Maintenance These are some simple instructions to help your new garden become established and grow vigorously: Deep Watering Deep water the trees every week for the first year unless the weather is very wet. i.e. Use a root feeder or leave a hose dribbling on the plants root area for ½-1 hour or similar. [A drip or lawn spray sprinkler system won’t often easily penetrate 24 inches deep so this practice is necessary to get moisture to penetrate down to the tree roots.] Check Watering Regularly Check plants frequently during the first 3 months to make sure they have enough water to keep them from wilting. If the ground is covered in mulch, scrape it back a little and dig in the soil to inspect with a trowel. And if only one plant is wilting - apply extra water from the hose to hydrate that plant. -If the whole zone of plants is wilting – then increase the sprinkler/drip time/percentage for the area concerned. Also check and adjust the irrigation timer regularly if it is manual, and of course put in replacement batteries every year. If you have a weather based irrigation timer it will change water application automatically with the seasons, but it's extra important to renew batteries every year and check it once in a while. Conserve water During the winter, when the plants are established and the weather is cool and damp – turn off the irrigation timer manually until the weather becomes dry again. Short unnecessary applications of water are usually just wasteful. Don't over cultivate Try not to disturb the planting areas with unnecessary digging or cultivating. The presence of 2-3 inches of mulch is very important to help prevent water loss from the soil and reduce weeds. We recommend you add more mulch every year, or as necessary. General Pruning Winter is the time to prune back soft perennials and grasses like Pennisetum or Fountain Grass. This is best done just before spring so the plants will grow out quickly to re-establish themselves. It is also an excellent time to restake any trees that need straightening slightly and perhaps give them a little shaping. Fertilizing Sparingly - if the ground is very porous and sandy any natural fertilizer can move out of the soil rapidly, especially with rain or irrigation - so routinely applying some general [10:10:10] fertilizer can be helpful for those types of soil. But in clay or loan soils where nutrients are not washed so easlity away, fertilize much less frequently or not at all for most natives or drought tolerant plants. Inspect your irrigation system regularly Occasionally dirt may clog sprinker nozzles, filters or valves and cause your system to waste water or not water plants - so it's a good idea to run the system through briefly each month to check it is still working optimally. As before mentioned, it's also important to replace the batteries in your controller and weather monitor [if you have one] every year consistently.