Helpful Home Tips
Landscaping Tips
Landscaping With Beautiful Stones
Landscaping With Beautiful Stones
Natural stones make an exquisite, low maintenance landscape. Incorporating stones offers a complete look to any landscape design. You can use cobblestones or flagstones for walkways, thick stones for holding walls and decorative stones for water gardens and rock gardens. Stone fountains offer a simple and cost effective way to decorate your landscape.
Granite, limestone, slate, sandstone and marble are most commonly used to decorate landscape. You can use granite stones for walls and garden stepping stones. Garden stepping stones are great to build paths throughout your yard. You can use them in mulched or unmulched planting beds and lawns. Paving garden stones in lawn prevents foot traffic and helps your lawn to grow well. The garden stepping stones are usually round or square in shape. You can also get stones in irregular shapes that offer a contemporary look to your landscape.
You can use river bed pebbles to add elegance to your landscape. These pebbles are available in various colors, shapes and textures. Off-white, gray, pink, green and brown are the most common color pebbles available in the market. You can use river bed pebbles to make decorative borders, ground cover and soil covering. They enhance the charm of water features in the garden.
Cobble stones are natural stones that not only enhance the appearance of the landscape, but also increase the safety. They are non-slip and require no maintenance. You can mix them with flagstones and use to make attractive borders. There are many types of cobblestones like granite cobbles, slate cobbles and limestone cobbles. The color of the cobble stone vary according to its type. For instance, granite cobbles are available in pink, maroon, black and red, while limestone cobbles are available in kotah blue and brown. You can choose the type that matches the color theme of your landscape. They are available in different sizes and you can pick the size that suits your landscaping project.
Blog Post provided by: Peachtree City GA Landscapers
Lawn care advice to get a lovely lawn
A lush, beautiful lawn not only enhances the appearance of your landscape, but it also serves as an excellent kids’ play area. It serves as a picturesque backdrop for the flowering plants, shrubs and decorative plants. Caring for your lawn can help you to enjoy a soft and healthy lawn throughout the year.
Soil preparation is the most important step in lawn care. You need to test the pH level of the soil. Turf grows well in soil that has the pH level between 6 and 7. If your soil is low in pH level, you need to make some adjustments like adding lime to soil. You can then apply seed or sod. You need to distribute the lawn seed evenly throughout the soil. You can then cover the seed with a bale of straw to keep the moisture in the soil. It takes at least ten days for the seeds to germinate. You need not remove the straw, as the decaying straw can help to replenish the nitrogen content in the soil.
Watering the lawn is an important process, as it helps the grass to remain green. Insufficient watering can make the lawn more susceptible to weeds. Generally, a lawn requires half to one inch of water every week to remain healthy and vibrant. It is advisable to water your lawn in the early morning. Watering lawns during mid day can reduce the amount of water absorbed by the grass roots and watering your lawn late evening can lead to fungus buildup.
Mowing your lawn is another important process that helps to improve the overall health and appearance of lawn. Mowing height depends upon the type of grass you have. However, the thumb rule in lawn mowing is not to remove more than one third of the grass.
Blog Post provided by: Gwinnett County Landscapers
Helpful Garden Insects
Not all bugs are bad!! There are many insects that are helpful to your landscape care. Certain insects deter the bad insects from destroying your plants and they can also increase pollination. Before you go squashing those little critters read on and see why you should keep them around.
Dragonflies are great to have on your property! They eat about 600 insects such as gnats, flies and mosquitoes per day! They normally live near water areas and can survive up to 2 months. Ponds will attract dragonflies as well as frogs that will feed on mosquitoes.
Lady Bugs eat about 400 aphids, mites and scales per day. They are said to be “good luck” if you believe in luck! Pollen producing flowering plants will attract lady bugs.
Spiders feed on as many as 2,000 insects per year such as grasshoppers, crickets, flies, bees, moths. They are not so creepy after all!
Beetles come in many different species. They usually hide during the day in dark cool places and feed on small insects at night. They are attracted to light so you may find them creeping into your home at night! Just shoo them out to do their work!
Green Lacewings are very helpful. They eat Aphids, mealybugs, scales, spider mites, thripes, and white flies.
