Yearly Archives: 2017

Brightening Up Your Landscape in the Winter

It’s no secret that, in winter, everything tends to turn the same color: gray. Gloomy gray skies hover over gray, salt-encrusted roads and cars, and gray landscapes with leafless gray trees and grayish-green grass just waiting for warmer weather to be able to flourish, once again. Is there any way to brighten up this gray landscape, then? Or are you stuck dreaming of a green spring, or planning a quick trip to someplace tropical? The answer is that you can, absolutely, transform your landscape into one of color, even in the coldest and darkest months of winter.

Make Your House a Home of Color

When some people think of adding color to the exterior of their home, they think of an eccentric artist’s home splashed with every color under the sun. While this certainly isn’t bad, if that’s your style, if something more traditional is more to your liking, you can still brighten it up with a few pops of well-chosen color. For example, if you have a fence on your property, consider a beautiful, deep blue to liven it up. Or, perhaps you have a large front door that would benefit from a handsome red color, or even a daring yellow. There are plenty of ways to brighten up your home without having it look like a children’s painting.

Five Lawn Care Tips for the Winter

Having a great-looking lawn is a year-round commitment to ensuring the grass and other plants have the nutrients they need, as well as the proper growing conditions to allow them to thrive. Even as winter comes closer, it’s essential to prepare your lawn to ensure that when spring arrives, your lawn will sprout quickly, and look great all season.

Mowing Right Along

Don’t give up on mowing, just because the weather turns cooler. Until the temperature takes a nosedive, your grass will continue to grow, especially if it’s healthy. Until growth slows or stops, keep mowing to keep the grass at optimum height. Failure to do so could result in matting and snow mold once the long winter months set in.

Fertilize

Your lawn’s grass can still absorb nutrients as the weather turns colder. Feed it well and set it up for success by continuing to fertilize it until the first frost. Since your grass doesn’t get much in the way of nutrients during the winter months, give it what you can while it can still absorb them, so that it has all it needs to come back strong in the spring.

Pruning Trees to Prevent Home Damage in the Winter

They say failing to plan is planning to fail. Winter is an inevitable time of the year, and as such, it must be planned for beforehand to ensure that no damages are incurred that would otherwise be avoidable. Winter is a pleasant time of the year that does not have to necessarily come with the loss of property and life caused by the falling off of frozen tree branches. It is therefore prudent to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to taking care of our trees to ensure that come winter; they do not damage our homes.

10 Common Landscaping Mistakes

Landscaping can make or break the look of your home or business. Don’t make common landscaping mistakes; check out our list to make sure you begin the landscaping process with confidence.

1. Choosing the wrong plants.

Before choosing plants to decorate your landscape, make sure you research each plant you had in mind. You should ask yourself these basic questions before you make a final decision on plants and flowers:

• How much care and time are you willing to put into the plant’s maintenance?
• Is the plant right for the soil, sunlight, and shade available to you?
• Will the plant require frequent trimmings or consume other plants nearby?
  

  2. Leaving winter out of your plans.

  Once fall comes in, will your plants have died off, leaving the yard looking bare and unkempt? It’s a wise idea to plan for trees and shrubs that can still add interest to your yard.
  

The Importance and Benefits of Aeration, Overseeding and Fertilization

Cooling temperatures and falling leaves may not bring to mind the idea of vibrant green lawns, but autumn is a critical time to take important steps toward ensuring that you posses healthy spring turf. The heat and drought of summer, coupled with the wear-and-tear of outdoor play, can cause significant damage to your lawn and proper fall maintenance is required to make sure fresh new grass will thrive next season. Fall is the time to make certain that your lawn is not only well-prepared to endure the coming winter, but also to return in lush, optimal condition next spring.

Home Fire Pits and Outdoor Fireplaces

The Importance and Benefits of Implementing a Fire Pit or Outdoor Fireplace in the Fall to use in the Winter

Even as it gets colder, many people still want to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Spending time outside gardening, admiring the parade of color outside as the leaves fall and enjoying the invigorating air is one way to greet the colder weather to follow. Homeowners everywhere know the joy of using all areas of their property. To that end, many homeowners think about the ways they can enjoy their property even when the weather gets cooler. One such way is with the use of a fire pit or outdoor fireplace. Fire pits and outdoor fireplaces are elegant, easy to use and can help provide a warm area for activities like sledding and evening winter parties.

Maintaining Plants in Autumn

Autumn is a wonderful time of the year. The extreme heat of summer finally begins to subside and the leaves start changing into a beautiful array of colors, signaling that winter is on its way. Nonetheless, once the nights start getting cooler, it is important that you also change up your routine to keep your plants healthy throughout the cold. For this reason, we’ll provide you with some important lawn, plant and landscaping maintenance tips to remember once the weather begins turning cold.

Watering Tips for Transplants in the Summer

The key to healthy transplants lies in their root development, which starts shortly after they’re planted. Water, in the right amount, is key to their early survival, growth and development. Too much water and the plants will drown, and too little will harm the roots.

A water or moisture meter is indispensable for assessing the soil moisture around their root zones. The meters use terms like low, medium and high or numbers from 1 to 4 to indicate the amount of water in the soil.

The ideal range for new transplants is in the medium range, or 2.5 to 3 on a numbered meter. It’s important to moderate the amount of water on the roots because flooding the plants replaces the oxygen in the soil with water, and plants that grow in soil need oxygen near their root zones. Without oxygen, plants can’t complete the photosynthesis cycle.

Implementing a Synthetic Turf Dog Run

If you are trying to figure out how to keep your yard pristine and manicured as well as maintain your dog’s happiness, minus the work and hassle of any yard repair and the care of your dog outside, there are ways to cut down on lawn and dog care by utilizing a synthetic turf dog run. It very well could be the answer to your yard care woes and worries while accommodating your dog’s comfort.

Security Within Your Landscape

When seeing the words ‘security system’, most people think of installed cameras and loud alarms and motion detectors. However, security systems can also be a part of your landscaping design. A security system d

oesn’t have to be strictly technological. Thorn bushes planted in a thoughtful place, lights in the yard, and a light in the street can all act together as a security system to help protect your home.