1. Not mowing in a regular basis.

When manicuring the lawn, it is crucial to keep consistent with recommended grooming requirements. Some types of grass can be severally damaged if it is cut too low.

2. Not doing once-over lawn manicuring

As winter nears, it’s typical for homeowners to reseed, aerate or mow the lawn. For optimal health and proper growth, plant specialists recommend the once-over lawn manicuring technique to ensure it looks nice and even throughout the winter. The final process is to reemphasize the lines diagonally. This will keep a lush, neat appeal even as springtime returns.

3. Not Watering Plants

Despite the colder winter months, the hedges, fruit trees and shrubs all need water. Poor watering of your plants could result in some serious damage arising from dehydration and/or disease.

4. Not using the correct plant fertilizer.

Be sure to use the right fertilizer for your plants based on the weather and temperatures. Granular fertilizer isn’t an ideal product for plants because it takes longer to dissolve, especially in colder temperatures. If the lawn or plants aren’t getting enough fertilizer, it is more likely for it to wither or suffer severe frost burns.

5. Not using high-quality mulch to treat the soil

Poor quality mulch could infest healthy soil and plants with fungus or pests. Gardeners should mulch the soil of trees or houseplants and the surface if the weather permits it. If the ground has frozen, it will be difficult to undertake this task successfully.

6. Not raking the leaves.

Yes, it’s a pain, but neglecting this duty can allow fungus and mold to thrive with the snow accumulating on the leaves.

7. Not jumping into spring planting.

By delaying your spring planting, you are ensuring that your harvest won’t be as fruitful since it takes a while for plants to mature. Shrubs, crops and trees need adequate time to grow.

8. Not stocking up on new garden supplies.

Summer and spring clearance at a local gardening supplies store are the best place to get bargains on tools, soil, pots, seeds and more! Sometimes it can save you up to 90%!

9. Not dealing with pests.

If you notice that crops harvested have worms or signs of pest infestation, it is necessary to take care of the yard to minimize infestation. Not taking care of the problem promptly can have serious consequences.

The post 9 NOTS to Avoid This Fall/Winter Season appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

• To prevent the spread of diseases in your landscape, dispose of infected plants immediately before the disease has a chance to spread.
• Pick up rotting fruit or dead leaves, which can be a source of the disease.
• When in doubt, throw them out. Do not compost diseased materials.
• Don’t forget to disinfect your tools to prevent diseases from spreading.

• A late summer application of nitrogen fertilizer helps fruit sizing more in the fall than in the spring.
• Cut off spent blooms to stimulate re-bloom.
• Water less often as plant needs decrease with the shortening and cooling days.
• Be sure to dig, divide and replant overcrowded perennials that have finished flowering.
• Feed new flower and vegetable plants with liquid fertilizer two weeks after planting them.
• After several hard frosts add mulch to your perennial flower garden. A one inch layer of straw or chopped leaves will help conserve soil moisture and protect the root system.

• Plant winter hardy trees, shrubs and vines.
• Feed cool season lawns to support their growth in the fall season.
• Continue to pick up fallen, decomposing fruit that could harbor insects and pests.
• Don’t allow leaves to accumulate on the lawn. Rake them up regularly, and store in a pile for use as mulch in your garden next summer. By allowing leaves to accumulate on your lawn, they can become matted down by the rain and can kill the grass.
• Autumn is a good time for improving your garden soil. Add manure, compost, and leaves to increase the organic matter content. Before adding lime to your soil, have your soil tested to determine if your soil is acidic and needs lime.
• Mulches applied too early can do more harm than good. A mulch is used to keep soil temperatures constant and prevent frost heaving, not keep it warm. Therefore, it is best not to mulch until the soil temperature has reached the freezing point.
• When deciding on new trees or shrubs to plant around your home, remember to select varieties that will fit the location when they are at their mature height. This will greatly reduce pruning and other maintenance in the future.

• Garden tools are expensive! Take care of your tools and bring them inside so they don’t need to be replaced. Clean them off and with proper care, quality tools can last you a lifetime!

