Have you ever wondered wether you should be doing your landscape planting for your trees, perennials, grass and other plants in the spring or the fall? Most people don’t even think about it. In fact, the most common thing we hear from our landscaping clients when it comes to planting is “we will just wait until spring to plant.” It is a very common misconception. The fact of the matter is that fall is the absolute best time to lay your sod and do all of your landscaping. The drought of 2012 exemplified the importance of fall landscape planting more than any other year we have seen in a very long time.

2012 proved to be very harsh for landscaping as a whole. Some are calling it “The Landscaping Apocalypse of 2012.” We witnessed landscaping clients who were very committed to watering their landscaping and doing what it takes to keep everything alive lose a lot of the plants. Unfortunately, the harsh summer of 2012 ended up killing a lot of landscaping for even the most committed home owners. One thing that we did witness is that all of the landscaping that was dying was landscaping that had been planted in the spring. Clients that had planted in the fall on the other hand had zero issues with keeping their landscaping alive. There is a very simple reason why this is.

Planting in the fall allows all of your landscaping to develop a strong root system. Having a strong and deep root system is vital for your landscaping to flourish. You see, the deeper you go into the soil, the more water there is. If your landscaping has a shallow root system it will be striving in the heat to get the water it needs to survive. This is why so many people witnessed entire spring planted landscapes die with the 2012 landscaping apocalypse.

Now, the 2012 drought we experienced was a one off heat spell. Don’t live in fear that if you don’t plant in the fall of 2012 your 2013 landscaping will die. If we have a good year you will probably be fine. However, this does give testimony to the power of fall landscape planting. Imagine how well your fall planted landscape will do if we do have a really good year in 2013. On that note, if you take care of your landscaping now before winter, you will have a lot less needed maintenance and watering next spring and summer because the deep soil moisture will be doing most of the work for you.

In conclusion, the common misconception that spring planting is the best way to go is simply not true. If you would like a healthier landscape at your house for the spring and summer pre-winter planting is the way to go. Plus, you will only have to do half of the work maintaining and watering your lawn that following spring and summer. It is a win win situation for everyone.

Whether you decide to do all the work yourself or have us out to do your landscaping work, we hope you found this article helpful. Even though our main service area is Raymore Missouri, Lees Summit and Leawood we would be more than happy to take care of any surrounding areas.