Planting & Establishing Seminar - January 11, 2020

I'm the environmental horticulture agent here in Indian River County.

I'm also the master gardener coordinator.

I work for the University of Florida and Indian River County.

And I'm here to teach you all about planting and establishment of plants.

So that's why I have such an array of different plants out here.

There are several rules of thumb for plantings and establishment of plants that are basically the same, except that you're going to go based on the size of the plant, the way that you continue to manage that plant, all right?

So we're going to talk about National Arbor Day, right plant, right place, more based on location and selection of that plant, planting itself, and then the establishment of the plant.

I have to have notes because I will stand up all day here and talk to you all about plants.

Right, see?

She's not the one you all want in the crowd when you've got somewhere else to go.

All right?

So anyone here know when National Arbor Day is in Florida?

Next Friday.

Yes, it's celebrated here in January.

So lots of places down south in the United States have earlier days.

Now generally you'll see National Arbor Day being celebrated in May everywhere else or so it seems, right?

But there are a lot of southern states when National Arbor Day is during what we call our cooler months of January, February, March.

So National Arbor Day this year in Florida is January 17th.

So it would be a great time to plant whatever you're going to be planting, hopefully strike a blow for trees if that is your thing. So let's talk about right plant, right place.

That's one of the biggest Florida-friendly landscaping principles.

Making sure that you're putting the right plant in the right place.

Now the right plant for you might not be the same plant for your next door neighbor, right?

And the right plant for your next door neighbor might not be the right plant for you.

And that is just fine.

That is really not a problem because you are the one who is managing your landscape.

You're the one who's going to be sipping your coffee and looking at it from your lanai.

So you're going to want to go and purchase a plant that you want to have, right?

You're not going to go and purchase a plant that you don't want to have simply because it's uniform with the plants next door, unless that's something you actually like. But then you also have to consider how much maintenance you intend to put into this

plant, where this plant is going to be located, what the conditions are that you're going to be growing it under, because your back porch might not have the same lighting as your neighbor's back porch.

So what you saw them growing in part shade is not going to grow in full shade if that's what your back porch looks like, all right?

So the right plant for you, based on what you want it to work for and where you're going to be growing it and what kind of soil you're growing this plant in.

Now here comes the usual, you all don't have soil here in Florida.

There are things growing out here, so surely we have soil.

Soil is a medium for growth.

So we have a medium for growth.

If you're going to say that our soil is sandy, yes, we have very sandy soil.

It is very nutrient deficient, it will not hold water.

That is true.

So you have to work with what you have in your landscape.

If you work against what you have in your landscape, who's going to win?

Every time, I have not seen it lose.

Like never have I seen the landscape get defeated, because that's nature.

It will adjust, it will acclimate itself and it will come back swinging again.

So you have to figure out what you are working with and select plants that you want within that range.

That is very important.

People are selling, what are those beautiful flowering plants? Dahlias and peony bulbs.

Here you can set yourself up for that level of failure if you would like, but I'm going to warn you from now, you might get leaves.

You might get some leaves, but you are not going to see a flower blooming from that thing no matter what you do to it.

There are people who stick it in their refrigerators.

Even if you put them in pots with growth medium, our temperatures will not induce that flowering aspect of those plants. That can be rather depressing news when I tell that to people who bought three bulbs for $18.

No, I said peonies and dahlias.

Now azaleas, there are some varieties of azaleas that do very well here.

Don't bother them if they are happy because if they are happy here, great.

They do well in Gainesville because Gainesville is more central, the soil is a little different and the temperature ranges are significantly different.

But there are one in two spots where I see azaleas and they are just as glorious and hot pink as they ever want to be.

I just drive on by them and I'm like, oh look at you, you're doing great.

I hope your owner does not think that you need a trim, that you need any amendments.

Just let it be, all right?

So a lot of the things that we need to think about when we're planting is what we're putting down.

If you're going to be planting a tree, think about what's above that tree.

I often drive down the road and I look at these oak trees that are cut out in the middle and I'm like, what came first?

The oak tree or the power line, right? You got to think about these things.

So what are the overhead obstructions?

Think about where those roots are going to grow to.

So do you want that tree fighting with your foundation?

Are there underground utility lines? Are there pipes, the septic system?

