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Spring has sprung in Santa Clarita, ushering in a refreshing change in our surroundings! Cold, gray skies have given way to sunshine and a brilliant blue panorama. Lawns and planters are alive with color and fresh growth, while trees are budding, and birds are chirping in celebration.
All that activity means life is busy for us at Stay Green. As one of Southern California’s largest professional landscape management companies, we work hard to assist Mother Nature in her most active season. You’ll see our crews at locations throughout Santa Clarita undertaking a number of activities designed to keep our clients’ properties looking their best.
For starters, we’ll be mowing lawns again regularly. Dormant through the winter, grass springs to life this season. Spurred along by warmer weather and intermittent showers, it grows quickly and requires weekly trimming to maintain its health and beauty.
Mowing is not as simple as it looks. We trim our customers’ lawns to the proper length, depending on the variety of grass planted, and this produces a number of advantages.
When grass is properly trimmed, it leaves an optimal amount of leaf surface, which allows the grass to absorb more sunlight, and grow deeper, stronger roots. The blades shade the crown and soil, reducing the need for water, and saving you money on irrigation costs. The fuller growth also inhibits weed growth, meaning lower usage of weed control chemicals.
Another landscape element that needs a trim during spring growth spurts is shrubbery. Regular clipping encourages continued lush growth, and helps maintain a consistent shape and the aesthetic design of your landscape.
Ensuring the health of our clients’ shrubbery is a top priority, so we typically prune by hand, rather than using power tools. In addition to protecting the plants, we’re also reducing carbon emissions by turning off the gasoline-powered trimmers.
While nature’s irrigation fuels your landscaping’s spring growth, we know summer is right around the corner. That means your property’s irrigation system will need to take over and provide the water lawns, shrubs, flowers and trees need to maintain their growth and beauty.
One of our chief tasks in the coming weeks is inspecting your system thoroughly and making any needed repairs. We’ll check the valves for leaks, test for proper pressure and flow, and look at the electrical connections. From there, we’ll evaluate the sprinkler heads. Each nozzle should operate smoothly, exhibit a consistent spray pattern and be free of debris or obstructions.
Unfortunately, spring growth benefits weeds just as much as the desirable aspects of your landscape. So, we’ll be hard at work battling these perennial pests. One of our best weapons are pre-emergent solutions sprayed directly on lawns and in planting beds. Pre-emergents work in the soil to target weeds before they germinate. This saves us the considerable effort of eradicating them after they’ve taken root and sprouted.
Another ally in our battle is mulch. Spread in planters and around trees, mulch deprives weeds of the sunlight they need to grow. Mulch also regulates soil temperatures, traps water, and infuses nutrients into the soil as it decomposes, so it is particularly beneficial to the surrounding plants.
At Stay Green, we make all of our own mulch. Rather than dumping our lawn, tree, and shrub clippings in a landfill, we grind them up, and use the resulting organic mulch on our job sites. Doing so saves our clients the cost of disposal and purchasing other mulch.
Another critical spring task is applying fertilizers. Your landscaping’s seasonal growth spurt requires a tremendous amount of food. We augment the nutrients found in the soil to keep lawns lush, shrubs and plants vibrant, and trees leafy as they emerge from winter’s dormancy.
As you can see, we’ve got our work cut out for us! The services we provide during our regular visits not only bring out the best in your landscape, but also enhance the overall value of your property.
Chris Angelo is vice president of Stay Green, Inc., which is based in Santa Clarita, and provides landscape maintenance, tree care, and plant health care services throughout Southern California.
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