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Water! It’s a vital part of having a healthy lawn and landscape. Rain is always our best source of water but since summer is here and rain is scarce, I want to show you a little trick I learned.

Personally, I love to hand water with a hose, watering pots and flowerbeds, playing with dogs, cooling myself off in the process. It’s fun and gets the job done! Now watering with a sprinkler, that’s a bit of a hassle. Setting it out, making sure the spray is in my lawn and not on the street, remembering to move it and then turning it off. You get the picture! And a sprinkler can only cover a limited space. Aughhh!

But now I can cover more ground with my new Melnor pulsating sprinklers we have here at Gill’s. You can attach them end to end… doubling the watering area in the same amount of time. WOW! Plus, I added a Melnor mechanical timer to my faucet that can be set to run up to 2 hours and then will automatically turn off. A double WOW! I attached 1 sprinkler to my 100’ hose, unscrewed the other side and attached a 50’ hose, attached the 2nd sprinkler, set the sprinkler tabs to keep the water in my yard, turned the water on, fine-tuned the stops, set the timer, done!

Now my yard, trees, shrubs are much happier and so am I.

Remember, you can water your lawn with a sprinkler from 6pm to 10am, one day of the week. Your choice of day. You can hand water or use a soaker hose, any day, any time, for however long you like.

-Debbie

If your watering hose is in the sun, make sure to let the water run through for a little while before watering your plants. Hot hoses make for hot water!
Caladiums last longer if you pinch off the bloom stalks, which are always great for bouquets.
If your tomatoes or cucumbers remind you of Jack and the Beanstalk, use Takiron stakes and jute twine to lengthen your cage and keep those veggies contained.
You CAN give perennials a haircut in the summertime if you need to, but please nothing too drastic. Shearing blooms and gentle pruning are great ways to keep perennials looking fresh.
Weeds love to encroach on your garden beds in the summer. Walk your beds once a week! Pulling up small weeds now is alwayseasier, and can save you a lot of sweat.
If you have to spray insecticides or fungicides, do in early in the morning or late afternoon, not in the middle of the day! Water droplets have this nasty little habit of acting like magnifying glasses in 90 degree weather, and can cause burns.

-Marta

It is not webworms! Webbing on the bark of trunks and branches is a good thing. Don’t spray!!

Bark lice is natures clean-up crew. These tiny creatures are scouring the bark for plant, animal, or fungus life which they eat, and while they perform this housekeeping chore, they spin this web for protection.

Usually the web will disintegrate in two or three days and will disappear almost a suddenly as it appeared. Leave them alone and let them do their job of cleaning up your trees or shrubs. Thank goodness for good bugs!

Photo: agriflife.org

-DeAnna

We were walking with our family in West Seattle on Harbor Avenue, looking across Puget Sound to downtown Seattle. The esplanade opposite the water was lined with multi-level, concrete condominiums, I’m sure stacked as high as ordinances would allow. And then we came upon this little gem in the middle of all that concrete! What a treasure!

A small wood shingle residence was planted densely with amazingly beautiful blooming plants, including on the roof. They had water reservoirs out for the birds, dogs and even a water fountain for passers-by. The home owner received the Certified Wildlife Habitat designation from the National Wildlife Federation for providing four basic habitat elements needed for wildlife to thrive: food, water, cover & places to raise young. What a gift for their community, guests to their community AND all the birds and critters in the area!

-Sally & James

We have less control over our plants during prolonged periods of rain or flooding than during drought. Unless they are in moveable containers, there is little we can do except wait for the weather to change.

If your soil is waterlogged, chances are good your plants are showing signs of stress. Water logged and flooded soil has insufficient amounts of oxygen in it for the plants roots to take up and release water. Plants may look like they are wilting, but it is not because of too little water, it is because they can no longer access the available water. This leads to root rot and decline.

Signs your plants have been damaged by waterlogged soil include: stunting, yellowing leaves, twisting leaves, dropping leaves, soft spongy areas at the base of the plants, wilting despite plenty of water, roots turning dark with a rotting odor.

