Many people think of spring as the best time for planting, but our preferred season in Gainesville is actually right now! The cooler temperatures and fall rains help the plant’s roots become well-established and the soil is still warm enough to allow roots to grow before the risk of freezing temperatures set in. This time of year is also a great time to install new sod giving your lawn a full year to establish itself before the risk of chinch bugs and web worms return.
- Your soil is still warm in fall in North Florida
- The air is cooling down which means plants will lose less moisture through their leaves.
- Our winters are mild and allow plants more time to adjust before the triple-digit heat.
- And most importantly, these conditions lead to stronger root growth than any other season of the year.
I’m sure many are asking, ‘What if we plant in the fall and then we have a cold winter! Won’t my plants die?’ The truth is The Master's Lawn Care rarely loses plants to the cold. Some freeze down because they're deciduous, but they typically re-grow in the spring even larger and more vibrant than if they had kept their leaves.
The reason we don’t lose many plants over the winter is because when we do have a cold snap, it doesn’t stay cold for long. Rarely does north central Florida have a cold snap that lasts more than a week or two. Here at TMLC has been installing landscapes over a decade, and we’ve seen a lot of weather. I won’t say we’ve seen every possible kind of weather Florida can have, it is Florida after all, but we have seen enough to know which plants do well in the cold, heat, torrential downpours, and our long summer droughts.
We’ve learned to avoid the plants that have struggled over the years and recommend to our customers the plants that do best in Gainesville landscapes. We have to have plants that will survive in chilly winters and make it through scorching summers. As I once heard, ‘plants in Florida don’t have to be heat-tolerant, they have to flame proof.’ It’s a funny line, but with our extreme heat, it can ring true. At TMLC we design and install landscapes year-round (and maintain those landscapes!) so we are vigilant about our plant choices and know very well the ones that will do best in your yard.
We do have a short transition from summer to winter. If you plan on taking advantage of the cooler weather to have some landscaping renovations done, we suggest calling very soon to get on the calendar before the season is booked up. If you're a "Do-It-Yourselfer," go ahead and start planning out your desired perennials and annuals so that you can make sure your plant nursery doesn't sell out of them. Happy gardening!