Hover Flies look like small wasps but eat fruit tree spider mites, green flies and caterpillars.
Educate yourself on the larva and eggs of these good insects. Plant some plants that will attract them and carefully plan your pest control based on keeping your good guys naturally on your property.
Blog Post provided by: Marietta GA Landscapers
Fertilizer Numbers
What do the numbers on fertilizer bags mean??
These numbers are the percentage of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium respectively that are contained in the fertilizer mix. These are the major nutrients needed for healthy soil and plant growth. For example: 18-24-6 means it contains 18% Nitrogen, 24% Phosphate and 6% Potassium – a typical lawn care fertilizer. The fertilizer you choose should be based on what results you want to achieve.
Nitrogen is a building block for protein. It promotes plant growth and helps the plant have a rich green color because hit assists in the production of chlorophyll. The more nitrogen your fertilizer has, the faster it will grow and greener it will be.
Phosphate helps in the formation and growth of roots and cell division. It is advisable to use a fertilizer a good percentage of phosphate when you first plant your tree, plants, flowers or a new lawn.
Potassium is necessary for photosynthesis. It helps strengthen plants against cold and disease. Potassium also promotes healthy roots and fruit formation. Potassium is important as you are going into the winter months!!
When you are choosing a fertilizer, consider what your plant is lacking or how you would like it to look. Then choose the number combination that best fits your needs. You can also get your soil tested by your county extension office. This may be free, but there may also be a nominal fee. This will determine what nutrients are lacking in your soil.
Lastly, too much fertilizer can be harmful to your plants and even cause them to die. Read your labels carefully and follow the recommendations on the label.
Blog Post provided by: Alpharetta GA Lawn Care Specialist
Magnolia Trees
With over 80 species of Magnolia trees in the Eastern United States and Southeast Asia, the Southern Magnolia is the one most popular native trees in the Southeast US and is the state tree of Mississippi.
The Southern Magnolia is known for its beautifully fragrant large white flowers, its cone shape and its dense verdant leaf structure. Another likable factor of the Magnolia tree is its resistance to pests. It is not bothered by many insects and proper pruning and maintenance will usually take care of diseased branches, leaf spots, mildews or scabs.
The Magnolia tree provides a tremendous amount of shade. Many times these trees are positioned in the landscape design to create a screen or border. Plan carefully when choosing a space to plant your Magnolia tree. A mature tree can reach up to 60 to 80 feet high with very wide base. The tree is relatively easy to grow and maintain. It is drought resistant and as an evergreen, it does not loose its leaves in the winter so it is beautiful year round.
The Magnolia tree gives hardy shelter to birds and animals during cold winter months. The seeds and surrounding aril of the magnolia provide a good source of fat and energy for migrating animals. One unique feature of the Magnolia is that it is pollinated primarily by beetles not by typical birds, bees or butterflies!
The “Grand Dame of the South” has graced its’ admires with beauty, shade and inspiration for hundreds of years. Many artists have painted these awesome trees and their beautiful flowers and many poems and stories have been written about their exquisite beauty.
Blog Post provided by: Alpharetta GA Landscapers
Fireplace and Chimney Maintenance
When cold weather arrives or temperatures decrease, our minds turn to warmth; and, what better way to feel that warmth along with the emotional relaxation you crave than to light a fire in your fireplace and lounge before it with a good book or a glass of wine. While, this is a romantic thought, you do need to contemplate the dangers involved in having an indoor fire and make sure your fireplace and chimney are in top-notch shape.
For example, soft woods like maple, elm, or sycamore may not be your best choices for an indoor fire as they burn somewhat brighter, but also faster than hardwoods do. To ensure that you have a slow, hot fire, use hardwoods in your indoor fireplace. Hardwoods that are appropriate for indoor burning include woods like oak, hickory, ash, hard maple and locust.
Make sure your wood is seasoned before you actually burn it. Seasoned wood, a drying process, takes about nine months from the time of the wood’s cutting to be suitable for indoor fireplace use. However, if you split green wood immediately, the time for drying is lessened by about five to six months. Also, check your seasoned wood before you carry it into your home to make sure you aren’t bringing in bug-infested wood.
