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Tips for summer gardening

By: Kellyann Earls
| Published 06/14/2014

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THE WOODLANDS, Texas - With 15 years of landscape maintenance experience under his belt, JR Madrid of Stewart Lawn and Garden shared some secrets to help keep flowers blooming and grass green throughout this sometimes dry, and sometimes wet, summer.

Stewart Lawn and Garden gives tips on how to have a lush and beautiful garden this summer.


Stewart Lawn and Garden offers a multitude of services to meet everyone’s gardening needs. Stephen Stewart, owner of the landscaping company once said, “anything you need the moment you walk out your backdoor.” Madrid adds, “Design and Build is our bread and butter. We have a great design team with great ideas: from redesigning a front yard landscape for curb appeal to installing a resort style pool.”

In addition, landscape maintenance (weekly service, mulching, seasonal color installed, irrigation monitoring), fertilization (lawn and bed care), irrigation, drainage, and lighting are just a few of the services Stewart Lawn and Garden offers.

Here are the plants perfect for a summer in Texas:


Knockout Roses

Pineapple Guava

Loropetalum

Vinca (Annual)

Zinnias (Annual)

Verbena (Annual)

Texas Mountain Laurel (Tree)

Live Oak (Tree)

Magnolia (Tree)

To take care of the plants, they will need a good base of mulch. Madrid highly recommends Native Hardwood mulch. He, however, warns against gardeners using Dyed mulch (the kind that turns your hands black). It will eventually damage and kill the plants. Dyed mulch is a cheaper choice, but will not help flowers grow big and strong. Plants need to be fed the right nutrients, and get plenty of water and sunshine to stay healthy. Madrid treats flowers as if they were, well, alive.

“Plants communicate and show you signs of how they are doing. If not getting enough water, they droop and wilt. If they get too much water, they will start to yellow. They will even change colors if you over fertilize them. Plants are living, breathing organisms and have characters of their own.”

In the back of the company’s office, there is a nursery where Madrid discussed a tree that had been struck by lightning and how it was stressed from the incident when it was first brought to them. Now it is healing by growing a second layer of bark over the scar that remains from the lightning bolt, thanks to the care of Stewart Lawn and Garden.

The issue most people have in The Woodlands is taking care of gardens in the fickle Texas weather. For the dry sessions of summer, Madrid shares some tips for how to properly water lawns without messing with drought regulations.

“First mow your St. Augustine lawn as tall as possible. Set up a deep water cycle so your lawn and landscape take in as much water as possible and reduce runoff (wasted water). You can achieve this by setting up two start times on your irrigation controller. Have one start late in the evening and then have it start again early morning. Make sure you leave enough time between start times so they do not overlap. If you live in The Woodlands you will need to abide by the rules set up by the WJPA and The Township.” http://wjpa.net/water-conservation/defined-irrigation-schedule/.

“Adding compost to lawns is very beneficial as well. Replacing the nutrients in the soil will make your lawn healthier with deeper root systems,” Madrid adds.

Recently, however, there has been a great deal of rain.

“If you don’t already have a rain sensor, get one! They are the best and cheapest way to save water and money, and very easy to install for the DIY. If you don’t have one just make sure you manually turn off your irrigation so it’s not running while it’s raining. Yes, your plants can definitely get too much water. In certain areas we have clay soils and clay does not drain well. Plants sitting in water will most likely develop some sort of fungus and die.”

For those who have black thumbs rather than green, these tips can help anyone become more confident in growing a garden they’re proud of.

For more information on Steward Lawn and Garden, and more tips for gardening this summer, visit their website provided below.

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