You know, these are things that you're going to have to consider because the majority of the root system is spreading sideways.

In kindergarten, you draw the lollipop tree with the long root all the way to China and that's not necessarily the truth.

The majority of a tree's root system, 90% of it is spread out sideways, right?

So you have to think about that.

And this tree that we're under, if you look at where those branches extend to and think about three times out, you have a good start, right?

It needs that much support.

If it did not have that kind of anchoring support, then the first really good wind, and we get some good winds here in Florida, would have compromised this tree, right?

So think about the root system, the size of the plant that you're trying to grow, what it's going to eventually be.

The same way you have a vision for your children or your dog or your goldfish, you have to have a vision for your plants that you're putting in the ground.

The other thing too is when you're planting shrubs for that nice curb appeal on the front of your house, think about how that shrub is going to grow out. Do you want to have to keep hacking away at it or can you just set it back so that it can have a

forefoot around?

It's going to look a little sparse for the first year or two, but when it finally fills in, you're not going to be hacking at it every six months because it's where your feet are, it's stopping you from coming in with 18 bags of groceries, right?

So think about what this is supposed to look like.

Know what plant it is that you're putting in, where you're going to put it, so that you can fit it in there correctly. It is quite fine for you to put small bedding, things like this, in with that shrub for the first couple years until you get all of

that area as populated as you want to have it. These are not meant to last forever anyway, all right?

So if you don't want it to look that sparse, there are temporary things that you fill in that gap with until it fills in for itself.

Plumbego is not supposed to be a square lollipop.

It's supposed to have a mound that goes about four feet around.

And if you've got that two feet off of your sidewalk, what are you going to always do with your Plumbego?

Meow! Because you don't want to be tripping over your Plumbego.

But if you set it back a few more feet, you won't have that issue, all right?

So get a good vision of what you're putting down so that you can put it in there correctly and you and it will not be fighting.

Well we talked a wee bit about site conditions, so let's talk about sunlight.

Sunlight, you're in a sunshine state, right? Even the winters here are not gloomy for real.

We get maybe a few days straight of overcast skies and then here comes the sun.

So think about...

your plants that are that are recommended for full sun, how they're going to be established into your landscape.

Those are the plants that you're going to make sure that you water correctly to get them going properly because if you don't manage them properly, they're going to desiccate.

All right, they're going to get dried out really fast.

And not only the sun, but we've got salt in our air.

There is no place in Florida that you're not going to have a salinity issue.

So it is important that you consider the salt in the air when you consider what it is you're purchasing.

If you're further inland, there's going to be less salt coming to you, but that's less salt.

That's not no salt.

All right.

So after a major windy event that's coming from the Atlantic, you're going to want to go outside and just wash off some of your less tolerant plants because their leaves are not going

to be happy about it.

And if you live on island, your first thought, your first priority should be how is this going to manage salt? Because salt is your everyday life.

All right.

So think about salt.

Think about it in the soil.

Think about it in the air because that's how you're going to select your plant.

If you don't select your plants based on what conditions they're going to grow in, you're going to do a lot less or hit and miss when it comes to planning your landscape.

But make a plan.

Don't get up like my aunt did the other day.

Go to the store, pick what she liked because it was cute, and then brought it home.

I'm looking at her like, so what are we doing with these? Are we container gardening again?

Which containers are we going to use? And she's like, well, no, I wanted these for near the mailbox.

And I'm like, the mailbox is full, son.

This is all part shade.

So we're container gardening.

We're going to put this on the back deck, surely, so that you didn't waste your money.

You know, but even though it's appealing to you, have a plan before you go to purchase your plants to know what it is or have some ideas as to what it is.

Know how much space you're using because that's important.

Pombegos will take a four foot around space.

So when you have five of them in eight feet, and it happens.

I just saw a building replace their pombegos and they put five of them right back into that one little box planter.

And I just look at it and I'm like, OK, so they like replacing their pombegos every four years.

Good for them.

Pombego is that little very light greenish looking plant that has the beautiful light blue flowers on it.

It's all over the place.

No, no.

But they have it out there.

They have it in one gallon and three gallon pots out there.

They're very, very light blue flowers.

It's kind of a cornflower blue like that.

But instead of it being on something that's upright and erect, it has a weeping form to that shrub.

It's very gorgeous.

