Tips for Preparing Landscapes for the Summer Ahead

April felt as if everything in my landscape was struggling to get my attention. My replanting scheme went well; many of those plants are already spreading out their anchoring and feeder roots. Now my landscape is filled with fruit trees and ornamentals in various stages of recovery as well as establishment. I think I have a pretty good handle on a watering rhythm that will take me through summer without a lot of modification. It is now time to focus on nutritional support.

May will be a month of careful feeding for my landscape. Recovery after such a terrible freeze requires more than watering support, as the plants have been depleted of most of their reserves. Their large structures will use the supplemental feeding to get them back on track. My newer plants now have sufficient root development to start taking up nourishment that will give them a good, strong start. It is important to manage this task carefully for the most efficient and effective use of fertilizer care.

I composted as much of the plant material as I could gather from my yard. It is a significant volume of rich ingredients returning to the yard, providing significant potassium and very slow-release nitrogen. This is great for all the fruit trees, especially the sabal palm I was concerned about until the end of April. It will also encourage my darling ornamentals to experience slow, strong leaf growth, and flowering varieties will also be able to offer me some blooms very soon. This result can also be accomplished by using a conventional palm fertilizer blend of 8-2-12 with micronutrients. Always use according to the label.

Since I am using one product, I figure I will quarter off my yard and do one corner each weekend. Spreading the compost will not be much of a chore, but to reduce waste, I want to put it down carefully. Usually, I tell people to make an overlapping strip with the drip line of the plant (the outer circumference of the branches, indicating roughly the extent of the roots underground) as the midline: a little under the canopy and a little extended beyond it.

However, since I had to prune most of the plants, that line is a little less clear; so now I will put down 1 inch of material about 3 feet wide outside the existing drip line. This will account for the original extension of the feeder roots that would have been just beyond the wingspan of the trees before I had to prune them back to remove the freeze damage.

A fresh layer of mulch will follow the soil amendment application to keep that compost/fertilizer in place, reducing the chance of it washing away or burning out too quickly from the heat. Since we are heading into our very hot, rainy season, this mulch will perform double duty to buffer the soil temperatures from the heat and promote infiltration of water, sending it down to the roots of the plants instead of running off. Your plants will appreciate this additional care as they go through recovery or establishment.

Hurricane season is around the corner, and I would like to place my order for “not one more thing.” Regardless, I have plans to celebrate the entire month of June—weather and landscape notwithstanding. There will be food, music, and an excess of laughter as my best Florida life continues to unfold.

Nickie Munroe is an environmental horticulture agent with the University of Florida’s IFAS Indian River County Extension.