Home & Landscape

The Grind Of Late Summer

By Randy Zellers SDL, Director of Operations

After a mild spring in 2023, the tail end of summer is getting to all of us. Higher humidity along with stifling heat is our daily dose of weather this time of year. If you’ve been through a few late summers in Arizona, you know every day from late afternoon into early evening may produce a light show, high winds, and the potential of heavy rains. As a homeowner, how can you finish your landscape duties strong and get ready for fall?

Trees

Trees are the most valuable commodity in your landscape due to the cost of replacement of like size and species. To replace a twenty-foot tree would cost an arm and a leg to match and needs to be protected from potential damage during the monsoon season. When watering your trees, deep and infrequent waterings are best to establish a deeper root system away from the heat near the surface. This will help with flushing salts through the root system as well. Many people theorize that saline soils drove the Hohokam Indians from the Phoenix area by inhibiting their crop growth due to high salt contents in the soil.

Pruning of your trees should take priority to enable them to withstand the probable high winds of August and September. Tip pruning to lessen the length of each limb has proven to be the best solution to handle high winds. Previously, it was thought that opening the canopy of the tree was best to allow winds to pass through more easily. What we have found is by opening the canopy, we have accidentally caused elongated and weak limbs that will tend to break during high wind events. Look for cross branching and weakened limbs to remove prior to monsoons as they will probably be the first damaged during late summer storms.

TURF

Bermuda turf will look its best at this time of year with additional rainfall and higher humidity. If you are planning on overseeding with Rye this winter, slowly start to drop the

City of Scottsdale Community Notices

Scottsdale Ez

Whether it’s a broken streetlight, a fresh pothole or a missing trash can, a new online service is making it easier for residents to report problems with city facilities or services. Scottsdale EZ is a single, mobile-optimized system that lets you quickly report issues and provides the city with a consolidated tracking and reporting system. You can submit requests by visiting: eservices.scottsdaleaz.gov/ez mower heights in preparation for scalping in October. Do not fertilize after August as this will encourage your Bermuda base to continue to grow and thicken. Gradually reduce your run times and frequencies for your turf to encourage a slowdown and easier scalping come October.

If you are not going to over seed this winter, continue to water as normal and fertilize with a balanced fertilizer in late September. This should enable you to keep green, lush turf into late November or when nighttime temperatures reach 65 degrees consistently overnight. Once this happens, Bermuda grass will start to go into its’ winter dormancy. Once dormant, run your irrigation system once a week to keep the diaphragm in your valves lubricated and not dry out.

Flowers

Late September start thinking about changing your annual beds out for the winter season. Geraniums, Petunias, Pansies, Snapdragons and Stock are all great choices for the Scottsdale winters. Weed the beds, dead head or pinch spent blooms and fertilize once per month with a balanced flower fertilizer.

Congratulations on making it through the summer in Arizona and look forward to the Chamber of Commerce days ahead.

Electronics Recycling Event

Scottsdale residents can properly recycle electronics like computers, printers, phones, cameras, flat panel televisions/ monitors and stereo equipment at our free Electronics Recycling Event. The next event will be on Saturday, October 7th from 7:30 A.M. – 2:00 P.M. at the city’s Corporation Yard, 9191 E. San Salvador.

For a list of acceptable items please visit: www.scottsdaleaz.gov.