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The CORRECT Watering Schedule For New Sod/Las Vegas Sod Burning Myth De-Bunked

By admin on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 | No Comments

So the most important step to follow after laying laying down your fresh new sod in the Las Vegas area is to program your irrigation control clock. Not performing this step will result in your fresh new sod going caput, for lack of a harsh term, (dying).

If you are planting new sod during the summertime weather in Las Vegas, you should have your clock set to water FOUR TIMES DURING THE DAYLIGHT PART OF THE DAY. If you are planting your sod in the cooler season, 2 to 3 times per day should work.

Just gauge how moist your lawn is staying throughout the day and re-adjust your start times as needed. If it is staying really wet and mushy when you walk on it, then back off the watering. If it is completely drying out before the next watering start time goes off, then increase your watering frequency by adding another start time.

New Sod Watering Schedule

Here is the proper watering schedule for newly planted sod in Las Vegas starting with each start time during the day:

  • First start time-6am, water for 4 to 6 minutes, everyday of the week.
  • Second start time-9a, water for 4 to 6 minutes, everyday of the week.
  • Third start time-12p, water for 4 to 6 minutes, everyday of the week.
  • Fourth start time-4pm, water for 4 to 6 minutes, everyday of the week.

On some severely hot days during the summer you could even add a fifth start time at like 7 or 8 pm to give the grass a nice refreshingly cool drink of water and to cool it off during a super hot day…

You want to make sure that that your clock is set to go off for every single day of the week-Sunday through Monday… Don’t take the risk of missing just one day to try to conserve water or something. Your goal here is to get your new sod started right and the only way to do that is to keep it wet throughout the day.

If you have other landscaping like plants and trees newly or already existing, you should isolate your lawn/fresh sod sprinkler irrigation to a separate program on your clock so that your entire landscaping irrigation is not going off four times a day with your newly sodded lawn.

Most clocks have at least two separate programs. Program A and Program B. For example: you could put your sodded lawn irrigation program on program A and your drip irrigation for your trees, plants and shrubs on program B. this will separate the two completely different watering programs. Grass and plants have two completely different watering systems delivering water to them; grass having a sprinkler irrigation system and plants having a drip irrigation system.

Your drip system is rated at gallons per hour (GPH) and your sprinkler system is rated at gallons per minute (GPM) So for example; your sprinkler system that is delivering water to your grass/sod should only water for 4 to 6 minutes at the most, your drip irrigation system should water at 20 minutes plus because it is a slower rated irrigation system. So now that you see the difference between these two systems, this is why they should be set on different programs (A and B).

Las Vegas Lawn burning myth dispelled

There is a myth that is floating around out there in Las Vegas that says “if you water your sod/grass during the middle of the day while the sun is beating on it, you’ll burn your grass”

While this myth is only half way true, it does not apply to most situations in Las Vegas. I think that it might be based on watering your lawn in a climate that is both hot and having a high humidity index outside like Georgia for example or some parts of California and Florida. What I mean by this is well.. let me ask you a question… Have you ever been to one of these places with high humidity and wearing either a short sleeve shirt or bathing suit you’ll notice how fast and easy you’ll get a sun burn or feel the sun burning your skin just by being outside for a pro-longed period of time? It’s because the UV-light rays are intensified while peircing through all of the moisture molecules in the air.

The same concept applies to your lawn or grass in these areas of the country where you have a mixture of hot weather and high humidity. So, yes, your lawn will burn in this situation just as your skin will burn. Adding water to your lawn during the day will only intensify what is already taking place in the climate that you are living in.

Now as far as Las Vegas Nevada goes…. You don’t have to worry about your lawn or your freshly planted sod dying or burning because you are giving it water during the dmiddle of the day and heres why… Las Vegas is a DRY, HOT , DESERT! If you put water down on your lawn during the day when it is a hundred plus degrees outside, yes, you will create a bit of a humid enviornment depending how big of a grass area you are dealing with. If you are dealing with a small grass area like what is typical in most track homes in Las Vegas then you have nothing to worry about, seriously. Now if you are dealing with bodys of grass like the size of what you would find on a golf course, then that’s a different story and yes, you could burn a golf-course sized grass area if you water it during the day hence this is why most golf-courses water their lawns during the middle of the night during the summer time.

So back to you and your lawn that you are concerned about burning in your Las Vegas landscaped property. Don’t worry about a small patch of grass getting burned by some water. Remember, you live in a desert and this is precisely why your fresh sod NEEDS WATER DURING THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY. If you don’t give it water during the middle daylight portion of the day, the sun, mixed with the DRY climate will simply dry it out. When a new plants soil goes dry for a small period of time the leaves on the plant will start to wilt and the tree, plant or shrub will appear to be parched for water. This is when you need to give your tree, plant, shrub or lawn a drink of water… BECAUSE IT’S DRY OUTSIDE.

Ok, I hope I have made my point here… I hope you understand the differences between the two climates described in this post and I think I may have dispelled the myth of “burning your lawn by putting water on it”… It’s obvious that this myth has come from people that live in the hot-humid climates described in this post and I guess, to the people that have moved to Las Vegas from a humidly-hot climate  that it is in fact not a myth but a fact. That didn’t sound contradictory or anything… ;) It is a myth if you beleive that truth applies to Las Vegas and the beautiful desert landscapes you will find in this town.

