Category : Yard and Garden
Being in the green business I get a lot of questions from friends and family about the pros and cons of lawn services over a Do-It-Yourself program. There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained in building your lawn up yourself, and for many people (myself included), puttering around in the yard is both an enjoyable hobby and a stress reliever. For those of you considering a lawn service for the next chapter in your life I would like to share with you my “insiders perspective” about what the strengths and weaknesses of the lawn care industry are, and give you some pointers on things to look for when choosing one for yourself. I will preface this post by saying that I am not employed by any lawn care service, and have no interest in recommending any one service by name. If you are considering a lawn service, I want to give you the right questions to ask to help you find a company that will save you time, money, and environmental impact, all while building a beautiful and healthy lawn.
Now is the perfect time to build your own cold frame greenhouse for the cold weather months, so you can grow your own veggies and salad green thoughout most of the year. You don’t need a lot of know how, or space to create your own greenhouse in, and you can create a simple cold frame from treated lumber, or plywood from you local home improvement store. Plans for a winter cold frame house to grow salad greens and veggies can be as simple as this plan below.
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Unsure what grass to plant in your area of the United States? The type of seed you select does matter, and knowing which choice to make can make a huge difference in the success of your lawn over the course of several seasons.
The folks over at Hancock Seed Company have great resources, and maps of all the regions of the USA, and can match your specific area with the best grass. Find your best turf seed, or a list of grasses that will thrive in your area. Follow the link above and get a better idea of what will work in your yard!
This Red Horse Chestnut is a tree that would not necessarily have occurred in nature, but this gorgeous cultivar brings together the best of both of it’s parents, the Buckeye, and the Horse Chestnut.
Buckeye and Horse Chestnut trees are in the same family, and they both share a similar leaf pattern and flower type, but with the cross from the Buckeye Asculus pavia, and the Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum, a bright 5-8 inch pink or red flower is produced with trademark yellow throats. I particularly like this flowering variety because the flowers have such a tropical look to them, and because the ‘Fort McNair’ variety was created nearby in DC!
Hollies are standard garden fair, but to plant the healthiest hedge possible you need to mix in two types of plants.
Most plants have flowers with either male and female parts, or produce male and female flowers on the same plant, in order to fertilize themselves and produce fruit. Hollies have an unusual reproduction style in the world of botany, and individual plants are either completely male or completely female. When Hollies reproduce, both the male and female plants produce flowers, and the males pollinate the females with the help of the wind or insects. The females contain the seeds to be fertilized, so they produce the only fruit. For a hedge to produce berries, both males and females of the same species must be present in close proximity to each other to complete pollination and trigger fruit production in the female. This type of reproduction is called Dioecy, and occurs in only a very few types of plants. Hollies, Date Palms, and Willows are some of the few examples of it.
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All gardens need focal pieces, and a friend named Enyo shared a few of her favorite pieces with me this week.
Enyo is lucky enough to travel the world with her husband due to his work with a popular architectural firm. They’ve spent a few years off and on in a several different countries, and regions of the United States, and picked up some beautiful pieces of outdoor pottery, and concrete moulding along the way. Her favorite garden accents are these re-claimed concrete moulding pieces from job sites that the firm was renovating. (more…)
A bag of Scotts PatchMaster ‘Sun and Shade Mix’ will run you anywhere from 10 dollars for a five pound bag, to 25 dollars for a 15 pound bag. It is advertised to be a complete blend of seed, shredded cotton and paper fibers, and fertilizer, blended into a pellet form. This all-inclusive, quick, grass growing system is advertised to grow grass within 7-10 days, with regular watering, and to quickly fill in bare spots with turf grass. I have used this personally in my own yard, and professionally in the land care business, and with proper application this product will provide you with perfect results every time. New grass seedlings emerge often within 5 days, and continue to emerge for several weeks. The end result with Scotts PatchMaster Sun and Shade Mix, is a quick, healthy carpet of grass in any bare spot, that blends in wonderfully with the average home owner’s lawn grass varieties.
How To Use Patchmaster For Best Results:
PatchMaster is a quick and easy way to grow grass in bare patches, and erosion zones, but even it is not a miracle worker if the soil you throw it on is hard-pan and compacted, or chemically burned from winter salt, or pet urine. In areas of heavy foot traffic (more…)
‘April Kiss’ Camellia
This evergreen bush is a knock-out in early spring, a good selection to purchase if you want to swap out your plain green foundational plantings for something with more interest!
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Photo Courtesy of: respres
There’s a reason that the lawns always look so green and lush in the movies, and it’s not lens color filters either. For special occasions from backyard weddings, to family reunions, there is a 100% environmentally safe way to give your yard a deep, dark, green color in mere hours.
Lawn professionals have been using this little trick for years on sports fields, golf courses, and movie shoots, and any reputable lawn company will be able to provide you with this service at your home just in time for Spring. The secret to a deep healthy green yard is in an “iron treatment” applied to your lawn by a professional lawn company. Iron treatments are liquid applications of finely ground iron shavings that are watered into your lawn, and actually absorbed by each individual blade of grass. Once the iron is absorbed, the mineral causes a chemical reaction with the chlorophyll in the grass, and the grass begins turning a rich, dark, green within 2-4 hours. The mineral causes no harm to the environment, and the lawn gradually fades back to it’s original color in 4-6 weeks once the iron has run it’s course.
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These are the first bloomers in a winter garden, guaranteed to beat your seasonal bulbs out of the ground by at least a month! Garden centers are filling shelves with them right now, and while their blooming won’t last much longer this year, a Hellebore purchased now will be sure to surprise you with flowers from mid winter through late spring next year. Go ahead and stock up on these seasonal beauties, and I’ll tell you why you’ll love them come next winter!
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