Tulsa Lawn Care - All Stage Weed Control

Every gardener knows just how fast weeds can take over a lawn, stealing water, nutrients, and sunlight from the surrounding grass. So it makes good sense to have an effective Tulsa weed control treatment in place for every stage and season of a weed’s life. With just a few weed control applications throughout the year, your lawn can be healthy and look beautiful and effervescent.

In the early spring, you’ll want to start by controlling broadleaf weeds like dandelions and ragweed as well as annual grassy weeds like crabgrass (all of which will grow rapidly in Oklahoma) by using a pre-emergent weed control herbicide. Use one that is toxic to both types of weeds, broadleaf and grassy weeds. Apply this using a broadcast spreader after you have mowed the lawn a couple times at the beginning of the season. Apply the herbicide also along sidewalks where crabgrass often tends to grow more. This weed control treatment will help to abate these weeds before they even develop and overtake your lawn.

Later in the season, you might still see a few dandelions or crabgrass weeds that don’t want to go. Most of these can quickly be dealt with using a spot-treatment post-emergent weed control herbicide. Concentrated herbicides that you mix with water yourself are commonly a better value. These can be used with a handheld sprayer to spot-treat any weeds or crabgrass. You can find a spot-treatment herbicide that kills both broadleaf weeds and grassy weeds, but you may have to use different weed control spot-treatments for broadleaf and grassy weeds as well. Follow the directions on the package for prepping and when to apply the weed control treatment, usually when temperatures are below 85 degrees F. for a few days.

Interestingly, one of the best ways to keep weeds away doesn’t involve weed control herbicides. Keeping your lawn well-maintained with proper lawn fertilization, irrigation, and mowing will help to crowd out pesky weeds and stop them from overtaking the lawn. Healthy lawns can better defend against weeds so having a good lawn care and maintenance schedule is really key to preventing weeds.

If weeds have already overtaken your lawn late in the season, you may need to spray the entire weedy area with a post-emergent weed control herbicide using a sprayer attached to a hose, getting the weeds wet. You may need to apply a different herbicide for broadleaf and grassy weeds. Again a concentrated post-emergent herbicide that you mix yourself will be a better value. Apply the herbicide on calm days so that the herbicide is not inadvertently carried to other plants and flowers that it could also harm.

If you would rather not have the hassle of applying weed control treatments, the Tulsa weed control experts at Oklahoma Landscape can take care of all your lawn care needs. We offer a custom 6-step Tulsa weed control and fertilization program for your lawn that will keep it lush, vibrant, and weed-free all year. Call us today for more details!

Tips for Tulsa Lawn Care - Using Mulch

Mulch may not be the first thing you think of when pondering how to enhance your garden, but it’s actually one of the best things you can add. Mulch can help in many ways; It protects plants and their roots from extreme temperatures and helps them absorb and retain water better. Mulch keeps a garden healthier, more resistant to drought and is great for weed control while improving soil quality. Adding mulch to your garden can save much time and energy and help to simplify your other Tulsa lawn care tasks.

But how much do you need and which type of mulch should you add?

There are various types of inorganic and organic mulch. Inorganics, like stone or gravel can be good to use around areas that are likely to get washed out, and black plastic and landscape fabrics are helpful in vegetable gardens to help warm the soil and hold moisture.Organic mulches like cedar bark, wood chips, shredded leaves, hay, compost, and grass clippings will add nutrients to the soil as they decompose.

Organic mulch is often best because in addition to its other benefits it also adds nutrients to the soil. Different types of organic mulch though can be better for specific areas. For instance, fresh organic mulch will be more effective at controlling weeds than aged mulch, but will take longer to decompose, TheFamilyHandyman.com noted. So fresh mulch won’t add nutrients to the soil as fast as aged mulch to help encourage plant growth, but on the other hand, will last longer. Therefore, fresh mulch may work better around trees and shrubs that need more weed control than nutrients in the soil. Like fresh mulch, large pieces of mulch like wood bark will take longer to decompose and thus will last much longer.

