Landscape Maintenance and Management
This domain tests how you keep a finished landscape healthy and on schedule: integrated pest management, pruning timing and technique, turf care, fertilization rates, crew scheduling and jobsite safety.
Integrated pest management
Scout, identify, then act on an economic or aesthetic threshold. Work cultural first (right plant, correct mulch depth, relieved compaction), then biological, then a targeted chemical. Diagnose the cause before treating the symptom.
Pruning
Spring-flowering shrubs set buds the previous season, so prune right after bloom. Summer-flowering shrubs bloom on new wood, so prune dormant or in early spring. Shade trees are pruned dormant; avoid heavy pruning in late summer and early fall. Make cuts at the branch collar, never flush cuts or stubs, and rarely remove more than about 25% of the canopy in one season.
Turf
Follow the one-third rule: never remove more than one-third of the blade height in a single mowing. Cool-season turf is kept at 2.5-3.5 in, warm-season turf lower. Aerate to relieve compaction, control thatch once it exceeds about 1/2 in, and fertilize by soil test.
Worked example
A 5,000 sq ft lawn needs 0.75 lb N per 1,000 sq ft, so 3.75 lb of actual nitrogen. With a 20-5-10 fertilizer, product = 3.75 / 0.20 = 18.75 lb. That also delivers about 0.94 lb P2O5 and 1.88 lb K2O, so check those against the soil test before applying.
Traps
Shearing everything into meatballs; pruning spring bloomers in fall and cutting off next year's flowers; misreading the one-third rule as cutting a third of the plant; fertilizing just before a runoff event; and skipping PPE and ANSI Z133 practices for chainsaw and tree work.