I recommend it regularly because I'm biased.

Do they need what? No, I would not recommend that you fertilize pombego.

They will do just fine

without you supplementing their feeding.

If you want more blooms, if you want.

I don't know if you if you could ever really need more vigorous growth.

If you if you want pombego to do well, give it space.

And make sure that you establish it properly.

It will do the rest on its own.

You're going to be cutting back the tips that are going to provide you with blooms.

So I'm thinking that you shouldn't want to cut it back if you put it in correctly.

Right. It is quite it is significantly drought tolerant.

So orientation of your plant.

have a lot of sun here.

And so if you want to shade out certain parts of your landscape

or certain parts of your home, then try to choose things that are not going to drop their leaves.

Right. Because you're going to always want shade here in Florida.

If you're not too concerned about having shade at certain times of the year, then you can put things that are deciduous to the south, east and west of your landscape so that they can help you manage the amount.

Thank you, darling, for the the ways that those things will drop their leaves in the wintertime and keep you nice and cool during the summer.

Why didn't

I say to the north of your house? That's because the north of our homes here in Florida, generally they're going to be shaded for most of the day anyway.

So you're not going to necessarily want to add to that shade.

All right.

I had some naked oak trees.

They're no longer naked.

I have a bunch of things planted underneath them because they provide a dappled shade.

So there's adequate light for my marigolds to actually bloom out.

My zinnias are actually blooming out because we have that much sunlight here in that spectrum of light.

And my my oak trees are to the south of my property, at least the ones that I planted under.

And then I put some part shade tolerant bulbs under there.

I put a few bromeliads under there.

So under my trees are no longer just bare.

Right. It can make a wonderful, wonderful

butterfly habitat, pollinator habitat if you just added some of the things that would provide for those.

Because oak trees provide for certain moths and other lepidopteras that are pollinators.

Right. So their leaves are food.

Some of them breed into the ridges of your live oaks, other things like that.

So when you put nectar plants underneath, then you have a whole entire habitat.

And one of the great things about adding those kinds of plants under there, the majority of them require very little care from you after they are established.

They give you a nice look for your eyes and they give the wildlife that you provided for a complete habitat.

So make yourself a little plan.

Install. And you know, if you purchase the smaller size plants to go under your trees, you're not digging as much.

You're not fighting with the roots as much.

They're going to become the bigger ones. In two or three months, I kid you not, they will do it here in nice, hot and humid Florida.

They will definitely catch up.

So just put a few of them under your trees and watch them flourish.

All right.

OK, so let's talk about planting.

Preparing to plant the planting area.

You have to get ahead of the things that we don't want there.

All right.

So if you if there are plants underneath or in that space that you don't want, we like to call them weeds.

But really, it's just based on our preference.

Right. A weed is a plant that is growing out of the place that we don't want it to grow in.

That's all.

So if there are plants that you have a preference not to have in that spot, you need to remove them. If you do not remove the plants that you don't want, they are going to persist.

And they're going to have they're going to give you a jolly time trying to manage them.

So try to get after them first.

I tend to use cardboard and mulch and newspaper and mulch and I just smother them on out.

There are people who use landscaping film.

There are people who use herbicides to kill it.

If you're going to use an herbicide, know that you've got to wait two to three weeks before you put something down there to to hope that it's going to grow properly.

And that's all fine and good.

I am not here to tell you how to get rid of your weeds except for please think about yourself.

All right.

Think about what is the best way the most efficient and most effective way of managing your weeds.

I'm not going to tell someone who's whatever health condition to get down there and pull every single weed out of a 10 by 10 space.

I won't even do it.

I have better things to do with my life.

But I go to the furniture store.

I get a huge piece of cardboard.

I put it down with some papers on every corner and I smother those little buggers out and I just walk past it.

It looks ungainly for a while.

I'm okay with that.

I don't have any neighbors to answer to per se.

If you do, then I recommend that you get your cardboard, you throw some mulch on top of it so that it looks pretty and then you put your plants in almost immediately so that your neighbors don't think that you should be recommended to a therapy group.

Right. But there are ways to get it done. There are definitely ways to get it done.

And you can come and get our instructions and our assistance at the extension office.

Almost all of my volunteers have seen my crazy methods. They now know that it works. Right.