Mulch for your flower bed might consist of shredded leaves from your lawn. Grass clippings can add a great deal of nitrogen to your vegetable garden. These organic and free mulches can help make your gardens healthy and beautiful.

How much mulch should you apply?

A deposit of mulch about 4 inches in depth will often be enough to discourage weed growth and help retain moisture although 2-3 inches may be enough in shadier areas. On slopes, more mulch may be needed to help it stay in place, possibly around 6 inches as it may shift around more frequently.

Before you apply mulch to an area, be sure to weed the soil. Keep about a 6 to 12-inch area around woody stems free from mulch as well as about a 1-inch area around the base of plants and vegetables free from mulch to prevent rapid decay.

While organic mulch helps the soil to retain moisture, it can also prevent the soil from warming in the spring. Thus, mulch will need to be pulled away from around perennials in the spring to allow them to better grow.

The Tulsa lawn care specialists at Oklahoma Landscape can take all the hassle out of lawn and garden maintenance with our custom lawn maintenance, weed control and fertilization programs. Call us today for more information!

Selecting Hydrangeas for Your Tulsa Garden

For good reason hydrangeas are one of the most popular landscape shrubs. These beautiful, blooming shrubs are known for producing ball-shaped clusters of small flowers nice mix of colors like pink, blue, purple, and white. Gardeners in Tulsa often love them for their rich blooms that seem to blanket a garden with color.

But with the sometimes extreme and often inconsistent Oklahoma weather, life can be difficult for hydrangeas here. They commonly need a great deal of care to survive the intense Oklahoma heat. So, which varieties of these gorgeous shrubs seem do best in Oklahoma you ask?


There is a reblooming kind hydrangea that blossoms every few weeks in the summer and fall; known as The Endless Summer hydrangea, it can endure the winter weather in Oklahoma better than other varieties and can bloom on both new and old wood. These do best in a partly-shaded area that gets morning sun and afternoon shade. These hydrangeas, like other varieties, need  rich, moist soil that drains well. While they need a lot of water, they don’t do well in soggy or constantly wet areas.

Another kind of hydrangea known as, The Annabelle hydrangea is said to be one of the hardiest with some of the longest blooms.

Examiner.com tells us, “With adequate moisture, ‘Annabelle’ laughs at the Oklahoma summertime,” “Further, because ‘Annabelle’ flowers on new growth, she is never badly hurt by late freezes.”

Annabelles generally bloom from early June through September in Oklahoma. These beautiful landscape shrubs bloom to a bright white before they turn to light green again. The Annabelle is seen to be more drought-tolerant than others and has great disease resistance.
The Oakleaf hydrangeas is also said to be an easier hydrangea to cultivate. Instead of the ball-shaped or “mophead” flower type, the Oakleaf has a unique cone-shaped clusters of white flowers and oak-like leaves that turn a beautiful reddish-purple in the fall.

Because all of these hydrangeas require moist, rich soil, Englishgardens.com recommended adding fertilizer to them during summer while they’re growing. And the vast majority, if not all hydrangeas, will do better planted in the shade or partial-shade, out of the hot afternoon sun.

For more assistance in landscaping your garden, please contact the Tulsa landscape design specialists at Oklahoma Landscape. We can design and build a landscape with the perfect flowers and shrubs for your home’s architecture and that will thrive in the Oklahoma climate.

Tulsa Landscape Ideas - Adding Edible Plants

Do you desire a beautiful landscape to complement our home? Elegant landscape design creates a peaceful place where we can enjoy summer evenings with family, unwind on the weekends,or hospitality entertain friends. But more homeowners are choosing, not just beautiful landscapes, but delicious, edible landscapes elements as well.

