Many people think of spring as the best time for planting, but our preferred season in Gainesville is actually right now! The cooler temperatures and fall rains help the plant’s roots become well-established and the soil is still warm enough to allow roots to grow before the risk of freezing temperatures set in. It’s also a great time to get out in the yard and enjoy your investment! Below you will see our top 5 reasons for why we love Floria Fall landscapes!

1. Color
Here in Gainesville, we don’t get to experience the same dramatic color changes that some of our friends further north enjoy. The flip side of that is that we also don’t have to deal with the colder winters either! Still, it’s nice to see some changes at the turning of the season, and while we won’t be as showy as some other areas, here are a few Gainesville landscape additions that I would highly recommend for our area that will bring you some fall color.

Red Maple Tree
Shumard Oak
Crape Myrtle
Sweetspire
Fothergilla
Oak Leaf Hydrangea

2. Mild Temperatures
I’m sure many are asking, ‘What if we plant in the fall and then we have a cold winter! Won’t my plants die?’  The truth is The Master's Lawn Care rarely loses plants to the cold. Some freeze down because they're deciduous, but they typically re-grow in the spring even larger and more vibrant than if they had kept their leaves. The reason we don’t lose many plants over the winter is because when we do have a cold snap, it doesn’t stay cold for long. Rarely does north central Florida have a cold snap that lasts more than a week or two.

3. Greener Grass
Fall is a great time for sod installation because most other landscape plants have been planted and have matured by this point and therefore require less maintenance so you will be able to spend more time focusing on creating the thick, lush lawn that will make the neighbors jealous next summer! This is why we recommend Fall. It will be both optimal conditions for the grass and for those installing and maintaining it!

4. Fresh Mulch
Fall is the perfect time to refresh your mulch to encourage healthy, vibrant growth in the spring. Mulching helps protect your plants through our harsher, but short-lived, cold months of the year cost-effectively and easily. A fresh installation of mulch will help keep down weeds, reduce erosion, and keep the soil moist for the health of your Gainesville landscaping plants. The addition of mulch will also help create a clean and neat look in your landscape beds.

5. Outdoor Living
When the heat of summer is gone and cooler weather approaches, Florida Fall is the perfect season for spending more time in the yard with your friends and family. This is the time of year to enjoy firepits, patios, and other outdoor living spaces that you’ve worked hard on the rest of the year. Now is the time to really enjoy your hard work while the weather is nice! 

We do have a short transition from summer to winter. If you plan on taking advantage of the cooler weather to have some Gainesville landscaping renovations done, let us know how we can help! Give our team a call or text at (352) 378-5296. We're local and have been serving Gainesville for over 15 years. We look forward to working with you!

Instant impact! That's what you'll get when you put a generous helping of chrysanthemums (commonly just called "mums") in your entryway, flower border, or containers. Generally sold in ready-to-bloom form, mums add a fall finale of color to any setting. They come in a wide variety of flower colors and shapes, from small button-sized blooms to giant corsage-worthy flowers. Mum colors include white, yellow, pink, orange, red, burgundy, cream, salmon, and bi-color - which are all also great fall colors to go with Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations. There are also dwarf forms that grow just 8 to 10 inches tall and standards that can reach a couple feet in height. Mums are very popular with bees and butterflies, too. 

They're only downside? They aren't this colorful year-round. As beautiful as they are for fall, they typically don't last through winter without special care and maintenance. A cold winter will freeze them down completely, but it depends on how they're protected. 

Mum Growing Instructions
Be sure to select plants that are labeled "garden mums." Varieties sold indoors at florists are generally not cold hardy and should be treated as short-lived seasonal gift plants for interior design only. Mums prefer a sunny spot in the garden with well-drained soil. Avoid locations where water stands after a heavy rain or flower planters without good drainage as they will get root rot. To get the best bloom on large-flowering types, pinch off all the buds in late May. If your mums grow too large, divide them in the early spring every two to three years. After a few years some mums may begin to weaken or die out. Add new plants every year or two to keep the fall color show going. Deer and rabbits generally avoid dining on mums, so this is a safe plant for those Millhopper Rd and other deer feasted landscapes.

Light
Sun

Colors
Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, White, Yellow

Water
Moist, well-drained soil

Special Features:
Attracts butterflies
Attracts hummingbirds
Deer/rabbit resistant
 

The time has finally come to begin planning your fall Gainesville landscaping tasks with Fall just around the corner. It may not feel like it, but cooler days will be here in a month or so, and evening temperatures are already on a downward slope. Get ready for fall landscaping activities by planning for and scheduling tasks those hard-to-get-to tasks now.

Schedule the projects, purchase supplies, and plan what your priorities are -although the actual work won't begin just yet. You will be fertilizing your lawn, monitoring lawn pest and weed activity, and dialing in irrigation schedules. You may also choose to add some fall seasonal color or add new shrubs and trees.

Plan Cool-Season Annuals
Right now, your warm-season annuals are still looking good. Angelonia, torenia, vinca, zinnias, coleus, and caladium are blooming well. In our Gainesville, Florida lawns, these will continue thriving into mid-October. Depending on if you're using Fall color such as Mums or moving straight to Pansies and Petunias, you can delay purchasing and installing cool-season annuals until November. For Mums it would be an earlier timeline though.

If you like to grow flowers from seeds, however, now is the time to start thinking about it, especially if you plan to order supplies and seeds online. Setting up your seedling areas can be a project if you want to sow lots of seeds. This can also be a great project for kids to see as the plants grow.

