Spring is here and gardening season is upon us.  You are really excited to get out there and start gardening or are planning to hire a landscaper to set up your garden for you.  Before you decide on landscaping there are a few questions you need to ask yourself so that your landscaping will be exactly as you pictured it.

Here are our top 10 questions to ask yourself:

1) What part of your landscaping do you love and what part do you hate?  Are there other members of your family that will be using the area in question and if so, what will it be used for?

2)  Do you have pets?  If you do how will that affect the look you are trying to achieve? Do you need a dog run or just a place for your pet to lounge and enjoy the outside?

3)  Now take a step back and look at your home.  In what style was it built?  Do you want that style to be reflected in the landscaping or do you prefer a style that will compliment it rather than duplicate it?

4)  What is your landscaping style of choice? Do you love the formal or English garden look?  Are you a fan of Japanese or Natural?  Look through magazines and clip pictures of the look you would like to incorporate in your landscaping.

5)  Now thinking of color scheme.  Do you prefer landscaping that is full of bright, vibrant colors or a more uniformed landscaped design of one or two colors.  Would you like more greenery with touches of colored flowering plants or more flowering plants and a touch of greenery?

6)  Allergies!  This is not generally thought of when landscaping but if you or a family member has, for instance, severe allergies to bees you will want to try to choose plants that are less attractive to bees.

7)  Hardscaping or paving surfaces, would you like to incorporate a patio, deck or walkway in your landscape design?  What is your surface of preference?  Wood?  Concrete?  Stone?  Brick?

8)  When thinking of plants, do you want to try and attract birds, butterflies or any other type of “wildlife”?

9)  What about your neighbors?  Do you need privacy or a division between properties?  Don’t forget to take any neighborly issues into consideration when planning your landscaping.

10)  The very last thing that should not be overlooked when planning your landscaping is zoning regulations.  For instance if you are planning on building a deck you may need a permit.  If you are planning on putting in a parking pad, a permit is usually required. Take your time to research this.  If contracting a professional landscaper have them look into any permits required.

Ground covers are hardy, fast growing and can perk up your garden with gorgeous color and can last for years.  If you crave a bit of dimension, perspective, height and extra color in your ground covers, consider wide-spreading shrubs.

Ground cover is so easy to maintain.  You don’t need to mow ground covers, and once they are established they need little maintenance.  They can reduce or even eliminate the need for grass. Consider planting ground covers under trees, along narrow passages, shaded areas and other hard to mow spots.  If you reduce the size of your lawn, you will probably also reduce your water consumptions, need for herbicides and overall cost of maintenance.

Here are our top picks:

1) Why not take advantage of azaleas’ spread and cover a shady slope with them?

2) Junipers are adaptive to a range of soils and do best in full sun, but they also do tolerably well with only a half-day of sun.

3) At 1-1/2 to two feet high and four to five feet wide, sweetbox  makes a wonderful ground cover for shade.

4) Isotoma Blue Star Creeper is fast growing ground cover for sun and part shade.  Blooms all summer long and is an excellent lawn substitute.

5) Thyme offers beautiful ground cover and is fragrant with beautiful white or pink flowers.

Many people may not know what retaining walls are but they have a very important function in most houses across the country.

Definition of Retaining Walls

• Retaining walls are those structures that keep soil and land from falling over to a carved out slope or piece of land.
• They are commonly used in houses whose lots are located in a slope. The contractors of the house will level out the land in your lot where the house will be built.
• To keep the soil on the higher slope from sliding back to the flattened out surface, a retaining wall is built.

Functions of Retaining Walls

• It functions basically like a dam but instead of water, land and soil are being held back.
• Aside from protecting the house from landslides in major slopes, these retaining walls are also used often by landscapers to execute certain landscaping designs that require layering and leveling.

Types of Retaining Walls

• Gravity Wall

From the name itself, this type uses the weight of the wall caused by gravity to counter the pressure produced by the soil on the other side.

• Piling Wall

In this wall system, there are different forces that will keep the soil on the other side from toppling over the lower space. Aside from the gravitational weight, the wall is buried so that the forces from both sides called the piling force will keep it upright.

