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Our services are provided to the low country of South Carolina including Isle of Palms, Sullivans Island, Mount Pleasant, Charleston, North Charleston, West Ashley, Kiawah Island, Seabrook Island, Johns Island, James Island, Summerville, Moncks Corner, Goose Creek, and surrounding areas.
Fall 2011 Newsletter
Fall is now upon us in the Lowcountry. In my opinion, we are now seeing cooler temperatures than normal for this time of year. Last year we had a very long winter as it froze before December 1st and our last freeze was after March 1st. According to the Charleston???s Farmers Almanac this is unusual for this time of year. If last year???s winter conditions and what currently appears to be cooler than normal fall temperatures, are any indication for the upcoming winter season- it should be a cold winter this year. Some of the things that gardeners can do to prepare their trees and plants for the cold weather are:
Protect your tropical plants and Palms from the cold:??Charleston really sits on the boarder of sub-tropical and a cold hearty environment. We often love our Oleanders, Citrus trees, Sago Palms, Canary Island Date Palms because they grow in lush tropical environments which Charleston boarders. Some of these plants will be protected by their microclimate. An analogy of plant microclimate??is the microclimate of downtown Charleston. The homes in downtown are so close together that as each home cranks up their furnace, they each send out a small amount of radiant heat which helps blocks the prevailing winds. It will sometimes be three to five degrees warmer in downtown Charleston.??When only a few miles away, on the East Battery, (which overlooks the harbor) temperatures may be cooler as there is no protection from the wind, cold and elements. The larger Canary Island Date trees can be very expensive so you would want to protect these as well. A method we use to protect these trees from winter burn or death is to tie up all the leaves up top into one big tightly bunched loop that resembles a cigar. When night time temperatures dip below tolerable temps only the outside leaves are negatively affected while the inner leaves will stay green and healthy.
Oleanders and Sago Palms are also affected by the low temperature. These are most often covered the night before a cold freeze. In addition, we add an incandescent light bulb, which adds a small amount of heat to raise the temperature under the blanket by a few degrees.??Charleston???s freezing temperatures may only occur four or five times during a cold winter and between 3:00 am and 6:00am in the morning. If you do get freeze damage on Oleanders or Sago Palms I recommend you cut off the damage foliage / leaves in early spring. In the case of Oleanders, I often find it easier to cut the shrub down to the ground. Once spring temperatures arrive new growth begins immediately and the plant is often able to reach 6 ??? 8 feet by the end of the year. These plants have massive root systems that will quickly regenerate its foliage even faster than you can plant a new one with a smaller root system. Sago Palms cannot be cut down to the ground as this will kill the palm. This is true for all palm species. If you do receive winter burn on your Sago Palms you should remove all winter burn and yellow leaves even if it means leaving a stump in your yard. As spring comes a new flush of leaves will come out and your palm will look brand new again.??I cannot count the times that customers have called me and told me that I have killed their palm because I removed all the leaves when in reality this is exactly what should be done. The reason that we must do this is that the burned and yellow foliage will often hold a fungus that may kill the palm or Oleander and can also be spread to other plants. Plus yellow leaves will never turn green again and will stay unsightly until new ones branch out.
Irrigation Systems are also vulnerable to those overnight winter freezes. We replace many backflow preventers each spring as people don???t realize that these copper objects (found near your water meter in the front yard) or their well are vulnerable to freeze damage. This is a huge money maker for us because once this damage has occurred people really have to make the repair if they plan to use the irrigation system or want to stop the water leak.??You can prevent your well or backflow preventer from being damaged by completely draining them of water. We use an air compressor and blow out the entire system. The use of heat tape is another affective anti-freezing technique. This is a warming tape that activates at a certain temperature. It is usually wrapped around the object you don???t want to freeze and then plugged into the wall. There is a dump valve (on both) that will cause your backflow or well to run once a certain temperature triggers it to open. It will stay open and the movement of the water will keep them from freezing, cracking and breaking. (If it cracks it is broken.) Since it usually only gets below freezing for a few early hours in the morning insulated covers may be enough to protect your water supply. A drawback to insulated covers is they only work well for a day, but once we have two or three days of freezing cold it will freeze thru the cover and be ineffective.
