Harmony Horticulture

5 Solutions for Bermudagrass and Shade

06.15.2019 by Kasey //

“Why can’t I get bermudagrass to grow under my tree?” I get this question all the time, and while there isn’t a magic bullet to get your Bermuda dense and green in shade, I’ve created a video to address those bare spots in shaded lawn areas of your yard.

First, off, most hybrid and common bermudagrasses grows best in a full 6-8 hours of sunlight each day. Any less is going to impact the vigor and appearance of your lawn. Filtered light and reduced hours of sunlight both impact the quality of bermudagrass.

Overtime, this sun-loving turfgrass will weaken with the reduction in photosynthesis, becoming patchy, long and leggy and also have a shallow root system, making it more susceptible to stresses associated with drought, cold and heat. Once it becomes sparse, weeds start to encroach on the area.

While the best recommendation I can make is to grow turf where there is sunlight, and trees where there is not turf, sometimes that recommendation isn’t always practical. More than once I’ve said trees and turf don’t work well together; you have to pick one and go with it. My clients don’t like hearing that, so I’ve come up with a few options for them.

1. Reduce turfgrass area

Reduce the amount of turf in the yard, converting the shaded areas to mulched or landscape is one option. If you do remove turf in these areas and you have established trees which depend on the water from the sprinklers, I highly recommend adding a supplemental water source to the trees. Netafim rings within and at the drip line is a great option for supplemental irrigation.

2. Raise and thin tree canopies

If your shade source is coming from trees, thinning tree canopies is one option to allow more light to penetrate to the turfgrass. However, elevating tree canopies should be done slowly and with extreme care, since sunburn limbs is a major concern for many of the shade trees in the southern areas. Talk to your tree care professional about the best time of year to elevate your trees’ canopies, and please do it over a few seasons.

3. Raise mow height of Bermudagrass

When mowing shaded bermuda the same height as in sunny areas, you may be cutting off 100% of the leaf surface (NOTE: only cut off 1/3 of leave blade length at each mowing to prevent stress.). Mow height should be at 2.25-2.5” in shaded areas to allow some leaf blades to form. Depending on your bermudagrass variety, your mow height in sunny areas may be anywhere from ½”- 2”.

Remember leaves = photosynthesis = plant food = healthy plant.

4. Re-sod with a more shade-tolerant variety of bermudagrass

There is a variety of hybrid bermuda called Tifgrand (purchased through Evergreen Turf) which is said to grow in as little as 4-5 hour of sunlight per day. Now again, it isn’t just the amount of sunlight hours, but the quality of sunlight hours that is important. If there is filtered sun for 8 hours of the day, but only 2 hours of full sunlight, you will still likely have weakened bermudagrass. To keep a solid stand of turfgrass, re-sodding every 2-3 years might be required.

5. Grow an alternative turfgrass species

Depending on your density of shade and microclimate, there are other turf species that might be options. The first option is to encourage the overseeded ryegrass to linger in the summer months. Winter lawns are overseeded with ryegrass each October and begin burning out in May when transitioning to bermudagrass in the heat. However, allowing your winter ryegrass to continue to grow in the shade is a great option. Mow height should be increased on the ryegrass and it should be not fertilized in the heat. Ryegrass is has a texture similar to bermudagrass so it blends well for an even lawn surface.

Two other turf options include tall fescue (high water use, won’t tolerate full sun in summer) or Palmetto St. Augustine grass (won’t tolerate dense shade and can freeze back in colder areas.) Both of these have broader grass blades and so using them adjacent to bermudagrass is not a great look. Also, these two grasses require different care in the summer months from hybrid bermudagrass. Check back for more information on preserving cool season grasses during the summer months as well as recommendations on caring for St. Augustine grass.