If you have any questions feel free to comment or ask them down below.

Talk soon

Nick

Tips to Choosing Las Vegas landscapers

By admin on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 | No Comments

Las Vegas Landscapers have definitely transformed the city into a fairy tale like oasis. Las Vegas, despite being located in the heart of the Nevada dessert, is full of greenery and rather impressive man made landforms.

One would presume that hiring Las Vegas landscapers would not take too much effort, simply due to the large number of such providers. While it is true that there are several companies who offer such services, it is also a fact that many of them are not as good as they claim to be.

A few tips to help you in choosing appropriate Las Vegas landscapers –

• Infrastructure – Often people, who need Las Vegas landscapers simply to do up their homes, tend to prefer working with smaller companies. This preference stems for the fact that they presume a larger company would be more expensive. While this is true in some cases, it is always better to pick a company that has expertise in both small and large scale jobs. These companies have the infrastructure needed to undertake bigger jobs like tree transplantations etc. This helps you to seek the best for the landscaping and yet pay a little less.
• Maintenance- Landscaping often requires maintenance and Las Vegas soil makes this maintenance imperative. Always hire Las Vegas landscapers that offer maintenance services too. Those who wash their hands off you as soon as the payment is done are not landscapers that you should be working with. Ask about helpline numbers, how soon they will service your area and also if they will provide periodical maintenance. These inquiries will help you save a lot in terms of both money and time.
• Expertise – Las Vegas landscapers have a huge challenge to face since the natural support given by the area is quite minimal. It is therefore crucial that you hire a company that has a creative flair to their designing and also the expertise to convert this flair into practical scenarios. Hiring a company that is good on paper but does not have any prior experience may turn out to be quite a fiasco.
• Visual presentation – Landscapers all over the globe are good at using words to describe their services. It will benefit to hire Las Vegas landscapers that know how to give you visual presentations rather than verbal ones. Remember a visual presentation will diminish the possibility of the final outcome being different from what you had hoped for. A company that offers a 3 dimensional visual is indeed the best possible company for you to hire.
• Feedback- Seek out feedback from other clients that have hired the Las Vegas landscapers that you have shortlisted. You will be able to assess the strength of the company much better and also get a first hand account of their services.

The tips listed above will go a long way in judging the best possible landscaping company for the job at hand. When hiring Las Vegas landscapers, remember that choosing a company offering personalized solutions is a must. Everyone’s needs are not the same and choosing Las Vegas landscapers that offer nothing more than repetitive landscaping maintenance would be quite a waste.

How To Plant A Magnolia Tree And Get It To Grow In Las Vegas’ Soil

By admin on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | No Comments

For starters, Magnolia trees love acidic based soils and unfortunately, for Magnolia tree lovers, Las Vegas has alkaline based native soil and alkaline based water.

Starting from this standpoint of knowledge about our water and soil its obvious you can’t just open up a hole in Las Vegas and plop a Magnolia tree in that hole straight out of its growing container.

Before you place any tree in any hole that you open up in Las Vegas’ soil you should mix up some planting soil that is made up of reject sand and mulch mixture first and place that mixture in the hole to provide a nice thick pad for the bottom of the root ball to sit on.

When planting a Magnolia, it is important that you mix some soil conditioners in your planting mix to change the PH of your planting soil that you are placing in the hole along with your Magnolia.

Some soil conditioners that you can use are: Peat Moss and or a product called Con-Gro, which is a liquid based product.

You can buy both material products from your local Star Nursery in Las Vegas.

Peat Moss is usually sold in cubes. When you use the peat moss for your Magnolia Tree soil conditioning just break off about half of a cube and mix it in with your soil that you’re planting your Magnolia tree with.

If you decide to use the Con-Gro, just follow the directions on the side of the bottle, mix it up with some water and pour it around the base of your Magnolia.

If you decide to go the Con-Gro route, I’d recommend re-conditioning your soil every 8-12 months depending on how the leaves on your Magnolia tree appear. Do the leaves on your magnolia tree have black and brown spots on them? Or maybe browned crispy edges on the leaves? If so, these could be signs of a high PH in which you can use the Con-Gro or another acidic based soil conditioner to put around the base of the tree. By doing so, you can expect to see a change in the appearance of the tree within a 4 to 6 week time frame (during growing season).

I hope this post helps you in your healthy looking Magnolia tree planting efforts.

I ended up learning the hard way with planting Magnolias out here in the Las Vegas desert by losing a couple trees that I thought were diseased from the get go because I bought them, planted them and watched them slowly become un-healthy looking…

Of course I had to experiment and educate myself on how to grow and maintain super healthy  looking Magnolias through education, trial and error until I found the right formula.

That formula is simply conditioning the soil as explained above plus regular fertilization along with all of the other plants in your yard.

Talk soon
Nick

PS.

Here is a picture of one healthy looking Magnolia tree that was actually experiencing hard times after first being planted. We quickly implemented the two-part formula mentioned above with soil conditioning and fertilization and within a few months the tree was growing beautifully. Check out the close up of a leaf on the tree below.

Notice how there are no burnt edges or in this close up, the leaf is not curled.

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