With the trend toward organic gardening, homeowners are seeing the many benefits of Tulsa landscape design that includes edible plants, which are as pretty as they are tasty. Edible landscaping is not just about planting a garden in your backyard, but more about including a variety of edible trees, plants, and shrubs throughout your landscape to provide cost-effective, healthy food right at home.

In fact, Better Homes and Gardens (BHG) wrote an article online about how to include edible plants in your landscaping. Here are some of the tips they gave:

A pretty plant that fits well in the flower bed or along the border is Rhubarb, especially when paired with purple-leaved Ajuga or a similar low-growing groundcover. Strawberries are another good groundcover or edging plant for a flowerbed or even planted on a sunny slope as a groundcover.

Miniature and dwarf fruit trees are available that grow about 4 or 5 feet tall and even grow well in pots. These are great for use in smaller yards. Raspberries, the article noted, do great in light to medium shade, making them easy to grow at home.Currant bushes and blueberry make great decorative (and delicious) shrubs.

Instead of traditional vines to grow over an arbor or trellis, the article suggested grapevines or short vining-type vegetables like cucumbers, zucchini, and melons. Gorgeous grapevines will grow well over an arbor, plus you can use the leaves for decoration on platters or to top cheeses and salads, BHG said.

Vegetables often do well in containers, the article mentioned. Lettuces come in a different colors, making them ideal for window boxes and along edges of flower beds. Hot peppers also add rich color variety to the landscape, especially when paired with marigolds and vinca. Swiss chard is another vegetable that comes in a “rainbow of colors” that can be paired with other vibrant flowers to create a beautiful Tulsa landscape design.

For more great edible gardening tips, check out the Edible Landscaping article on BHG. If you’d like help to incorporate more edible plants into your landscape, call the Tulsa gardening and landscape design/build experts at Oklahoma Landscape.

Choosing Annuals for Your Tulsa Garden

Many Tulsa gardeners can’t wait until spring when they can get back in to their gardens. A colorful garden of annuals can enhance any landscape. What are annuals and how can you successfully use them to enhance your Tulsa home and landscape?

Annual plants are generally ones that complete their entire growing cycle in a single growing season. They grow from seeds, create foliage, blossom, and then grow seeds and die all in the same year. Perennials, however, bloom year after year, for at least two years, but they can have a fairly short blooming season. Some hardy annuals can act more like perennials and vice versa with perennials depending on the local climate.

Annuals offer a simple way to add interesting color combinations into your Tulsa garden. They are very versatile – they work great in containers, flowerbeds, window boxes, and are ideal for lining a sidewalk.  Because they have such vigorous growth, they provide an instant or close-to-instant way to have a vibrant flower garden. These lively plants provide a showy array and diversity of color, texture, and form.

“There are annuals that are tall, medium, short or climbing; ones that prefer either full sun or partial shade; and those with special virtues, such as delightful fragrance (stock, mignonette, nicotiana) or attractive foliage (caladium, coleus, dusty miller),” Gardener’s Supply Company noted.

How can you select the best annuals for your Tulsa garden?

Planning out the colors and varieties you want along with their environmental needs on paper first can help you have a more attractive and organized garden design. Annuals generally should be planted outside in the spring after any danger of frost has passed.

Annuals that are already in bloom can be purchased at a nursery or garden center in packs and then can be relocated into the outside garden. You can also buy annuals in seed packets and either grow them indoors in late winter or early spring or grow them directly in the garden soil outside, depending on the type of seed. Buying seed packets is less expensive and offers a wider variety of flowers than what you might otherwise find in nursery packs.

Make sure the soil is well-fertilized before planting or transplanting annuals into the garden. Check the nursery or packet instructions for correct spacing of flowers to ensure they don’t get overcrowded once they mature. For flowers from nursery packs, gently break up the compounded soil/roots so that the roots will be able to grow freely in the soil.

Annuals and perennial flowers can be combined to create a colorful and engaging garden for your Tulsa home. Call Oklahoma Landscape’s horticulture experts for more details on planting your spring garden.