Some plants prone to root rot from prolonged wet soil are Rosemary, Esperanza, Cape Honeysuckle, Plumbago, Tomatoes, Peppers, and Texas Sage. Just because a plant shows signs of distress does not mean it will or will not recover.

A few things we can do to help them recover quicker is to poke air holes around the root system of the plant to allow them to dry out faster. If the wilting persists, you can cut the plants back to eliminate some of the foliage since the plant has lost roots. Next, improve drainage in the area by adding expanded shale.

-DeAnna

Because we have a lot of flowers and reservoirs of water at Gill’s, we also have a wonderfully large population of butterflies, dragonflies and bees.

This past 4th of July, I walked into our accounting office and found 8 bees buzzing around our ceiling fluorescent lights. I had never seen so many bees in our office and honestly, wasn’t quite sure what to do. Our buyer, Debbie walked in and immediately had the solution. She directed me to turn off all the lights & close the doors to get the room as dark as possible. Then we opened a window that had good natural light coming from outdoors and the bees, within seconds, began filing out through the window one by one.

I was so happy and amazed at how smart they were. Another example of the WONDERS OF NATURE!!

-Sally

I was blown away by the bromeliads that came in our last order from Florida. I wasn’t shopping for anything new but couldn’t resist their breathtaking beauty. Sometimes you’re only window shopping, and then, presto! – you walk out with something new. I thought, “wow, this is pretty, but how do I take care of it?”

Here’s what I learned:

Bromeliads originated in southern North America, most of South America, and isolated portions of Africa. There are a couple you may already know. The smallest is found hanging from oak trees. Spanish moss, a tillandsia, is part of the bromeliad family. Another bromeliad is a well-known tropical fruit, often used to garnish tropical drinks. Pineapple!

The more than 3,400 species of bromeliads have unique and fascinating foliage and flowers.

Some are toothed, some bloom tall spikes; others change color or develop tiny flowers inside their water wells.

Most bromeliads gather water and nutrition from their foliage or water well. They need little to no soil for their root system. They are often epiphytic, clinging to trees or other structures. They are not parasitic.

Caring for them is super easy.

Bromeliads enjoy filtered bright light – indoors or a patio is perfect. Keep water in the cup and only water the soil when dry. Dump water weekly to avoid stagnation. Feed them with a half-strength fertilizer once monthly. (We suggest Hastagro.)

Remember, they don’t need a big pot to grow. You can mount them on driftwood or stumps, even hang them from mossed wire.

Now, here’s the cool part.

As the flowers fade, the parent plant will produce offshoots around the base. These are baby bromeliads that can be removed and planted – making one plant into many plants! As new ones grow, the parent plant has done it’s part and begins to die. You can enjoy them for years to come and share them with friends.

To start your new plants, leave the sprouts growing until they are just big enough to handle, 3″-4″ tall should be good. Remove them by cutting them off just under the soil and plant them in sphagnum moss or loose planting mix. Orchid bark or seed and cutting mix would be great. They will require the same care as the parent plant. Moisten the soil and fill the center cup with water.

The more widely cultivated species are Aechmea, Guzmania, Cryptanthus, Vriesea, and Tillandsia. They are commercially grown in Florida, making them available for us year-round.

Tropical and exotic and easy?! You bet! See ya soon!

-Debbie

What a stark contrast! The owners of these three homes in Denver, one next to the other, each have a very different look.

The home on the bottom has grass, but it is dead due to a faulty irrigation system. The home on top has grass with irrigation. Kind of boring, and getting to be expensive with the cost of water. The owner on the left has chosen plants that require little water along with an assortment of brick, stone and gravel. And no grass! Interesting and very attractive!

If you would like to work towards a lower water requiring landscape that’s pretty but don’t quite know how to accomplish it, give our landscape department a call. We can design and install it for you and give you direction on how to maintain!

-Sally

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The more than 3,400 species of bromeliads have unique and fascinating foliage and flowers.

Caring for them is super easy.

Now, here’s the cool part.

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