db landscape & design blog

It’s Cleanup Season

March is notoriously unpredictable. Shrubs can be crusty with snow on the first of the month (although that’s not looking likely this year!), and then, a couple of weeks later, temperatures can warm up enough for flower and leaf buds to show signs of life.

Still, some early spring cleanup tasks are sure things this time of year.  Prune away winter-killed branches to make room for new growth. Cut back spent perennials and pull up old annuals if you didn’t get around to it last fall. Then look around.  March is a good time to take stock of your yard and see if it’s time to thin out crowded beds and do some transplanting to fill in bare spots.

Here’s a checklist to tackle now to give your green patch a clean start:

1. Prune away dead and damaged branches.

Where tree or shrub branches have been damaged by cold, snow, and wind, prune back to live stems; use a handsaw for any larger than ½ inch in diameter. Shaping hedges with hand pruners, rather than electric shears, prevents a thick outer layer of growth that prohibits sunlight and air from reaching the shrub’s center. Prune summer-flowering shrubs, such as Rose of Sharon, before buds swell, but wait to prune spring bloomers, like forsythia, until after they flower.

Trim overgrown evergreens back to a branch whose direction you want to encourage.

2. Cut back and divide perennials as needed.

Prune flowering perennials to a height of 4–5 inches and ornamental grasses to 2–3 inches to allow new growth to shoot up. Where soil has thawed, dig up perennials, such as daylilies and hostas, to thin crowded beds; divide them, leaving at least three stems per clump, and transplant them to fill in sparse areas. Cut back winter-damaged rose canes to 1 inch below the blackened area. On climbers, keep younger green canes and remove older woody ones; neaten them up by bending the canes horizontally and tipping the buds downward. Use jute twine or gentle Velcro fasteners to hold the canes in place.

A pair of sharp bypass pruners makes a clean cut on both dead and living foliage.

3. Clean Up Around Plants.

Rake out fallen leaves and dead foliage (which can smother plants and foster disease), pull up spent annuals, and toss in a wheelbarrow with other organic yard waste.  Push heaved plants back into flower beds and borders, tamping them down around the base with your foot, or use a shovel to replant them. Now is a good time to spread a pelletized fertilizer tailored to existing plantings on the soil’s surface so that spring rains can carry it to the roots. Add a 5-10-10 fertilizer around bulbs as soon as they flower to maximize bloom time and feed next season’s growth. Use pins to fasten drip irrigation lines that have come loose and a square-head shovel to give beds a clean edge and keep turf grass from growing into them.

4. Have Your Lawn Treated

In warmer climates, March is a good time to add the first dose of fertilizer and crabgrass treatment to your lawn.  Also, spreading pre-emergent onto your lawn will reduce the impact & presence of pesky of spring & summer weeds.

Article by Sal Valgica, This Old House Magazine

I don’t know about you, but we CANNOT BELIEVE it’s the end of 2011 already.  This year has absolutely flown by, and thanks to all our wonderful clients we have spent the majority of 2011 extremely dusty, muddy, grass-stained or a delightful combination of all three .

Our install team has had a busy year with some really wonderful landscape & hardscape installations that we can’t wait to share on our website.  While I kept wanting to grab the camera and head out to document all the drastic changes, it seemed like the next project and the next week kept rolling right along until I looked up and somehow it’s December already.  Not exactly the prettiest time of year to capture a flourishing landscape.  I’m determined not to let the busyness of this spring keep me from documenting these beautifully renovated landscapes “in bloom” and giving our portfolio its much needed update.  So, if you’re reading this and DB Landscape & Design has installed a project for you in the past couple of years, I’ll be calling you in April or else jumping over your fence with my camera! And my apologies for the extreme tardiness-

On that same note, I’ll try not to let another month year (oops!) go by before posting some landscape articles, tips or photos that might be of interest.

In all sincerity, Darren and I want to thank our clients for the privilege of your trust and loyalty over the many years.  Some of you have grown with us from a one-man-show and we are especially grateful for you! 2011 was full of fantastic projects and wonderful new friendships, and, while it was a whirlwind for us, we LOVE what we do on a daily basis and can’t imagine doing anything else.   Happy New Year!!

Landscaping improves home re-sale value

If you’re trying to sell your home in this slumping real estate market, improving the landscaping can increase curb appeal as well as improve your home’s value.

Real estate experts say that mature trees and a professionally designed, installed & maintained landscape can improve your home’s value by 10 to 25 percent, while poorly landscaped properties detract from the value of the home.

Even if you’re not currently trying to sell your home, now would be a good time to begin paying attention to your investment if you think you’ll be moving any time within the next few years, since some landscaping takes a while to mature.

Here are some basic steps to improving your home’s value through landscaping:

•Mature trees add significantly to the value of the home because they can provide shade and privacy in addition to adding to the aesthetic appeal. But because trees take years to mature, they should be one of the first landscape additions homeowners should make.

•Well-maintained lawns are critical to an overall tidy appearance. If your lawn is patchy or has bald spots, you may need to invest in a lawn renovation. Most lawns need regular seeding, aerating and fertilizing for an overall healthy appearance. At the minimum, lawns should be mowed regularly, which can mean up to twice a week in the peak growing season to avoid removing more than a third of the blade in one cutting.

•Prune overgrown shrubs, but try to avoid over-pruning into unnatural-looking ball or square shapes.  An excellent resource for proper pruning is the American Horticultural Society Pruning and Training.

•Weed beds and re-mulch for a finished look.

•Remove weeds between pavers and in concrete cracks.

•Tidy the yard by removing anything that doesn’t belong there. Store unused children’s play equipment, bikes and toys. Empty and toss dead plant containers. Get rid of junk, trash or anything else that is cluttering up the lawn.

•Plant annuals for color that lasts throughout the growing season.

•Sweep porches, decks and other hard surfaces. If needed, power wash the house, wood and concrete surfaces to remove caked-on dirt and mold.

Article by Robin Ripley, Gardening Examiner, 1/4/2009

To all our valued clients and friends, we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas & a healthy & happy New Year!!

If you are like us then you are ready for a clean slate where your lawn is concerned.  The spring & summer seasons have been hard on cool season turf this year- first a very wet spring which interfered with many treatment applications resulting in an abundance of weeds, followed by an extremely hot & dry summer which stressed out the turf.  Thankfully, it’s time to think about aerating, overseeding & fertilizing for a fresh start and a jump on next year’s lush, green lawn.

Why aerate & overseed? Aerating helps promote grass root health by encouraging air circulation to the roots and letting nutrients seep down into the holes directly onto the root.  Aerating also improves soil structure by loosening up the soil & relieving compaction, allowing compost & water to access the root much more easily.   Overseeding thickens the lawn & covers bare spots.  By performing this routine lawn maintenance in the fall, we allow the grass seed to focus on root production over the winter, resulting in a spring lawn that is lush, green & strengthened for the summer heat ahead.

Call us for free estimate on this beneficial fall maintenance item!

Welcome to our blog!

We plan to use this space to share landscaping advice, articles of interest, current project details, landscape design discussion & seasonal to-do’s.  We hope you’ll find it useful and check back often.