• Cantilevered Wall

This is one type that has been used for decades. In this system, the wall is not just a typical straight partition but it has an extra foot which turns it into an L-shaped wall. The additional foot is positioned under the embankment which produces a downward force that keeps the wall upright.

• Concrete block walls, Anchor wall systems and gabion walls are also other types of retaining walls.

The accumulation of water on the other side of the wall may increase pressure in any retaining wall types that is why special landscaping ideas have been applied to let the water flow to a storm drain.

Landscaping is an integral process in improving the curb appeal of the house. It also increases its marketing potential for those who plan to sell their property. Continue Reading →

Designing an herb garden is not as easy as people think. Dumping different kinds of plants into a pot will not make a successful and functional herb garden. Continue Reading →

If you have kids, the backyard landscape ideas you have may include such play things as a swing, a slide and lots of room to run around. The last thing that may come into your mind is to get the mini version of a shovel and a rake for your little ones to tinker with you in your garden. However, if your child is fascinated with the origin of fruits and the like, and they are able to follow simple instructions, there is no reason why they cannot help you grow things. You might be surprised at how this hobby can turn into such a learning experience for them.

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Is something ” bugging” your lawn?  They bugs just may be those pesky grubs, the white kind!

How do you know if your lawn problem is actually grubs?  Simple!  Grubs have a white “C” shaped body, brown head and 6 legs on the upper half of the body.

Grubs lay their eggs in the lawn late June and hatch into Grubs late July.  They feed on the roots of your lawn from late July to August and continue feeding and growing right through fall.  After the fall the Grubs will burrow below the frost line till the end of winter so you will actually never get rid of them.  As soon as the ground starts to defrost and warm they will start feeding again.

There are many related problems with Grubs.  Raccoons and skunks love to feed on them.  If you don’t here those pesky wildlife creatures when they are feeding you will definitely see the damage they have caused in the morning.  Your lawn will be ripped up every night during the spring months. 

If you start noticing patches of brown, dead grass this is a sure indication that the Grubs have fed and consumed the root system of your lawn. 

Grubs will feed and grown until mid May, they then develop into their final form the beetle.  The adult beetle emerges mid June, mates and then the females return to the soil to lay their eggs so the cycle will begin all over again.

Predatory nematodes are a great way to biologically control white grubs.  To use these nematodes you must keep your soil moist and closely follow the instructions, don’t forget that nematodes are living organisms.

Treat the entire lawn, don’t attempt to spot treat the lawn.  Make sure to water the lawn thorought after each application.  Another important factor is that the youger the grubs are the easier they are to control.  The best time to apply is mid July to August and September.  During this time period the grubs are small and near the soil surface.

Labor Day seems to be everyone’s signal for prepping the garden for the coming fall season.  

Summer plants need to be removed as well as yellow leaves and spoilt fruit.  Once you have removed the plants and foliage that grows in the summer but dies in the colder weather be sure to turn over your soil.  If you have permanent plants in your garden that are frost resistant and can last through the winter leave them in just be sure to clean up around them.  If they are plants that will regrow next spring and summer put markers in to make sure that you are leaving them enough room when planting your fall plants.

Here are a few fall plants that will enhance your fall garden:

1) Chrysanthemums, they come in gorgeous fall colors, you can even color coordinate them and plant them in patterns.

2) The Perennial Sunflower, brilliant gold fluffy daisy-like flowers make an instant focal point and attract butterflies and birds.

3) Michaelmas Daisy, shades of pink, purple, blue and white, these delicate daisy-like blossoms start popping open in late August and continue on until frost. Pinching in the early summer turns these Asters into mounds with dozens of flower buds.

4) Aster,  daisy-like flowers in pink, rosy-lilac or deep purple, asters are classic fall flowers. 

5)  Low-growing Marguerite daisy is a delight, and it flowers pretty much nonstop until the first hard freeze.

And there you have it, just a few of our favorite plants for your fall gardening project.