So they can explain it to you and tell you how to do it.

But the biggest thing I want you all to think about is your landscape is an elephant.

Do not try to conquer the whole thing in one shot.

Take any.

at the one spot that's going to give you the most joy, go after that spot first.

Because you want to be motivated, you want to stay motivated, right?

Then go after the next spot on that hierarchy.

Build off of that.

I don't recommend that any one or two people try to develop more than a 10 by 10 space, 100 square feet at a time.

Don't do it.

You're going to hurt yourself.

You want to manage and you want to get that spot fully established and under management before you move on to the next thing.

It sounds slow.

It sounds like your boat is coming all the way from China, but it's going to arrive.

And you're going to love the after effect, okay?

I want you to have a great experience gardening in Florida.

And that means not taking the whole entire state on all at once.

Get one section under control.

If there's a raised bed, if there's a planting space in the front yard that you just keep on walking by and it just bothers you.

I've got people who come in with those pictures of these long raised planters, you know, the cement and brick ones that they have some kind of soil into and you don't really know what it used to be.

But everything in there is scraggly.

Just go after that.

Get that under control.

Give yourself some amazing brownie points.

Sip your coffee and be like, I did that.

It looks terrific.

Motivate yourself.

If you're going to take on your whole landscape at once and you're doing it yourself, you're going to hurt your own feelings. And you're going to leave some of it half done and you're going to invest in something not with just your time, but your money.

And I am Chief Miser, right?

I don't want you wasting your money or your time.

All right.

So manage your planting area.

Get rid of the weeds.

Give yourself a head start on them.

You're never going to get rid of weeds completely.

But you can give yourself a head start on them so that you can manage your weeds.

Eradication is never going to be the goal.

You're never going to eradicate the insects that are going to come and share your landscape with you.

There are going to be some birds, some other wildlife that are going to want to come in.

That's perfect.

That means that you have a landscape that is diverse.

Most of these things are going to pass on through.

They don't want to come to stay.

They're visiting.

All right.

Loosening the soil.

We don't really need to do that here unless you're somewhere like in Sebastian or Fellsmere where there is some hard pan that you're going to have to work with or work through.

We have sand.

It's loose.

It is going to stay loose unless you compact it.

All right.

So if you have one of those newer build models of homes where they rolled a lot of soil and compacted a lot of soil, come see us about container gardening.

And that's not me being a terrible person.

That's me giving you a really great tip on how to grow what you want.

But that's a container that is compacted, that is super hard, that is a clay pot that you're going to plant something in. That's how we've gotten a lot of people to be able to have some really good effects from managing that type of landscape condition.

All right.

Root preparation.

That is going to be your biggest thing.

All right.

I'm going to use this small plant because I'm not fighting with any of those.

The first thing you want to do is make sure that you bought a really great plant.

Okay.

The next thing that you want to do is you're not going to drop this into the hole just like this unless you're one of those landscaping companies that knows they're going to come right back and remove it in two more weeks or two weeks or two months, right?

Then this makes it easier for them to just yank up and drop back in.

But for you, you want to keep this for a while and you want it to be happy and you want to be able to pinch off these blooms and induce more blooming.

What you're going to do with this is prepare the roots by cutting away some of these, breaking away some of this.

You're going to take about 20% of this off because what are these roots doing right now?

They're circling.

Whatever their current orientation is, unless you make them uncomfortable, they're not going to make a change.

They're going to continue to circle around this and only what's in that immediate circle they're going to use.

You're going to break this up, break away several of these from across the side here to make it uncomfortable enough for it when it gets into its new home, it spreads sideways.

That's the way you want it to spread out, especially in our soil that will not hold moisture and will not hold nutrients.

You want it to be able to send its roots sideways so that it can seek the water.

It can do what it's supposed to do in your landscape.

If you don't do that, two or three weeks when this should be fully established into your bed, you're going to be able to go out there and just pull it up with no problems or very little problems because the roots were not given new instructions.

If they start to fail no matter how much you've watered it and after the first three weeks you said, well, I want it to produce more of this or produce more of that and you fertilized it because it's established, it's not going to do well. That's because

the roots have not gotten new marching orders.

It's not abuse.

It's encouragement, right?

Try your best.

You want to do that with all your plants.