Another consideration to think about before using your fireplace each season is the condition of your chimney. Call a professional chimney sweep to clean your chimney yearly and check for cracks or a build-up of creosote. You can check this for yourself by using a high-powered flashlight and a mirror. If you can see red or pink brick, your chimney is probably free from creosote; however, if you see black furry debris clinging to the walls of the chimney, you’ll definitely want to have your chimney cleaned before using it.
Other good fireplace practices to follow include:
• Keep your chimney clean and in good repair.
• Use glass doors or a fire screen to contain sparks.
• Make sure you open the damper before building a fire.
• Don’t have furniture, books, or other burnable materials near your fireplace.
• Don’t go to bed or leave while you have a fire burning in your home.
• Don’t leave children unattended in a room where a fire is burning in the fireplace.
• Remove cooled ashes and store them in a metal container.
• Use cured hardwoods, not soft woods.
A crackling fire adds a certain warmth and ambiance to your home. Make sure you use your fireplace wisely and keep it in tip-top shape so you can safely enjoy it’s warmth for years to come.
Many people also have outdoor fireplaces and firepits in their backyards. While the maintenance required for an outdoor fireplace or firepit is less than the maintenance for an indoor fireplace you still need to ensure that your outdoor fireplace or firepit is free of debris and in good working order before you start enjoying fires outdoors.
Composting
If your yard or garden is looking a little lackluster, you may want to consider composting as an inexpensive and environmentally safe way to enrich your soil and liven up your greenery. Composting, a process for recycling waste into humus, not only creates rich fertile soil for your gardening needs, but will also contribute to a reduction in the amount of waste that goes into your local landfill. And, with a compact composter, you can process top-quality soil easily and efficiently in your own backyard.
Estimates show that approximately 20 percent of landfill materials are suitable for composting. Not only does composting of this 20 percent save landfill space, but it can reduce fuel use for the transport vehicles of waste, reduce your expense of purchasing fertilizer, return much-needed nutrients to your soil, and minimize the amounts of chemical fertilizer polluting the environment.
Materials that are compost-friendly include grass clippings, leaves, flowers, brush, harvested vegetable plants, wood ash, eggshells, produce peelings, coffee grounds, plain pasta, fruit, and stale bread. Serious composting experts also include bones, meat, and fat in their composting bins. If you want to include these items, make sure you check with your local government to see if this is allowed as some municipalities have ordinances against composting certain items since these ingredients can attract bugs, odor, and wildlife. Also, a good landscaping company should be able to tell you the local laws.
Bacteria are the primary microorganisms that break down the materials you will put in your compost bin. Representing 80 to 90 percent of the working ingredients in your composting mixture, bacteria growth is the most important process that needs to take place in your bin. To cater to this process, you must build and maintain your bin or pile by conscientiously monitoring and maintaining it to create heat, water, and carbon dioxide, with heat being the most important ingredient. (Healthy compost piles will generate core heat of about 140 degrees.)
To begin composting, all you need is an area or bin in which to pile your collected waste materials. To aid in the initial set-up of your composting project, heap materials together after breaking them up into the smallest particles you can manage to encourage the process and generate heat for your microorganisms to begin their work. During this first stage, the mesophilic stage, your compost will settle and begin to sag after a week or so. Next, during the thermophilc phase, you’ll see your compost heat up, indicating that the harmful bacteria have died off and your materials are breaking down. You can assist this process by making sure your compost is damp, by using a garden hose to wet it, and that the core has sufficient oxygen, by turning the pile once or twice for the next three months. At about four months along, you’ll notice the pile begins to cool and see the materials forming into a uniform texture. Once your compost is a rich brown color, is earthy smelling, is free of large debris, and is crumbly, it is ready to use.
If you want a perpetual supply of compost materials, start and maintain several compost piles throughout the year having several composting piles at differing stages of the process so you always have a natural fertilizer at your disposal.
Sprinkler System Installation
Once the need to water lawns ends for the season, many folks take advantage of discounts offered to install a sprinkler system for the next season of watering needs. If you are one of those folks, you’ll want to check around to find the best price and a qualified sprinkler system installation company for your system.
