The Folsom landscaping calendar, month by month

Timing decides more about a landscape project in Folsom than most design decisions do. The same plant, the same crew, and the same budget produce different outcomes depending on which month the work happens in, because this climate has a wet half and a dry half and they barely overlap.

January and February

The wettest weeks of the year. Heavy soil cannot be worked properly when it is saturated, so grading and hardscape stall in a serious storm run. Planting itself is fine on dry days and bare-root fruit trees and roses are available now, cheaper and easier to establish than the same plants in containers later. Turn the irrigation controller off entirely; watering through a February storm wastes water and annoys the neighbours.

March and April

The busiest booking window in the region, which means the longest wait for a crew. Conditions are excellent, growth starts, and everything planted now will need attentive watering through its first July. If you are booking spring work, book it in December.

May

The last comfortable month to plant with a reasonable establishment period ahead. Rain is largely finished. Irrigation programmes need their first real adjustment of the year, and this is the month to do the runoff test on every station and set cycle-and-soak timings before the heat arrives.

June, July and August

July and August daily highs average 94 degrees. Planting now means keeping something alive through its hardest possible introduction to this climate, and it is the wrong call unless there is no choice. On the other hand, concrete and paving crews often have their best availability of the year, which makes summer a sensible time to build hardscape and leave planting until autumn. Set seasonal adjust to 100 percent and check emitters, because this is when a blocked drip line kills something before anyone notices.

September

Heat holds well into the month and the ground is at its driest. A rainless September after a dry winter is when unirrigated plantings are lost, so this is not the month to reduce watering on anything young. Late September is where the planting window starts to open, and it is a good month to sheet mulch a lawn you intend to convert in November.

October and November

The best planting window in this climate by a wide margin. Roots go into soil that is about to be watered by rain for several months, which cuts establishment watering substantially and means the plant is settled before it ever meets a Folsom summer. If there is one month to aim a whole project at, it is October.

To hit it, work backwards: design finished by August, approvals in by early September, build starting mid-September. That means the first conversation in June or July. Most people start it in September, which puts planting into December.

December

Dormant season. Structural pruning on deciduous trees, bare-root ordering, and planning. A reasonable month to draw plans, get an HOA submittal in, and be at the front of the queue when spring booking opens rather than the back of it.

The short version

Plant in autumn. Build in summer. Plan in winter. Book in December for spring work, and expect the approvals to take a month whichever season you are in. The project timeline guide has the full programme, and the watering guide covers the controller adjustments each season needs.