Best Vines for Southern Climates

06.10.2019 by Kasey //

As the mercury rises, hard surfaces and walls are more noticeable as passerbys get beamed with reflected heat off the surfaces that are absorbing heat. Covering these hot surfaces with plants can be one way to buffer this heat. Since there are many vine options in the Desert Southwest, I thought I’d narrow down the field by suggesting a few of my favorites. In this video, I have suggested three different vines which work great in different microclimates of a yard. You’ll learn how each of these vines have different water demands as well as varying maintenance requirements to keep them on your wall, working hard at buffering that heat.

Crossvine (Bignonia capriolata)

This vine (also known as the Tangerine Beauty), is perfect in part filtered sun or morning sun, performs well in the Arizona climate, and produces a prolific amount of flowering each spring. Crossvine attract pollinators and hummingbirds and require support to grow on a vertical surface.

Alternatives to Using a Trellis

Sticky tabs are an excellent option to adhere your vines to walls in your yard. I have experienced better adhesion when using clear liquid nails than when using the adhesive provided with the tabs.

Creeping Fig Vine (Ficus pulima)

This vine is perfect for shaded areas. It will provide a very dense, green look on a wall. This vine is self-adhering, which can damage paint and wood. Because of the differences in juvenile and mature leaf structure, the vine creates the illusion of more than one vine. Creeping fig will need 6 – 12 months to establish, during this time you will likely see little growth. After the vine is established, you will see rapid growth.

Cat’s Claw Vine (Macfadyena anguis-cati)

This yellow blooming vine with dark green leaves will flourish against hot walls and is commonly used where nothing else will grow. This vine is quite tough and very hard to get rid of, so be sure you want the vine where you plant it. Cat’s claw will attach to rough surfaces on its own. This vine requires regular pruning or a trellis system because it is a very heavy vine as it grows in width. Cat’s claw should be grown away from other plants because its growth is so aggressive.

Protecting Plants from Frost in the Desert and Aiding in Plant Recovery

01.17.2019 by Kasey //

Part 1: Frost Protection in the Desert

frost damaged plants — Frost tender coral fountain (Russelia equesetiformis) is damaged to the ground. This plant should not be taken back all the way, but selectively pruned, until it recovers from the frost damage in spring, then additional damage can be removed.

As you drive around the city, you can see which areas got hit hard with frost damage this year. Typically, the city center is a bit warmer than the outlying areas, but even within central Maricopa county, there are cold pockets where you can currently find lots of brown, crispy-leafed plants.

improperly applied frost cloth — Lots of work went into putting out this frost cloth, which unfortunately provided little protection to this ficus hedge.

frost-damaged Lantana plants — Lantana freeze most years in the Phoenix metro area. After they are pruned back they recover well and are a full sized shrub in a short time.

We haven’t seen any significant frost damage for the past few years and so protecting our plants can be forgotten, unless you caught the warning on the nightly news of the threat of sub-freezing temperatures. Running to Home Depot at 5pm the night before a frost might leave you disappointed to find they have sold their last frost cloth. You exit the store, race home and search the linen closet for any old sheet which might do the job. Tossing the sheet over that large bougainvillea, you feel like you’ve done all you can do to prevent damage to your beloved bougie. I see frost blankets tossed overtop of shrubs and hedges all over town, but I most often shake my head when I think of all the hard work and effort that went into putting it out, but it’s been done incorrectly. How hard can it be to cover a plant, right? But here’s where it gets technical: there is a right way to cover a plant, and there is a wrong way that will offer your plant very little if any protection from the cold. A frost cloth should cover the entire plant, from the top, down to the soil level, where it should be secured in order to trap warm air which raises from the earth. If you do not trap in the heat, you are essentially not providing protection to your plant. Unless you add heat under the cloth (Christmas lights are a popular heat source) it is not protecting your plants from cold temperatures.

how to properly apply a frost cloth to protect desert plants from frost damage — Proper frost protection, courtesy of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension.