With the bigger trees and whatnot, I've been known to just take a really nice clean knife and slice down various sides of it, break it up, massage them, pull them out.

If you have a live oak or some other larger plant and all of the roots, every root that you find is already circling, don't buy it.

Have a good look at that plant in the container.

Don't purchase that plant because chances are you're going to be cutting away too much of the root system to get that plant properly established and it won't establish properly.

Have a good look at your plants in the containers.

The other thing to note with this, they're all white and fibrous.

They're not brown, they're not yellowing out, they're all white and fibrous.

This is a healthy plant with a healthy root system.

If you pull up a plant out of a container and it's got some brown and yellowish looking roots, that's not the plant for you.

That plant is diseased and unhappy and you're going to be bringing this diseased and unhappy plant into your yard for it to die.

You're not running a charity organization, right?

This is not whoever's home for almost dead plants, it's not plant hospice.

Be careful and then it's going to spread its yuck to whatever else you've already got there that you worked so hard to establish in.

So try your best, assess your plants.

If you go to a nursery where they won't allow you to assess your plants, think about who you're writing your check to, all right? It's your money.

All right, so get your roots ready for planting.

All right, purchase good stock.

If it doesn't look good on top, chances are it won't look great on the bottom either.

If it doesn't look good on the bottom, don't drag it home with you.

That's it.

I get a lot of questions about pruning.

You never want to prune anything that you just put into your landscape within the first two years.

There should be no reason.

Not your shrubs, not your trees.

You don't want to have to prune it.

So you want to buy something that's going to grow the way you want it to grow already.

And buy something that's not going to make you have to do major pruning on it from the beginning.

That's poor stock.

It should have one central leader if it's going to be a real tree.

A lot of the branches should not already look like they're going to be crossing.

So that in two years when you really start to train your plant, you don't have that much work to do.

Don't buy something that grows in this form and try to prune it into this form.

You're laughing, but you thought I was being hazed.

When somebody walked in, I thought the master gardeners had gotten me.

This man walks in and he's like, I've been battling with these shrubs for 15 years.

And I'm like, wow, they live that long.

Then he shows me the nice little design that he's trying to do with them.

Not that shrub.

So I said, well, why don't you grow this that's going to take that kind of manipulation and that kind of.

And he says, no, because I want this.

I said, but obviously you don't.

Right? So yeah, I thought I was being hazed, but I was not.

So buy what is going to already start to be looking the way you want it to look so that you just go out there and have pleasant conversations with it and say, you know, this little piece here, you've got a little cowlick

thing going on here and you've got a little something sticking out on the side here.

Let's just snip you up a bit.

But you should not have to take two hours to manage one plant

in your landscape like that. That's that's way too much work. You've got to get something else.

All right.

Planting. Big deal.

Huge deal.

So planting depth

is something that I did not know was so absolutely serious until I started working.

I mean, I read about it in school. I thought that was funny. Can you really put it in too far? Yes.

Yes, you can.

We had a whole row of shrubs.

They were all in decline.

We tried every test.

We tried to figure out everything.

We eventually got one whole entire shrub.

Yes. A whole entire five foot thing.

Roots and all box it up and send it off to our plant pathology lab because we were stumped for them to send us back the simplest answer ever.

Planting depth too deep.

That was it.

So you want to look at any plant that you're growing.

Be these little itty bitty ones or those larger ones.

Put your fingers where they where they hit the soil.

All right.

And keep it at that level when you plant it into the hole. Don't cover up all the top here.

All the top here doesn't want that soil.

Just put the soil all the way around what you've got left after you've pruned out, after you've cleaned up your roots and everything, after you've manipulated your roots.

Don't put the soil all the way up to the top here because you don't want this to be any deeper than it was already happy growing.

That's his happy level.

When you're

dealing with trees and shrubs and whatnot, I tie a little piece of yarn at where the top of that

where it gets hips when it hits the soil.

I tie a little piece of yarn there

so that I can make sure that if I am mistakenly getting soil on the top of the root ball, which you don't want to do anyway, that I'm not covering up that level where it was happy. So you want to plant it just slightly more shallow than what you're going

to put down into the hole.

Then you're going to make your hole twice as wide because what direction are your roots growing in? Sideways, right? You want it to start to get stabilizing roots.

