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Archive for the ‘Landscaping’ Category

Gardening your house can be pretty messy sometimes. If you think yo have what it takes to do it yourself, then you can go for it. The first thing you may want to do is probably to get the best inspiration of kind of garden that looks beautiful. But make sure that this concept match your house as part of the whole good and comfortable home for you and your family to live in. So, the texture, the colors, and the shape of the garden items and any materials should be perfectly fit. Even when you have the most expensive materials and items if you do not see the garden as perfect match to your home and your personal style then it would be kind of useless.

Incorporate the art and the sense of belonging that you can have in the garden. Since it will also be part of your house that you will always come home to, then having the balance of art and personal style of you can be a good idea. See for some ideas on the Internet and get some choices to be add up to your future beautiful garden.

Color and natural choices of items are also important. Make sure you find some good colors to make your garden exquisite but also comfortable to be enjoyed every afternoon when you just want some relax time and lay back of many hassle things in life. Natural colors and materials will also help you in soothing your mood after a day full of stress at work. Make sure you choose the best natural materials to make it live longer outdoor.

Backyards are places where we can find in most houses common things about having them boring and unkempt. This is actually a good place where you and your family or friends can spend a nice bright afternoon barbecuing while sharing everyday stories on a nice weekend. So, make a decision to make a better backyard by doing the backyard landscape designs where you can find the inspirations from exterior designs magazines or simply go online and find some ideas from the images you can find there. You may also find some ways of how to make a wise step on designing your landscape. It is also a wise step if you gather some information first before you decide on what to do for your backyard especially if you really want to make a real brand new look of it.

Assess your backyard for some good ideas of imagination on how you want your new backyard looks. Many people are just deciding on hiring a person to make a good landscape of their backyard. This is so possible, but it would be much better if you knew what you really want your backyard to be looked like than just throw all the decision to the landscaper you hire.

6 Steps to Creating Your Very Own Maintenance Free Landscape

on Long Island

By Kevin Godberson

In the world of landscaping, any reputable landscape company would tell you that the key to a maintenance free property starts with a proper (what we call in the Long Island community) Spring Opening or Spring Clean-up.

We all want a maintenance free property Dont we? So here are 6 steps to help you create your very own maintenance free landscape.

Step # 1 Raking Leaves and Thatching Grass

Start by raking all leaves, sticks and acorns from all flower beds and thatch all grass areas. This will give you a clean foundation to start from. Now your lawn areas can breath and are ready for the first application of lawn crabgrass control with fertilizer.

Step # 2 Weeding and Mulching

All beds should be treated with a healthy layer of mulch to slow down the germination of weeds. A pre-emergence weed control can be used to also stop the weeds from coming up. A good covering should be put down over soil before the mulch is spread. Who wants to weed beds on the weekend? NOT ME.

Step # 3 Crabgrass Control

For a lawn to really prosper it should have an application of pre-emergence Crabgrass control put down. This will stop crabgrass from flourishing later in the season. Spot seed all bare areas so lawn fills in. Be sure to keep fertilizer away from bare areas as it will stop the seed from germinating.

Step# 4 Watering Your Lawn

At this time you should water the fertilized areas in order to green up your lawn. Make certain to go over all heads. If you have a sprinkler system, make sure you inspect each head for proper operation. Rotation of heads and spray distance is important to get entire lawn watered. We dont want areas of your lawn to burn up as they take a long time to come back to life.

Step# 5 Crabgrass Control (revisited)

After about 4 weeks I like to go back and put down a second application of crabgrass control. This will ensure that you have covered the entire lawn. One application never works 100% and you may end up with some crabgrass that will seed itself across the rest of your lawn. Trust me the second application really works.

Step# 6 - Weed control

So in closing, follow the above 6 steps to your best ability and transform your Long island landscape into one thats both extremely easy on the eye as well as maintenance free.

About Goodway Landscape : Goodway Landscape will meet with you during the design process to ensure that you are comfortable with the direction the design is going in. We will meet with you once more before the design is finalized and provide you with an estimated cost. While the design doesn’t typically change much at this point, we can determine how much of the project will be installed during the first phase. Because financial considerations are given at the outset, Goodway Landscape is often able to accommodate your budget and therefore install the design in one phase.