• Make a note of any particularly productive or unsatisfactory varieties of vegetables that you planted this year.
• Fall is an excellent time for taking soil samples in your lawn and garden. Soil tests will measure the pH of the soil, organic matter content and the levels of some of the major elements required for plant growth, such as phosphorus and potassium.

The post October Chores and Tips appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

• Water your plants more as the weather gets warmer and the sun gets hotter. Pay attention to how much water they need in a day/week.
• Place mulch around plats that are sensitive to the hot sun. This will help keep the roots of the plants cool.
• Break or cut of dead pieces of plants. This will help more of the plant to grow.
• If you have planted a new tree, then be sure to have it supported by a stake. You wouldn’t want high winds to blow it over.
• Do not prune heat sensitive plants in the summer. This may kill your plant.
• Try to avoid watering too much, you want to grow beautiful plants, you don’t want to rot the roots

• Use golf tees to mark where you have plants like perennials and bulbs that don’t grow or grow slowly in the summer.
• Plants that are grown in containers can only absorb so much water at a time. So be sure to watch plants that are in sunny areas and water them more, if required.
• Hanging flower baskets need water daily. The sun and wind absorbs the water much more quickly than other plants.
• Clean up flower petals and leaves. They can become infected with disease and bugs if they are left.
• Take out old plants that are dead and have stopped growing. Keep such things gives a home to insects and bugs that are not wanted.
• Water your garden before the hot sun comes out and dries up the already dry ground.
• Pick up fruit that has fallen off of the tree of plant. This will prevent bugs and rodents.
• Pull weeds before they make seeds. The longer you leave the weeds the more weeds you will have to deal with next spring.

The post August’s Chores & Tips appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

• Do you have roses? Fertilize your established roses. Liquid fertilizers can be added at two week intervals but follow the instructions on the container.
•  Make a plot layout of your flower borders so you will know where to locate the spring flowering bulbs you plant next fall. It will always make spring and summer gardening easier. You will be able to identify the plants in your border and plan for continuous blooming by setting young annuals between bulbs and early flowering perennials after their blooms have faded.
•  April is a great time to clean up plants and flower beds; pick out dead leaves, twigs and prune dead limbs.

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• As the weather gets warmer and the days lengthen, adjust your irrigation timer to water more frequently. Be sure to run your system long enough to wet the top two feet of soil. A deep, infrequent water is much more beneficial than a daily sprinkle.
• Allow your wildflowers to go to seed so they will produce a natural healthy feast for birds as well as reseeding themselves  so they grow again next year.
• Begin fertilizing Bermuda grass lawns during late April or early May. Follow the instructions on the container.
• Control lawn weeds now through late May before they get too large.
• To determine if soil is ready to work, squeeze a handful of soil into a tight ball and then break the ball apart with your fingers. If the ball of soil crumbles easily, the soil is ready to work. If the soil stays balled, it is too wet to work.
• Once new growth begins on trees and shrubs, cut them back to where the green wood begins to remove any twigs that were affected by winter kill.

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• Your lawn mower blade should always be sharp so they do not tear the grass. If you sharpen the blade at home, make sure you balance it too. Place the center hole of the blade on a screwdriver handle held upright in the vise. If it doesn’t balance, sharpen the heavier side until the blade balances on the handle.
•  Invest in a hose-end shut-off valve this spring. These are available separately as part of a watering wand. This allows you to turn off the hose as you move around the yard and shut off the water immediately, rather than letting the hose run while you hurry to turn off the main spigot.

The post April Chores and Tips appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

• If you’re still receiving snow, be sure to shovel and brush off the snow from any raised bed covers.
• Onto warmer thoughts… Prep any new garden beds as the weather permits.
• If the soil is workable, add compost and any other soil amendments as needed.
• Make sure to fertilize plants that are starting to grow actively.
• Be sure not to plow your garden while the soil is wet, as it will form clumps that are difficult to break up. This will interfere with the cultivation during the summer months.
• If there are weeds in your bulb beds, be sure remove them by hand so the bulbs and roots will not be disturbed.
• Spring is a great time to renew and add more variety to your landscape… Buy some new perennials for your flower border.