The design of your sprinkler system is just as important as the installation. It involves much more than installing pipe and sprinkler heads. You’ll want to make sure that your lawn is measured accurately so you’ll know what type water flow you need to keep your lawn and flowerbeds hydrated and healthy. Different pipes and flow valves need to be correctly positioned and installed to control the pressure and amount of water released to make sure your sprinkler system runs smoothly and efficiently. Your objective is to have a uniform amount of water delivered to your lawn to work for your particular yard.
While you can install a sprinkler system on your own, you may want to consider hiring a professional to do so. It is not just a weekend project and will require some expertise in precise calculation of pressure and spatial measurements to determine the placement of sprinkler heads and piping. Many homeowners have dug up entire lawns trying to figure out how and where to lay the piping. Consequently, hiring a qualified sprinkler specialist may save you money and time.
Maintenance of Your Sprinkler System
Since sprinkler systems have both above- and below ground components, you’ll need to be sure that your system is designed so that you can drain all the water form pipes for the winter so the pipes don’t freeze and burst. Most systems have a shut-off switch that enables you to deactivate it during the winter. Check with your manual or installer to learn how to do this.
About the only other maintenance problem you have to worry about with a well-installed system is clogged sprinkler heads. If one of your “pop up” heads is not working, odds are that sand or dirt is lodged in it, and cleaning the sprinkler head will solve the problem. Otherwise, you’ll want to check the pipe feeding that sprinkler head for a leak. If you have an entire zone that is not watering, check your delivery box to make sure it is programmed correctly. Your automatic time may need to be re-set. Consult a sprinkler system professional if you cannot solve the problem yourself to avoid expensive repair bills later on.
Blog post provided by: Alpharetta Ga Sprinker System Specialists
Helpful Winter Landscaping Tips
Many homeowners think of landscaping only during the spring, summer and the first few weeks of the fall. However, there are several benefits to maintaining your landscape during the winter season. For one, you can save a considerable amount of money on your heating bill each month. You can actually decrease the cost of your fuel up to 30%.
All you have to do is place windbreaks around your home to prevent wind from blowing directly at your house. Trees and plants can help insulate your house enough to decrease the cost of your fuel.
Trees and shrubs that have a low crown make perfect windbreaks. If you want to direct the cold wind over your home, consider planting an evergreen. Make sure you do not plant along the south side of your house because you want to allow the sun to heat up your house as much as possible.
Another consideration is to plant tall plants. Tall plants should be approximately a foot from your house. Blocking the cool winter winds from pounding your house will help keep more of the heat in your home.
The same trees and shrubs that help block the winter winds will also help you reduce your cooling costs in the summer. The trees and shrubs that are keeping the cool winter winds from blowing directly at your home will also block some of the direct sunlight in the summer time which will help reduce your cooling cost.
Maintaining your landscape not only increases your homes curb appeal but, it can help you with your utility bills as well.
Post provided by – Atlanta Landscaping Contractor.
Preparing Your Lawn for Winter
As landscapers, one of our biggest jobs is to clear the leaves from our clients lawns once the trees are finished shedding them, typically all the leaves are done falling by early December.
One factor that most people fail to consider is the roll that the decaying leaves play in feeding the lawn. As the leaves are broken down by worms, bacteria and other organisms, the leaves are transformed into a natural fertilizer that feeds your lawn vital nutrients which your lawn will use in the springtime.
In order to make sure that some of the natural fertilizer is kept on the lawn for the spring, we recommend taking a mulching lawn mover and mowing over the leaves that are covering your grass several times before you actually blow the remaining leaves into a compost pile or you bag them and dispose of them.
We believe that working with nature’s natural cycles is the best way to ensure a healthy overall landscape and a healthy lawn. By using a mulching mower to leave much of the decaying leaf residue on your lawn, you accomplish two things:
1. You eliminate the leaves from your lawn and keep your yard nice and tidy for your neighbors.
2. You will ensure that your lawn still receives the natural nutrients that nature intended to feed your lawn in the spring time.
This post was provided by – Atlanta Landscapers.