You want it to also get those roots that are going to seek water so that after you're done watering it into establishment, it's going to mostly do what it's supposed to do on its own after that.

That's important.

So you want to give it a nice cushy bed, two to three times the size of whatever it is that you're planting in there.

Now when you're planting it in there, you've already got this core thing that you're putting in.

All you're going to do is tuck it in on the sides, right?

Because it's already going to be at the level sitting down that you want it to sit at.

So you're just going to put everything else around the sides.

So just slightly less deep than it already is

so that you're going to make sure you're not covering it up too deep.

And then two times out

so that you've got space for it to sprawl out.

I have two sons.

When they were little, they would come sleep with me.

One over here, one stretched out over there.

They look like starfish.

That's how you're going to, you've got to make it a nice bed for all of the roots to just be able to

do this and do that.

It's going to be great.

Your plants are going to love you for making sure that they've got room to grow, all right? Make sure that your planting depth is just slightly shallower and your width is two to three times the size.

All right.

When you're putting the soil back, backfilling, you do not have to mix anything into your soil.

And I'm going to tell you one of the reasons why you shouldn't.

After that two to three size berm that you put around it,

where else is it going to go? Back into what's originally there.

Let it get prepared for the hard life.

Don't amend your backfill.

Your backfill,

whatever you pulled out of that hole, is whatever you're going to put back in it.

That's important.

Now, if you're just putting in temporary bedding plants and you want to put some,

a little pocket of potting mix or something like that in there, if that's a temporary plant, go for it.

Put anything in that hole that you want to put into it because it's a temporary plant.

But anything you want growing in there permanently,

let it get used to where it's really going to be living.

Don't allow it to get confused because it will start to circle its roots right where it was easy to grow.

You don't want it to do that.

Not at all.

You want it to have the stress that's going to make it stretch its roots out, but not so much stress.

And when you're putting in that backfill, keep on watering

to get out your air pockets.

Don't tamp it down because we don't need any help compacting our soil.

All right.

So shovel, shovel, water, water.

It's going to help you get rid of those air pockets.

All right. So for larger trees and larger shrubs, sometimes you're going to have to stake them.

There are a variety of staking systems.

Whatever staking system you use, try your best

to not let it be something that's going to rub on the branches of your plant.

There are some things that you just get a little two by four, two two by fours, put them down over the root ball.

And then they have little pegs that go on either side because that's all you want to stabilize.

You just want to make sure that the root ball does not move.

The rest of what's upright is going to stay just fine.

You want to make sure that that root ball is not moving and that those roots have a chance to grow outward

and allow that plant to have the legs that are stretched out to stabilize itself.

Don't worry if it whips back and forth.

It's not going to go anywhere as long as the root ball stays in spot.

All right. Now I said that Arbor Day is January here in Florida.

Don't plant a palm in January.

Plant palm trees in the summertime.

Most of the plant, most of the palm trees that we grow here in Florida, be they native or from desert places, prefer hot weather.

You're already going to traumatize your palm tree by pulling it out of where it was just comfy and cozy and happy.

So try to put it into the ground in the summertime, that means, well, in the warmer weather.

And that means that you're going to have to baby it for a little bit, but you won't have to baby it forever.

But if you give it a head start where it's nice and warm, it stays a little bit moist for a few weeks or a few months, depending on what size

tree you put down.

Afterwards, you just get to look at it and it'll be happy with you and you'll be happy with it.

Okay. So don't, don't do palm trees in what we call winter.

They're not going to appreciate your efforts.

All right.

So what else have I got? Mulch! One of my favorite, I think mulch solves every problem.

That and mowing height.

All right.

One of my volunteers did the lecture at Sebastian and this lady asked, is mulch absolutely necessary? Bless her heart.

If you want to be, not, not necessarily because it's Florida friendly, it's you friendly.

It's going to help you out a whole lot, especially when it comes to establishing your plants.

All right.

So if you're putting in a tree or a shrub, just get it over the area that you put in the backfill and over just a little bit over the root ball, but not right up against your plant because that's not where you want to have it, but it's going to keep that

moisture in.

It's going to cover up that soil and help you keep it moist.

It's also going to give you a head start on the weeds.

It's not going to prevent weeds.

It's going to reduce the weeds.

All right.

And then that mulch is going to break down because that's what things do here in lovely, hot and humid Florida.