• When buying bare-root trees, look for the ones with the largest root system in relation to top growth. It is not necessary to purchase a larger tree to get a quality plant.
• Dig, divide and replant crowded summer and fall flowering perennials.
• Plant your spring flowering annuals.
• Prune your shrubs and ornamental trees before the growing starts (except for the spring flowering shrubs – prune those as soon as they finish flowering.
• Early spring is the perfect time for these turf treatments – if needed. Special equipment is available for each operation… Consult a lawn-care specialist or rent the equipment and do it yourself!
  • Vertical cutting or thinning to remove thatch and aerification
  • Or coring to reduce soil compaction.
• As the nice spring weather approaches, it is a perfect time for repositioning stepping stones that have heaved or snuck below grass level. Do this by lifting them, spreading sand in the low areas and replacing the rocks. A bed of sand under the stones will allow for better drainage and decrease the sinking for next year.
• If you built and birdhouse in the winter, now is the time to put them out. The birds will begin looking for nesting sites very soon.

• Start more seeds growing inside.
• Keep an eye on your indoor transplants and make sure they’re happy and healthy!
• Repot any houseplants that have grown too large for their containers. Cut back leggy plants to encourage compact growth. To increase your supply of plants, root the cuttings in moist soil.
• Protect yourself and the blade of your pruning saw during storage by making a cover using a piece of old garden hose the same length of the blade. Cut the hose lengthwise on one side and place over the saw blade.
• If you haven’t already, check your stored tools and outdoor furniture for signs of rust. Remove any surface rust with steel wool and pain with rust inhibitive paint.

The post March Chores and To-Dos! appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

Mark your gas, water, etc. lines
A few days before your landscaping projects begin, you will need to have some of the underground lines and wires identified. To do this, you will need to call each company and have someone come out to mark exactly where these lines are laid. You will need to call the:

– cable company
– gas company
– electrical company
– water company
– sewer company

By calling these companies and having them mark the lines, it will keep your project timeline on track and will allow your landscapers to spend their time doing the landscaping work instead of trying to sort this out themselves.

Remove clutter from the yard
This is probably one of the easiest, but most important tasks. It might be a no-brainer but its amazingly surprising how many people leave toys and tools all over their yard even on the day the landscapers arrive. It doesn’t have to be neat, it just has to be out of the way. If you do not have a space to store them, pile them on your porch or on your driveway.

Leave them space
If you are having trees planted, installing a bunch of hedges or if you are resodding your yard, then you need to be considerate of the distance your landscapers will have to park from your yard. They might have to carry trees/bushes or walk rolls of sod over a long distance. If you can shorten that distance by parking your vehicles on the street or out of the way, that will be a huge help to your landscapers.

The post Landscaping Prep Steps appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

• Shop for early spring flowering shrubs and vines, such as Carolina Jessamine, daphne, azalea, camellia, and early rhododendrons.
• Order perennial plants and bulbs now for cut flowers this summer. Some of our favourite choices are phlox, daisy, dahlia, cosmos, aster, gladiolus, and lily.
• Plant your bare-root vegetables such as artichoke, asparagus, horseradish,and rhubarb.
• Plant your spring flowering perennials. Choose from alstromeria, bleeding heart, coral bells, campanula, euryops, and perennial dianthus.
• Fertilize your spring -blooming flowers and fall-planted annuals and perennials. Wait to feed azaleas, camellias, and rhododendrons until after bloom; use an acid based fertilizer.
• Be careful not to remove mulch from perennials too early. A warm day may make you think spring is almost here but there may be more cold weather yet to come.

• If the soil against your house dries out under the eaves where rain rarely reaches, water well during a thaw to prevent loss of plants. Remember that plants require water during the winter to replace water lost due to wind desiccation and lack of rain or snow.
• Late winter is the time to prune many deciduous trees. Look over your plants now and remove dead, dying, or unsightly parts of the tree, sprouts growing at or near the base of the tree trunk and crossed branches.
• If bird feeding has been a favorite activity this winter, order trees and shrubs which provide cover and small fruits for your feathered friends. Consider species such as crabapple and hawthorn which can help lure hungry birds from cultivated fruits, if planted on the opposite side of the yard.
• Finish pruning cane berries, deciduous fruit trees, grapes, roses, and wisteria by midmonth.
• Wait to prune spring -flowering deciduous ornamentals like forsythia and quince, and spring – flowering shrubs until after they flower.

