Maintenance | Picture Perfect Landscapes

Useful Tips for Maintaining Your Landscape

Now is a great time to start planning your outdoor landscape projects to enjoy this year –especially if you are thinking about updating your plant beds and perhaps minimizing your lawn area. Also pools that were installed last fall or this spring can now have recreational areas planned and budgeted (patios, walkways, playscape and privacy areas for hot tubs and outdoor fire pits). We can go out and estimate your landscape project so you can get a jump start on budgeting and start enjoying your investment that much sooner! Even when we are ‘flat out’, we return all our customer phone calls within 24 hours and let them know how important customer relations are to our business. Even during the winter there is always someone available to answer any questions you may have.

Evaluate your existing landscape

Were there things that you didn’t like about your plantings last year that you want to concentrate on fixing this season? Have the storms over the past 12 months caused damage to your landscape that needs some fixing or updating? Maybe your shrubs are becoming too large for the area you or the previous homeowner originally had them planted in years ago. Are your shrubs and trees becoming very leggy, having less blooms each spring, and then they end up blocking your view out the window the rest of the year? There are newer varieties of these plants available that stay much smaller and have many more blooms when pruned yearly. Are your plants slowly merging into one big mass of green bushes and you can’t tell where one stops and the other begins? Have deer or other wildlife or insects damaged your shrubs or trees and left bare patches in your landscape? These are just some of the many questions homeowners face each spring. Just remember that you are not alone and that a simple solution may be right around the corner…call us today for a free initial estimate and consultation!

More Maintenance Tips:

Landscape Renovations:

Many people “inherit” a landscape with its plantings & hardscapes after they purchase a home that has been previously owned. This acquired landscape might not mesh with the design taste, preferences, or maintenance schedule of the new home & property owner. Or, a homeowner might just grow tired of their aging, overgrow, or dated landscape plantings and hardscapes. No matter what the reason, we can assist you in the redesign and remodeling of your landscape and property design. Just call us today for details and a free initial consultation on how we can makeover and renovate your outdoor spaces!

Benefits of Proper Pruning: :

To direct growth making a plant look more dense or more open
To decrease the amount of shade to bed plantings and lawns and the overall weight on the trunk and branches
To rejuvenate old or neglected shrubs by stimulating the growth of vigorous new shoots
To keep a plant’s size in check
To increase airflow and sunlight to the innermost parts of a plant
To remove dead or diseased wood so the integrity of the entire plant is preserved while improving its total aesthetics
To reduce a plant’s transpiration rate especially during drought conditions
To aid transplants in surviving due to the loss of some of their root systems
To increase fruit and flowering quality as well as quantity
To improve home security
To screen or frame a view and improve the looks of your home

Mulching:

Dress-up planting beds with fresh mulch. Mulch can do wonders for improving the overall health & appearance of your landscape. Mulch conserves moisture by protecting the soil from drying out and has been shown to reduce moisture loss by as much as 20% during the heat of summer. Mulch also helps control erosion and reduces competition between landscape plantings and grass for water and nutrients. By keeping the soil around your plantings cool, moist, and shaded, mulch also helps control the growth of weeds & undesirable grasses which grow better in hot dry weather conditions. Mulch can also keep roots cool, helping to prevent root growth from slowing down as temperatures get higher. We sell and deliver Premium Dark Brown, shredded, pine bark mulch for your landscaping needs which has a combination of 30% hemlock, 60% pine, and 10% wood. We can either spread it for you or just deliver it so you can do it yourself. Call us for more information on pricing, delivery, and scheduling or if you wish to have another product installed.

Edging: For best results planting beds should be cleared of existing weeds & debris before mulch is applied. Beds should also be edged with a sharp spade or professional bed edger (that we use) before mulching. This will help stop nearby turf grass from sending new shoots up through the mulch & provide a nice, clean edge. Once applied, the total mulch depth should be no more than 4”. Yearly applications of 1-2” of fresh mulch are recommended due to normal decomposition and to keep your landscape looking its best.

Useful Tip: To determine the amount of mulch needed, measure the total square footage of area to be mulched and divide by 160. This gives you the number of yards needed for a 2 1/2 inch mulch base. If you just need to freshen up the beds, divide this number by half for a 1 1/4 inch topdress. Example: 1000 sq. ft. / 160 = 6.25 yards of mulch (2-2 1/2 inch), Or approximately 3.125 yards (1-1.5 inch