And it's going to enrich your soil.

So please mulch.

If you're doing a bed of plants, mulch your bed.

If you're doing a shrub, if you're doing a tree, whatever you're planting,

cover up that space with some mulch. Give your plants a really nice start.

I just go like this around my plants.

Keep the mulch from right against the plants because whatever is degrading that mulch

You don't necessarily want it mistaking your plant that you do desire to stay in there for food as well

All right.

I recommend everything but cypress.

I am biased.

Will admit to that with my gator shirt on because I can

The University of Florida does not recommend cypress mulch because we do not know the provenance of that cypress

And there are so many other things that are being called that you can get chips from it's not necessary to use cypress as mulch

All right

Cypress should be left in the swamps and in the other areas where they are because they provide so many so many other

Ecoservices in the systems where they are so they provide housing for wildlife

They provide food for wildlife.

They provide just a little bit of shade for certain animals that are moving along on their day

We don't have to use cypress

But the wildlife is used to having it available.

And if we keep on shipping it from mulch

when we can use a lot of other things I

Actually, you know, I took the number down for the guys that are doing the tree trimmings

Took their number down.

I call them regularly

I just get them to dump loads of mulch in my yard and I mulch a new area I put my plants down and I'm happy as a lark

It's not uniform.

It's not a certain color, but it works and there's a miser in me

That is pleased that it is free

But beyond that I just kept a whole load of chip trees from the landfill.

I think it's a win-win

So I recommend any kind of mulch

Just not our cypress

Yes, sir.

I'd mulch is not that much of a big deal because they use a lot of soy dye these days

So it's not it's it's one half does six of one and a half dozen of the other when it comes to whether or not

You're gonna die it or undie it.

I will say to you though that

You're just gonna have to keep on replacing that same color If you want it to continue to look that that specific way because we live here in hot and humid, Florida

That's that color is gonna volatilize.

All right, so you'll be doing that seasonally.

All right, I'm gonna take your question afterwards

Just keep it in your mind

All right

Establishment timing is everything for establishment the right time of the year to plant trees the right time of the year to plant shrubs

What kind of trees because remember I just told you all palm trees prefer the summer

Your other trees prefer now, right

And this is the time of the year that most people get a lot of their gardening done wonder why?

So, you know, so timing is everything

Watering so watering is a big deal here.

I'm the environmental heart horticulture agent

I'm not the urban horticulture agent.

I'm not simply here to tell people in residences

How to manage your landscapes I am here with a direct water focus

I'm here to encourage you to do everything that you are doing with the lowest impact on the environment

Especially since everything runs to our water systems

So if you come and you say to me, I've got this bug

I'm going to assess your situation and chances are I'm going to tell you grab it and throw it into a bottle of soapy water

Depending on who you are or I might say to you

Well this particular chemical if you shoot it on that particular insect, it will kill that particular insect

That's what I will do because I've got to think about where is the residue of this bug?

However, you kill it

Gonna go

All right.

So that said watering I

Believe that you should purchase plants that are going to do without

Supplemental watering unless we're going through a drought situation after we establish

Florida friendly plants be they natives or just non-invasive pretty things

You should not have to irrigate it

Because irrigation is supplemental to rainfall

Irrigation should not be your default

You should not be watering your landscape on a timer Right, you should be watering your landscape because it requires it not because it is set to do so

So and if your landscape must receive supplemental irrigation weekly

Everything in it is wrong

The way that you're managing it is wrong

There is something incorrect in the way that you're doing this if it has to be watered

every single week Every single week So that said timing of your watering depends on the size of the plant that you put in

All right.

So for your trees the publications that I'm going to share with you will give you

Information on what size the the trunks of these trees and your shrubs are

That will give you the details on how often you're gonna give it half an inch to three quarters of an inch of water

Everything starts off with at least one week of full watering every day

Everything even your little bedding plants.

All right, but then there's a weaning system where you're gonna then give it water every other day

Then you're gonna give it water twice a week.