• If you’re antsy to start gardening, you can grow micro greens and sprouts inside to reduce gardening restlessness.
• Branches of forsythia, pussy willow, quince, spirea, and dogwood can also be forced for indoor bloom. Make long, slanted cuts when collecting the branches and place the stems in a vase of water. Change the water every four days. They should bloom in about 3 weeks.
• Finalize garden design plans for the 100th time.
• Remember to handle seed packets carefully. Rubbing the outside to determine how many seeds are inside can break the protective seed coats, thereby reducing germination.
• Check your stored bulbs, tubers, and corms. Discard any that are soft or diseased.
• Repair and paint window boxes, lawn furniture, and other items that might need it, in preparation for outdoor gardening and recreational use.

The post February’s Chores and Tips appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

• Cover the garden beds that will be used for vegetables with black plastic to kill weeds and warm the soil for the weeks leading up to the time of planting. This method is also needed when you are also using the no-till method.
• Sow more rows of lettuce, carrots and beets. Here’s a hint – sow smaller amounts every month to spread out the supply overtime rather than all at once.
• Plant a set of cabbage seedlings to mature after your March and April plants mature for a steady harvest.
• Plant your Brussels sprouts, kale and tomatoes at the beginning of the month and wait until the end to plant the pepper plants. Plant the seeds of warm weather vegetables now – that’s your beans, melons, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins. Your Corn should be planted at the end of the month or left to the beginning of June.
• Control your insect problem by hand-picking and covering your row covers or by using less harmful insecticides.
• Don’t forget to plant your herb seedlings!

For your Flower Beds:

• Do not forget to continue laying down newspaper and mulching your garden beds as you clear them of weeds. This task must be done every month!
• Plant your tender plants like geraniums, fuchsias, begonias and impatiens. Plant your dahlias and gladiolus tubers mid-month.
• Prune the shrubs that need it after bloom.
• Fertilize your roses and flowering shrubs that need it! If you compost, you should have enough for most flowering plants, but a few like hydrangeas and rhododendrons may benefit from additional feeding.

Other Tasks:

• You can still plant a new lawn this month, but after this you should wait for fall. For those with existing lawns, mow, mow and mow!
• Spot weed lawns and fertilize early if you didn’t do it in April.
• Lightly sheer evergreens and hedges to your preferred shape.
• Test your watering systems. Replace any hoses and sprinklers that need it.
• If you started your seeds indoors such as peppers, tomatoes, basil and other warm weather crops, you’ll need to harden-off gradually over a period of a week to allow the plants more and more hours outside until they are able to stay out overnight.

The post May’s Garden To-Do List appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

Lawn Renovation

Lawn renovation begins with raking to the open ground to expose the soil so that new seeds can germinate. This should be followed by levelling the lawn to cover the lowest areas with new soil and then reseed the entire lawn if necessary or merely patch certain areas as required.

To ensure germination, add a good fertilizer and cover the seeds to protect them from hungry birds. Then wait for three to four weeks for the seeds to sprout. The advantage to doing this during the winter is that nature provides enough water to germinate the seeds, whereas it is obligatory to water the areas during other times of the year.

Crab Grass

Your grass is full of crab grass seed waiting to sprout in the spring, so you need to spray a pre-emergent during the last week of February, just before the temperature starts to warm up. You do not want to apply the pre-emergent any earlier than February because it could kill any new seeds that you have planted. Also, the chemicals are not as effective in the cold weather.

Pruning

Now is the time to begin pruning your trees, and your roses too! In order to improve the production of these plants, you must prune before they start to bud.

Flower beds

Take the time to remove the fallen leaves and blossoms to avoid protential fungus and molds from growing.

Planting

Planting bare-root trees and roses before spring arrives, is good because the prices are the best for new trees and bushes at this time of year.

Contact Landscape Professionals

Winter is the most ideal time to contact a landscape contractor about updating, remodeling, or totally reinstalling your yard. Most people typically wait until spring to make their initial calls, and often find that landscapers are busy and are even scheduled in advance all the way to March. Plan ahead to get the best services and prices of the year. (Click to Tweet)

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