Planning and Maintaining a Shrubbery

Rock gardens and shrubberies might be the two best ways to add dimension to your landscaping efforts without breaking the bank or giving yourself more work down the road. Just like a rock garden, shrubberies are coming back in style!

Shrubberies are actually easy to maintain and take care of as well. Shrubs are technically woody plants that are far shorter than most trees yet have a network of stems that can really liven up a backyard or add a little privacy to your home’s front facade.

Flowering broom shrubs and rhododendrons even look beautiful in their own right and don’t need too much support from your annuals and perennials to enliven your home.

That said, a lush lawn never hurts, so if you need help in that department DK Landscaping is here to lend a helping hand. DK Landscaping can also help with irrigation.

Planting a Shrubbery on Your Property

Shrubs are normally under ten feet in height and can either be evergreen or deciduous. This means that you can expect to find two classes of shrubs – one of which loses its leaves every autumn and then grows them back come springtime (deciduous) and the other kind of shrub retains its leaves on a year-round basis (evergreen).

• Leaving Room to Grow

Two other factors that you need to consider right off the bat is the maturity of the shrub that you’re interested in and, secondly, making sure that that shrub has enough room to grow without crowding out its neighbors.

The maturity and species of the shrub you go with will go a long way in determining how much space you need between each shrub and whether you’re letting in too much (or too little) sun to all of the shrubs you’ve planted as they go along in their growing cycle.

As an example, a shrub that’s much more bush-like and grows vertically like a arborvitae will require less sun, root space, and maintenance since it’s an evergreen and its stems don’t tend to blossom horizontally.

Bamboo palm or barberry, on the other hand, are actually quite low to the ground and need a little room to blossom out horizontally, so you’ll want to leave adequate space between each one and enough daylight so that the sun can reach down and nourish each individual shrub.

• Dig a Wide Hole

After you’ve picked out which shrub goes with the surrounding flowers and accessories in your yard, you need to transplant your shrubs and get them into the ground safely.

Digging a hole double the width of your shrub’s root ball is a good way to ensure that the roots get nourishment. After you’ve dug your hole then make sure to jostle the soil around slightly so that you’re not dealing with packed soil and your shrubs can continue to get nourishment.

• Transplanting the Shrub

When your hole is dug, carefully lower the shrub into place and put soil around the base. Then you’re going to want to spread out some mulch at the shrub’s base – just make sure that you go no more than six inches deep with your mulch.

• Regular Maintenance and Watering

Shrubs grow best in moist conditions that avoid too much saturation.

This means that regular watering from March to August in four-season climates should, in conjunction with some help from the sun and mother nature, provide most of the nourishment that your leucadendrons, rhododendrons, buckthorns and butterfly roses need to flourish.

An irrigation system is one of the best ways to prevent water waste and over-watering. For more on shrub maintenance and irrigation, contact DK Landscaping’s specialists today.

Tagged: DK Landscaping, landscaping, lawn care, shrubs