut back the cattails above the water level, or better yet, leave them up to see how magnificent they look in the winter.
If you're fortunate enough to be where it stays warm all year round, you're set for the winter.
If you live up north, where the surface of the pond freezes, you'll need to prepare for winter by deciding whether you want to keep your pond running or shut it down.

To shut your pond down, first unplug your pump and pull it out of the water. The pump should be stored in a frost-free location, submerged in a bucket of water to keep the seals from drying.
If you have fish, a small re-circulating pump that bubbles at the water surface is necessary to oxygenate the water. In all but extremely low temperatures, the bubbling of the pump will also keep a hole open in the ice to allow for a gas exchange, keeping your fish alive. It is not necessary to oxygenate the water or keep a hole open in the ice if you don't have fish.

If your area experiences long periods of extremely cold weather, you may consider adding a floating de-icer. Controlled by a thermostat, the unit only runs when the water temperature is at or below freezing, heats the water to just above that, and then shuts off again. Ask your installer or local supplier for products to help your pond during the winter.
If you use a floating de-icer, place it away from the bubbler. The movement of the water can move the heated water away from the de-icer, making it run more than necessary.
The most important thing is to have fun with your water feature all year long. Keep some of these key maintenance issues in mind, and it will be smooth sailing. In the meantime, stay warm!

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How Winter Does damage your garden

How Winter Does Damage in your Garden: When spring comes we will all assess how our plants came through the winter. Typically, we will blame problems on the obvious--recent weather or a new insect sighting. Or we will blame the plant or the guy who sold it to us. (what may have happened to some of your plants.) We tend to have short-term memories; we obliterate what happened last season, the condition of the plant going into winter, and the harsh weeks of winter weather like this one.


 1 - Smashed, broken, blown down plants Physical damage is the most obvious. Windstorms knock down trees or take out branches, especially on multi-trunk, weak-wooded, badly sited, drought stressed, poorly pruned or poorly structured trees. Ice from roofs and snow from plows and blowers crush, disfigure or uproot landscape plants. Plant selection, placement and good landscaping are the prevention and cures—all topics for lifelong learning.

2 - Evergreens turned brown In late winter Many evergreens—yews or arborvitaes for example--turn brown (especially on the windward side of the plant) or they look bleached. The primary reason is that the winter winds and sunshine promote transpiration (water loss through the leaves/needles) while the roots are frozen and can’t replace the water. Also winter sun warms up plant tissues and activates cellular activities, leading to tissue damage when the temperature drops quickly. Sometimes during sunny but cold days, leaves use up their chlorophyll and can’t replace it, so that leaves appear

bleached.

3 - Bark cracking and splitting This is sun scald. On sunny winter days, the bark heats up on the south or southwest side of a tree causing cambial activity (movement of fluids just under the outer bark). When the temperature drops quickly the cells burst and tissues die. Thin-barked and young trees are most vulnerable. Tree wraps and plant placement (blocked from direct winter sun) are preventive options. 4 - Frost heaving The smallest or most recently installed plants are most at risk from root desiccation—often fatal--when the soil freezes and thaws, heaving the root ball out of the ground or letting air in through cracks in the soil. Mulching helps prevent this. If heaving occurs, press the plants back into the soil asap.

5 - Roots death from severe cold Tree roots die when the surrounding soil temperature drops to a particular degree—the degree depending on the species. The lowest possible temperature a plant might experience is only one factor affecting its survival, but it’s important. Fortunately, soil temperatures drop slower than air temperatures, or we would lose lots more plants in winter cold spells. Many of our plants would die if the roots reached zero degrees F., but fortunately those roots are below ground and rarely reach that temperature. The roots freeze even slower if the soil is well mulched or snow-covered, or if the soil was moist when it froze. Acclimation is Key No matter how hardy, no plant would survive a New York winter without going through a seasonal change called acclimation. It’s logical and intuitive: If you take a tree that’s blooming in a February flower show and drop it outside.

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