City of Austin Watering Restrictions

City of Austin Oak Wilt Suppression Program

New Front Yard Landscape Design Guidelines

January Landscape Update

Believe it or not, there are many landscape tasks that are important in the middle of winter.  Generally, depending on the weather, we will be trimming back the spring and early summer perennials in January.  At the end of January, we start on light trimming of the crepe myrtle trees.  This is also a good time to add compost to the beds, and touch up the mulch.

For turf areas, you can check for thatch and get it cleaned out, a necessary task before we get to spring.  Throughout December, we got a little rain every week, and turned off all of the irrigation throughout Circle C.  During the dormant period, your turf, beds and trees will generally exist with little supplemental water.  The exception would be new trees, which need regular watering so they don’t dry out. 

We will be working closely with the City of Austin over the next few months as they revised the watering restrictions to better deal with prolonged drought conditions.  At Circle C, the Board of Directors and Circle C Landscape are very committed to water conservation.  Over the winter, we are installing quick couplers along the boulevards.  These are lockable hose bibs which help us hand water during extreme conditions.  We are also installing additional drip irrigation whenever possible, as this is a big water saver.  Drip will water the roots of the plant thoroughly and it eliminates water waste by having no run-off and very little evaporation.    Other things that we are doing to assist our vegetation and save water include top dressing the turf areas.  This was done in late October, and it helps the turf stay in good condition with less water.  We believe that aerating and top dressing are two important elements in water conservation.  They are best done as the grass goes into a growing period, however, just about any time is also good.  You may want to consider this for a later January/early February project.

As usual, I am giving my annual warning against fertilizing too early in the spring.  This is especially true for St. Augustine.  It is more likely to develop brown patch if it has too much nitrogen.  That means a light fertilization in the Spring when the grass is actively growing.  It has to be warm enough for the grass to start growing, so you are looking for night time temperatures that are consistently above 60 degrees.  A good rule of thumb is to wait until you have had to mow the grass two times.

Again, hopefully, you can spend a little time in your yard over the winter, as you prepare for a good spring with your beds and turf.