Envision Landscapes provides spring planting tips, talks new store features

BEATRICE - As the days get longer and temperatures rise, it brings on planting season in southeast Nebraska.

However, Alex Eckhoff, owner of Envision Landscapes Garden Center in Beatrice says planting needs to be done with caution, as quickly changing weather conditions can cause problems.

“You want to wait until your soil temperature is about 55, mainly for planting of your perennials... Shrubs and trees you should be pretty good to go,” Eckhoff said. “Good thing for gardens are your potatoes, they say Good Friday is the best time for that.”

According to Eckhoff, we’re coming up on one of the best planting days for trees, that being Arbor Day on Apr. 28. So far for spring in southeast Nebraska, temperatures often have dipped below 40 degrees to near freezing overnight. This means paying attention to your Annual flowers, a new feature at Envision, as they’ve partnered with Countryside Greenhouse.

“If you do get those annuals in your containers, if we do get some of those cold nights that we could get this week, you’re going to want to cover them,” Eckhoff said. “It’s okay to really get into things, but just make sure you take care of them when the cold does come.”

Another theme of this years spring weather: wind.

“Your hanging baskets, you’ll want to get out of the wind,” Eckhoff said. “They’re talking 20-25 MPH wind gusts this week, our hanging baskets, we’ll take those down to get them out of the wind. It’s been another windy spring, but hopefully it stops before too long.”

Eckhoff says spring is the busiest time for Envision, especially on the landscaping side as customers are re-mulching and planting new features in their yards. It’s also been a spring for new features as well, including debuts of vegetables, house plants, and a new store front.

“Just in a year for us, we got the front store open,” Eckhoff said. “We even got a bar in there, right now, it’s just for social occasions, but for our spring festival May 4-7, you’ll be able to have a drink, walk around, shop.”