Details Landscape Art, a North Bay landscaper, has been building gardens and installing plant material since 1991. All living creatures need water and nutrients to survive and thrive. This includes plant material, both lawns and plant material in the garden. The soil itself provides some nutrition, some soils more than others. But all planting situations require supplemental nutrition.

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Plant material (including lawns) will survive without fertilizer, but they will not thrive.  It has been our experience that plants exhibit a significant and noticeable increase in growth and vigor from a regular fertilization schedule. We offer a winter pruning service to many of our clients, to help keep our beautiful installations healthy and as nice as when we built them. We have seen some of our garden installations where the homeowner has NOT followed our fertilizing suggestions, and the difference is noticeable. The plants have not grown as quickly as they would have, and they lack the rich color that a well fertilized plant should have.

We recommend lawns be fertilized twice a month during the growing season (April through October in Northern California) – an all purpose fertilizer such as Turf Royale on the first of the month, and Ironite on the fifteenth of the month. Then in the fall we begin applying a cool season fertilizer to boost the lawn’s strength through the winter, so that the turf is strong, healthy and vibrant in the spring.. As a North Bay landscaper, we have seen our lawns benefit from some winter fertilizer in our warmer Northern California climate.

Plants require a dose fertilizer once a month during the growing season for the first two years after installation, then two applications per growing season thereafter once established. It doesn’t hurt to fertilize during the winter months, but sources tell us that the plant does not utilize the fertilizer unless it is actively growing.

There are several fertilizers available, the most common being the fertilizer pellets. Since we use drip irrigation almost exclusively in this area, it is difficult for the pellets to be dissolved as they otherwise would with rainwater in other parts of the country. We prefer a liquid fertilizer, which directs the fertilizer immediately to the root ball of the plant. Most home and garden store sell a Miracle Grow hose end feeder that screws on to the end of a garden hose. They also sell fertilizer canisters that can easily be inserted into the hose end feeder. We have found that this is the most efficient and practical methos of applying fertilizer to plant material. Homeowners seem to enjoy how easy it is to use this method. The hose end feeder can be left attached to the hose all the time, since it has a Water setting, a Feed setting and an Off setting There are also some specialty fertilizers available with this system, such as Rose fertilizer, Bloom booster fertilizer, Acid Plant fertilizer as well as the general all purpose fertilizer.

As a North Bay landscaper, we say – fertilize your garden and watch everything grow !