For every pest in nature there is a predator bug that will leave the plant alone while dining on the bad bugs. These are called beneficials and include ladybugs, praying mantis and lacewings. Protecting beneficials takes advantage of natures control mechanisms. Chemical pesticides kill both pests and beneficials, which leads to pest population explosions once the predators are gone. The new approach to pest control is through least toxic measures designed to protect beneficials while controlling pests.

To lower pH, ferrous sulfate and aluminum sulfate are often recommended. Ferrous sulfate, which also adds iron to the soil, is of the most help to plants that show yellow leaves as well as overall poor health. You’ll also lower the pH of alkaline soil over time by regularly applying organic amendments such as compost.

* You may have noticed that soluble fertilizers like the liquid mixes must be applied every week or two. The reason is that plants are only able to utilize seven or eight percent of the nutrients per application. So they need to be reapplied quite frequently which can be costly and tedious. Conversely, organic and natural fertilizers only need to be applied a couple times a year, because as they break down, they continue to feed the roots.

Goodway Landscape News Most projects begin with tearing out the existing landscape unless there’s already nothing there. Be sure to let your design consultant know if there are any items you wish to remain so that we can incorporate it into your design. Before the tear out takes place we ask you to tie bright colored ribbons or tape on the plants that are going to stay.

Plant more trees.

Many newer neighborhoods in this country just dont have enough trees. Recent suburbs and developments are built on former farm fields with no trees. If possible, homeowners should plant trees. Trees, just like all plants, breathe oxygen back in to the atmosphere. They create shade which can cut air-conditioning costs for your home and they add all-season beauty.

Goodway Landscape Caring for a pond takes less effort than maintaining a lawn. The ecosystem you have helped to create by having Goodway Landscape install an Aquascape pond does most of the work for you. So aside from stepping out of the way and allowing nature to take its course, there are a few basic things you need to know.

Purchases to Make and Tools You Need

* Mail in your warranty card for your Aquascape pump that came with your pond.
* Purchase a digital thermometer for your pond.
* Pond and waterfall lights won’t last forever. Simply remove the bulbs and take them to your local hardware store. Easy to replace!
* Aquatic plants are necessary for taking up sludge and excess nutrients. Goodway Landscape installs plants for 90 percent of our customers; however, many of you enjoy adding plants after we have gone, as well you should. When adding plants take them out of their containers.
* Algea are a natural part of any ecosystem and should never be thought of as something you want to completely do away with. however, string algea is best taken care of with a product call Algae Fix . (Coming soon to our Products page.)
* Pond Salt only gets added once per pond filling and is optional. Add 1 cup of Pond Salt for every 100 gallons of pond water for healthier fish. Using more than this application will hurt your plants and is not recommended. Less is more, in this case. A good formula for figuring out pond gallons: Length x Width x Despth x 7.48 = Gallons. (Example: for an 11′ x 16′ pond the formula would be: 11 x 16 x 2 x 7.48 = 2,633 gallons or 25 cups of Pond Salt.)
* Test your pond water with an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Test Kit. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals sells a kit that provides a chart for aquarium solition / PH Balance / Pond Salt for Ponds with plants.

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Protect your rock walls from tumbling down

Some of the most beautiful landscape designs in Michigan are the ones formed using boulders and stones. The artful placement of stones and boulders almost always compliment the natural terrain of this naturally scenic state. Natural elements such as rock, stone, boulders and pebbles can be configured into practical landscaping features. These include planting berms, dividing walls, fountains, pathways and even driveways. Large stones can be used in the growingly popular outdoor living spaces, often as seating, tables and naturally beautiful dividers and boundaries. While you might be tempted to take up stone landscaping as a way to beautify on a budget, you might reconsider and leave this to landscaping pros. Not only are stones extremely hard to lift, move and place, but certain rock configurations will need to be set with mortar for permanent placement. The last thing you want is for your rock scaping to fall completely apart during the first hard rainstorm. Trust a professional for a skillful arrangement that looks beautiful, and holds up to bad weather. One such professional in Michigan is Barkman Landscaping.

Barkman Landscaping is a full service provider of landscape design, installation and maintenance. They take pride in the quality and the creativity that goes into every job, and every specialized design. They enjoy the high level of referrals they receive from satisfied and loyal customers. Barkman Landscaping uses only the finest landscape products, as they expertly install water features, rock walls, pavers, planting beds, lighting and even outdoor living areas. Their qualified and knowledgeable staff is friendly and respectful of every home and homeowner. They make each project a pleasure, from start to finish. See their photo gallery at BarkmanLandscaping.com

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