Tip, Tricks and Techniques

Add Some Color

Adding some colorful annuals (petunia, geranium, marigold, etc.) can add "pop" to your landscape. Annuals are also relatively inexpensive, so it's a valuable way to make your landscape look great from the street.

Refresh That Mulch!

Colored mulch is another awesome and economical way to make your landscape look better.

The color fades over time, but it's not much more expensive than mulch that isn't dyed. Common choices are red, black and brown.

Black provides a good uniform background, while red complements brick homes and contrasts sharply with green plants with an eye-popping visual effect.

Dethatch Your Lawn

A well-maintained lawn will sometimes develop a layer of dead grass clippings under the healthy grass. It’s only bad for your lawn if it gets too thick, but it’s an eyesore even when there isn't very much and makes your lawn look, well, kind of dead. Having your lawn dethatched will remove that layer of dead grass clippings.

Clean Up Your Yard

An oft-overlooked thing is simple Spring cleanup of lawns. Over the winter tree limbs break and mulch breaks down which can make an otherwise healthy landscape look downtrodden. Weeds pop up in the Spring and grow faster than your plants.

A Spring cleanup should include debris removal, weeding, and a good once over to check for any impending problems with things like standing water or dead tree limbs.

What is "Deadheading"?

Deadheading is the process by which a gardener removes the dead flowers from the plant by pinching or cutting them off of the stem. Deadheading is done for a variety of reasons such as making your garden look more fresh and vibrant by getting rid of the brown and crunchy flowers, encouraging the plant to bloom again, and preventing the plant from going to seed.

There are a couple things to consider before you decide to deadhead.

If you want to gather seed from your garden or want seed from the existing plants to germinate and fill in any clear spots, deadheading isn't the way to go as it will prevent the plant from producing seed. If your overriding concern is having a lush, green, healthy looking garden then you will almost certainly want to deadhead.

There are a couple of different ways to deadhead flowers. One is to pinch below the dead flower at either the first set of lateral leaves or the next flower bud if there is one, and pull off the dead tissue.

If you're deadheading a plant, like a lily, that doesn't have lateral leaves then you remove the stem as close to the ground as possible.

Another method, and the one I personally prefer, is to use long-bladed pruning shears or scissors. I find that they make a cleaner cut and cause less tissue damage to the plant.

However, it's a lot easier to make a mistake and remove a healthy leaf, stem, or bloom when you're using pruners or scissors so make sure that you're paying close attention.

Now, no two species of plants are the same and there's no real deadheading "rule of thumb" that covers all different kinds of plants and I don't have the room here to list them all. If you're not 100% sure it always

Getting Ready for Spring!

Getting your garden going in the Spring can seem like an overwhelming task. After the long winter, there's cleanup to be done and weeds to be pulled, not to mention remembering where you planted your bulbs!

To help with this daunting task, we've prepared a checklist of things to do in the Spring to get your garden going early to help you have the best-looking house in the neighborhood.

Mind the Frost

According to NOAA's National Center's for Environmental Information, the average last frost date in our area is May 10th, but keep in mind that this is a guideline and our last frost could be before or after that date. This guideline is useful for planning your garden purchases.

You could, for example, hold off on buying anything that isn't frost tolerant like annuals until after that date.

Remove Last Year's Mulch and Replace

Mulch that's been overwintered tends to be broken down and gross looking. If you're like most people and want your garden to look it's best, we recommend that you replace your mulch every spring ESPECIALLY if it's colored mulch.

After a full year of being exposed to the sun and rain as well as temperature swings it will have lost much of its brightness and perhaps more importantly, its ability to retain water and nutrients and keeping your garden soil from being washed away by wind and rain.

If your mulch is very deteriorated, you can simply mix it in with the top layer of soil and cover it with your brand new mulch. This way, it will keep decomposing and feeding your garden with the organic material and nutrients it craves and needs to look it's very best!

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