Then you're gonna give it water

Once a week and then after that they should be well enough to be able to survive

The harsh environment that you put them in

So then you're gonna say well they are drooping they're looking like they're having serious issues

Check the water for the weather forecast

Is it gonna rain tomorrow and will it be enough to perk back up your plant if it is your plants gonna make it

If it isn't going to rain that is when you irrigate because then you're supplementing rainfall

All right, rainfall should be your default for whatever you put into your landscape

If it cannot survive here after you establish it on our rainfall

Then you should not be encouraging yourself to put yourself through that much trouble

That's how it works because a lot of this water that you're putting down is

Gonna wash down whatever you're using and it's all gonna go sideways and I'm here to encourage you to save water

I'm not just here for water quality.

That's major but water quantity and

A lot of people are irrigating their landscape with potable water

They're not using reused water and if you are on gray water if you are using reused water still manage that and

Think about the fact that reuse water gray water is not clean water

So it has nutrients in it

It has nitrogen in it

Do you need to fertilize if you're using gray water not really

Not necessarily

So if you throw down fertilizer, what are you doing?

You're overfeeding this plant and if you're overfeeding the plant then you're going to be over managing your plant

So be what is it be mindful? I used to tell my son stop and think

Right. So stop and think about the steps and the ways that you're managing your landscape because Florida friendly is

For the environment

For your landscape and for you who's managing it.

We want you to enjoy

The management of your landscape more than anything else

Fertilizing I never knew that people put fertilizer in the holes when they were planting things until I went to school and

Saw that somebody wrote a whole entire chapter on not putting down fertilizer

When you're planting I was like, wow

But now I know why people think that that gives their plants a boost

That makes sense when you when you look at it from that point of view, but do you have roots to take up this fertilizer?

No Your plants don't have a root system

That is in that mode to utilize that food.

So what's going to happen to the food?

Because you're watering it every day for at least the first week

It's gonna leach out

That's what's gonna happen and it's gonna burn the roots of your plant

While it's in there, so please don't feed your plants

When they should be getting themselves established you should have purchased

Stock that is going to make it until you get to feed it and a lot of nurseries already have

Something in their plants in their potting mix that's already feeding that plant

So let it do what it is going to do so for these small bedding plants

Maybe after the first three weeks month if you really feel like they're supposed to be fertilized

I don't think that you're gonna need to

But if you think that you have a desired look it's not making it there fast enough

Then go ahead and fertilize according to the label

All right

Check the weather forecast

Make sure that it's not about to rain

Make sure that you irrigate it on down so that it is going to go to the roots where it belongs

Okay, so use whatever product you're going to use according to the label

But do not fertilize when you're just putting your plant in the ground.

You're going to waste your money, you're going to waste your time, and the plant's not going to be very appreciative.

Neither will our lagoon, because everything goes down and sideways.

If it goes down, a lot of times it just keeps on going sideways.

All right?

Pruning.

Remember what I said.

Purchase something that's going to grow the way that you want it to grow already.

Think about how this thing is going to do.

If you put a vine onto that tree, it's going to eventually spread all over that tree, right?

So think about that, the end result.

Right, that as an example.

All right, so think about the end result.

Consider the fact that most things will grow several inches in the summertime, and it felt as if you blinked and it happened.

All right?

Consider the fact that there are going to be several things that are going to really slow down in the cooler temperatures, because the things that you purchased were going to be more vigorous and more robust in the warm temperatures that we tend to default

to here in Florida.

That doesn't mean that your plant is unhappy.

It means that it is storing up its reserves.

It has went into part dormancy, if not complete dormancy.

All right?

And that's fine.

When you wake up, as soon as the temperatures get back into the 70s and into the 80s, it will.

I've seen it happen several times here now.

Right? Now, I was raised in South Florida, so I never really witnessed that slowing down before.

And then I moved from Cayman to Alabama when everything just shut down.

And I was like, oh, no.

Trees get naked.

You know, I wanted to go out there and put winter coats on them and spray paint them green.

But here in Central Florida, we have a little bit of both happening.

Know what you put into your landscape.

Red maples, they're going to get naked.

And if that's what you have as your focal point, if you drive into your yard to see when you come home in the evenings, please put something under it to keep you cheered up when you drive into your yard.

Please.

Because I don't want you getting the sads here in Florida.

Right? So put something that's going to be very happy underneath your red maple.

It won't mind.

It will not be competition.

Establish the plant that you want.

But just make sure that you keep it in mind what's going to happen with this plant.

All right.

So I'm going to open up for questions.