Tips on how to protect your plants from frost in the future:

Invest in frost cloths early in the season to ensure they are on-hand when you need them.
Drape cloth over top and down to the grown, extending the drape out wide, out towards the drip zone of the plant. Do not secure around tree trunks, since the trunk is not the source of the heat.
Know your plants: cover tropical and subtropical plants with cloth, creating a bubble to lock in warm air under the plant. Once you’ve identified the plant, you may check the USDA or Sunset hardiness charts for temperatures plants will tolerate. The U of A Cooperative Extension also has an excellent resource for regional plants.
Water all plants the afternoon or evening of the expected frost. Dehydrated plants are at much greater risk of frosting than watered plants. The evaporation of the water will create heat under the plant. If the frost is expected on Monday at 4am, program to water anytime Sunday evening and into the early morning hours of Monday.
Cold, dry and clear mornings are the days you want to watch out for… humidity slows temperature change, which is a good thing when it comes to rapidly dropping cold temperatures! Wind is also helpful to reducing the risk of frost damage.
Know your property: neighborhoods and microclimates can make a huge difference in what might be damaged by cold temperatures. Typically, properties closer to the mountains are warmer than those at the bottom of the hill. Walls, hardscape, overhangs or canopy coverage by large trees can also help protect plants in an area.
Don’t prune plants which are at risk of frost damage in the late fall. Pruning can promote new tender growth close to frost events in the winter.
Frost cloths may be left on up to 72 hours, but it is best if they are removed after 48 hours to allow plants access to light. Sheets or other dense covering should be removed daily.
Most conventional cloths will protect plants down to about 30 degrees. There are other more industrial cloths available which can protect plants down to 20 degrees, but again, the protection comes from the skill of the covering which will be key in protecting your plants.
If you are in a cold area, only plant cold-hardy species. We know those ficus are hard to resist with their glossy dark green leaves, but leave it at the nursery if you are in a colder area of Maricopa county.

Part 2: Removal of frost damage

cut back red bird of paradise — The red bird of paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) is cut back each January, helping to reduce woodiness and overall size during the growing season.

Now that you know how to protect your plants from a desert frost, what can you do to help them recover? The first thing you can do is leave it alone, for now anyways. Typically, the threat of frost declines around February 7th in the central part of Phoenix, whereas other areas in the east valley (Mesa, Chandler) may experience frost as late as early April. Looking at dead plants for two months is hard, believe me, I know! Resist the urge to start removing the frost damage until the threat is nearly past. For the central areas, I feel you can safely start cutting back lantana, oleander, and even bougainvillea around the second or third week of February. In other areas, wait another week or two in case we see another cold snap in the mid-spring. Over the last few warm winters, I have seen many lantana start pushing new growth around the end of January, which would easily be damaged if there was an early February frost. What we don’t want is to promote new growth, only to have it be nipped by a 30-degree morning, which can deplete a plant of energy needed to sprout in the spring.

cut back frost-damaged bougainvillea — The large bougainvillea was cut back in February to remove damage. However, it also should have been thinned to remove woodiness from inside the canopy.

Depending on the species, current size, age and desired size will determine how low you will cut the plant back this season. Trailing lantana can be cut nearly to the ground level, while plants like bougainvillea might take some thinking on before you start cutting. Generally, larger, established shrubs can be cut back 30-50% of their size, if you want to maintain the plant at the same size as it ended the season last year. Rapid growers like the red bird of paradise you can be a bit more aggressive. I typically cut birds of paradise back to about 24-30” off the ground, removing all but a few main branches. This is a great time to thin out woody canopies, creating more air and light to get into shrubs, helping to encourage a more natural growth habit. After removing frost damaged limbs, water your plants well, helping them recover, and as soon as buds form on branch tips, fertilize with a 50% slow release product to encourage slow, even growth. If properly watered, your shrubs should not need to be pruned again until mid-summer when humidity hits and growth excellerates. If you need help with determining cutback height or timing for your plants and area, please give me a call. Before you know it, summer will be here and frost damage will be just a distant memory.