Consider these Gainesville area cool-season annuals for your flower beds:

Snapdragons, Pansies, Violas, Mums, Petunias, Phlox, or Sweet Pea

Fall Gainesville Lawn Fertilizing
Be ready for the year's last round of nitrogen feeding in September or October. General garden fertilizer is suitable for most trees and shrubs (12-4-8 or 15-5-15 or 15-4-8) and your turf mix would vary depending upon your grass type - St. Augustine, Zoysia, or Centipede.

For tree and shrub fertilization (Ornamental fertilizer), spread it evenly on the ground under the tree out to the drip line (edge of the outer mimbs of the trees).

For lawns, look the turf fertilizer depends on your breed of turfgrass. St. Augustine and Bahia get their final feeding of the year in September; Zoysia and Bermuda will be later in the year, although continuing to feed other micro and macro nutrient s is important for root density and health through the winter. 

Add New Shrubs
Want to add new shrubs or flowers? Fall is the perfect time. If you wait until October when the days are cooler, the planting process doesn’t stress shrubs as much, and our winters aren't extreme so it gives new plants a long time to adjust and root before the next heat wave of summer.

Use September as the month of ground prep for new shrubs. Get rid of all weeds, either by hand-picking or spraying weed contorl. Remove plants that are failing. Dig up the soil and turn it over, adding enriching amendments such as cow manure (purchased in a bag at a nursery or garden center), grass clippings, wood chips, straw, and wood ash.

The ground will be ready for installing new shrubs in late September or October. Fall is also a good time to add new trees.

Keep a Watch for Pests
Until the days really cool down, pests remain active. On shrubs and plants, keep a watch for aphids, mites, grasshoppers, and caterpillars. Crape Myrtle's will regularly struggle with black sooty mold from Aphids,

As for your Gainesville lawn pests, look for chinch bug damage (dry patches by concrete and curbs), moths fluttering in the lawn (which is the adult sod webworm), and their damage of chewed leaf blades. Leave the beneficial insects alone: lacewings, spiders, mantids, and ladybugs. These good bugs eat the destructive ones. You can also look for lawn fungus, leaf spot, and melting out this time of year as well.

Turn on Irrigation as Needed
Early September may still see afternoon showers. As the fall progresses and less rain falls, homeowners should be prepared to turn on irrigation systems more fequently. Fortunately, many systems are equipped with rain sensors or smart controllers to keep them from running too often. However, the grass still needs monitoring to ensure that it is receiving enough water. 

I hope this is helpful as you plan your Fall Landscape To-Do List. Let us know if we can help your Gainesville lawn or landscape in any way by calling/texting (352) 378-5296 or emailing us at info@themasterslawncare.com.

Cooler weather is here and that means growth in your lawn and landscape will slow down.  As fall weather moves into North Central Florida, your Gainesville landscaping growth will start to slow down. Grass will grow more slowly and hopefully the weeds will too! The cooler weather is a great time to get outside and work on some garden projects that are best tackled at this time of year. These chores will help clean up the landscape and get everything neat and tidy so that you can relax the rest of the fall and winter months.

1. DIVIDE BULB PLANTS
In addition to dividing your ornamental grasses; there are other plants that you may wish to divide. Perennials such as liriope, African iris, flax lily, bulbine, and herbs such as rosemary and tarragon are easy to divide. You may want to cut them back to the ground and then divide the clump into smaller sections using a sharp shovel. By dividing and moving plants you may be able to create new planting areas for free by using plants you already have, or consider doing a plant exchange with your friends or neighbors using the plants you have divided or removed.

2. REJUVENATE ORNAMENTAL GRASSES
Do you have ornamental grasses in your landscape? This is a great time of year to prune them back if they are looking bad. If they are still flowering, or getting ready to, make sure you wait until they are done. If they need to be pruned back, the easiest way to do this is to use hedge pruners or large clippers. Cut the grass back to about eight inches high. You may also wish to divide up your grasses at this time of year. After you cut the grass back, use a sharp shovel to divide up the grass. This is a great way to create more plants for the yard or share plants with friends or neighbors.

3. SHIFT PLANTS THAT HAVE OUTGROWN THEIR SPACE
When the heat of summer is on plants in Gainesville grow like crazy! If some of your plants have gotten larger than intended this is a great time to relocate some of your plants. Find a new spot for the plant that has more room than its current location. You want to find a spot that will allow your plant to spread without having to continually prune it during the growing season. If your plants have divided it could be a great time to create new mulched beds or expand existing mulched beds in your yard.

4. MULCH INSTALLATION FOR LANDSCAPE BEDS
A fresh installation of mulch will help keep down weeds, reduce erosion, and keep the soil moist for the health of your Gainesville landscaping plants. If you find that you need to re-mulch pine bark, pine straw, or shredded hardwood mulch are all good options in our area. Pine straw will break down considerably faster than some of the other options so plan on refreshing frequently if you go this route, but it works much better on slopes where muclh tens to wash away due to poor drainage. The addition of mulch will also help create a clean and neat look in your landscape beds.

5. PLANT GAINESVILLE TREES AND SHRUBS

After you have cleaned up, divided, and pruned your way through the landscape, you may find that you want to add more trees and shrubs to your yard. Fall is a great time to plant trees and shrubs in Gainesville, Florida because the cooler weather gives plants a chance to establish before the blistering summer heat returns.

If we can help with your next landscape upgrade, give us a call at (352) 378-5296.