Fall is planting season.
Everyone plants in April. The ground disagrees. Here is why October is the better bet in a Richmond yard, and what we are putting in the nursery right now.
Spring gets all the credit for planting, and it is the harder season to do it in. A shrub planted in April gets a few polite weeks and then a Richmond July lands on it, and that plant spends its first summer trying to survive instead of trying to root.
Fall runs the other way. The soil is still holding summer heat, so roots keep working, but the air has cooled off, so the plant is not fighting to keep its leaves alive at the same time. It puts everything into the root ball.
That is the entire argument, and it is why our fall schedule fills up faster than our spring one with the people who have been through both.
A plant put in the ground this fall gets fall, winter and the whole next spring underground before it ever meets its first real July.
Dig the hole twice as wide as the pot and no deeper than it. Almost every plant we get called out to replace was planted too deep, not too shallow. If the top of the root ball is buried, the plant is on a clock.
- GroundStill warm enough to root well into November most years. The window is longer than people think.
- WateringNew fall plantings still need water. Cool air fools people into stopping too early.
- BookingThe fall install calendar is the one that fills first. It always has.
Two things are open right now, and both are built around the fall window rather than around a holiday.
- Fall plantings$15 off per plant installed and $30 off per tree installed, on jobs of $1,500 or more. Over $4,500, another 15% comes off.
- Patios and walkways15% off hardscape work of $10,000 or more, through September 15.
Both are install offers, so they include the labour and the placement, not just the plant. If you are weighing a bigger project, the fall window is the one to use.
That's the ticket. See you in the yard.
Pamela and the YardMasters crew
Need us in your yard? Get a free estimate, or text the crew at (804) 744-4733.
Midlothian, VA · since 2009
