Posts Tagged lawn care
About Watering Lawn After Mowing
Engaging in watering lawn? As the weather heats up, more people will be venturing out into their yards to mow, plant, trim, and generally get things spruced up. Mowing the lawn becomes an almost constant chore from the time the dandelions pop up in the spring until the leaves fall in the autumn. Whether you choose to mow your own lawn or hire experienced professionals, you may have some questions about watering your lawn after mowing.
Setting a Schedule for Mowing
While mowing and watering are two separate chores which should both be scheduled, it’s important to leave room for flexibility for the days of drought and when it pours. The lawn needs mowing when the grass reaches a certain height and watering when the grass is dry. Those two events may or may not occur at the same time. Establishing a schedule to address these needs will help you make sure you aren’t wasting water or time. You should mow when grass reaches a height of about 3 to 4.5 inches. When it’s tall enough, trim it to about 2 to 3 inches. Depending on the season and type of grass, you may need to schedule mowing as often as every 5 days.
Setting a Schedule for Watering
Schedule your watering so that grass gets about 1.5 inches of water per week during the growing season. Time of day is also important to consider. Morning is an ideal time to water because it allows the grass to soak up the water before the heat of the day. Watering in the middle of the day wastes water because the sun speeds evaporation. In addition, watering too late in the day leaves insufficient time for the water to soak in before it cools off at night, potentially leading to fungal growth or other disease.
Knowing When to Water by the Color of Your Grass
Determining that grass needs water is a little tricky, but there are some things to look for. Grass that fades from bright green to a dull, bluish gray is probably thirsty. Also, look for signs of wilting, such as curling grass blades. Another trick is to look for footprints in the grass after you’ve been walking in the yard. Hydrated grass will spring back more than dried grass so, if you can see that you’ve left a trail, it’s time to water. One foolproof way to know if your grass needs a drink is to use a simple moisture meter, available at many garden stores. Or, utilize a rain gauge so that you know how much natural precipitation has fallen during the week.
A Pristine Lawn Takes Time and Attention
So, should you water after mowing? The simple answer is yes, but only if your grass needs the moisture. If you’ve had a rainy week and the grass isn’t showing footprints or other signs of dehydration, you can probably put off watering for a bit longer. If your lawn does need to be mowed and watered, make sure you schedule it for early in the day to avoid moisture evaporation and problems with disease. Don’t water your grass before mowing. Wet grass tends to clump together on the lawn which could suffocate the grass underneath or promote fungal growth. Also, it could clog up your mower.
Mowing is an essential aspect of home maintenance. A freshly-mowed lawn looks great, feels wonderful on bare feet, and helps keep invasive weeds in control. To handle all of your mowing needs, get in touch with the professionals at DK Landscaping today. You can trust us to keep your yard looking great for all seasons.
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.
The Necessity of Irrigation
You want an awesome lawn. When you invest in landscaping service, you expect your lawn’s greenery — your greenscape — to remain beautiful and awesome for a very long time. Despite the fleeting nature of plants, maintaining a beautiful greenscape throughout the year is very possible. To this end, one of the most important things for you to do is to have an irrigation system installed. Although these systems are often only thought of as something for growing crops, irrigation is actually a necessity for your lawn. This isn’t just a matter of watering your plants either. Let’s take a look at why irrigating your lawn is so important for it’s health.
Irrigation Makes Your Greenscape More Durable
Rainwater and hand-poured water only moisturize plants at the surface level. Their roots, however, go very deep into the ground. This means that under normal circumstances, the bottom of your roots are extremely dry. That’s like only dipping your legs into the pool on a 100 degree day, while leaving your torso to be burned by the scorching sun! Such dryness makes it a whole lot harder for your plants to resist tougher conditions, because in addition to having dry roots, they won’t be able to gather up enough water for their plant bodies.
Irrigation solves this problem by collecting water and sending it straight down to your plants’ roots, resulting in a wet, sturdy greenscape.
Irrigation Makes Sure That Your Greenscape Evenly Grows
A bright, healthy lawn can still look patchy. This happens when your lawn gets different amounts of water in each area. When this happens, some plants are bound to grow way faster than others, resulting in an ugly, patchy appearance for your lawn. This sucks!
Irrigating your lawn lets you evenly distribute the water that gets into your lawn. This way, the patches of grass near the patio will look exactly the same as the strips of grass lining the patio.
Irrigation Protects Your Greenscape From Droughts
California isn’t the only place that has had water problems in the past. You don’t have to be in a desert to end up in a drought. In fact, low rainfall can happen just about anywhere — unless you live inside of a rain cloud! When a drought happens, your lawn’s greenscape will be among the first things to be harmed. This is because plants rely on water even more than we do to live long, healthy lives.
A good irrigation system can fully protect your lawn’s plants from a drought by spraying water on the plants regularly, even if it doesn’t rain all season.
Irrigation Reduces Your Workload
Even if you have two green thumbs and green big toes, maintaining a lawn isn’t easy. One of the hardest parts of this process is making sure that your plants get all of their proper nutrition. An irrigation system handles the lion’s share of the workload needed to keep your plants healthy, because they will provide them with all of the water that they need on a daily basis. In fact, if your lawn has plants that crave more water than usual, your irrigation system can send plenty of water to your plants multiple times per day.
Irrigating Your Greenscape Takes The Worry Out of Lawn Care
Having an awesome lawn is your goal. Achieving that goal shouldn’t be such a hard thing to do. By investing in a lawn irrigation system, you will make sure that your lawn is absolutely awesome at all times. Contact us to learn more about the benefits of lawn irrigation, and what types of systems are available.
Lawn Treatment Tips to Prevent Crabgrass & Dandelions
Nothing ruins a lawn’s uniform, well-manicured appearance like dandelions and crabgrass. These invasive weeds make a lawn look shabby and poorly maintained — and when they set up shop, they can be a nightmare to remove. Thankfully, these lawn treatment tips will help you prevent crabgrass, dandelions and other unsightly weeds from taking residence in your yard.
Keep Your Grass Long
Crabgrass seeds in particular germinate with exposure to sunshine. One of the most useful lawn treatment tips you can follow is to set your lawnmower’s blades so they’re as far off the ground as possible. You’ll have to mow your lawn more often to keep it looking good, but the resulting tall, thick grass growth will shade the ground better, and keep crabgrass seeds from germinating.
Fertilize Your Yard
Make sure you fertilize your lawn at least once a year. This is one of many lawn treatment tips that you should be following, even if you don’t have a weed problem! It’ll help your lawn grow in thicker and stronger, which will allow your grass to compete better with any dandelions or crabgrass that tries to take root.
Reseed Your Lawn
Weeds typically grow in patchy areas of your lawn, where they have little competition from your grass. If you’re seeing worn spots in your yard, most lawn treatment tips advise you to reseed your lawn in fall. Make sure you tear out all existing weeds, or use herbicide on them, so that your grass can take root and thrive. Once the new grass is established, it’ll be able to deny any invading weeds the chance to take root.
Water Your Lawn Deeply
Most weeds thrive on infrequent, shallow watering. One of the most useful lawn treatment tips you can follow is to water your lawn seldom — on the order of once a week — but deeply. Your grass appreciates this better than your weeds do. It’ll give your lawn the chance to soak up all that delicious moisture, and build a strong root network that can resist invaders. As a bonus, that healthy root network will be more resistant to high temperatures!
Use a Pre-Emergent Herbicide
Many people may balk at applying herbicides to their lawn, so this is one of the lawn treatment tips that’s most useful if your lawn continues to suffer from weeds, after you’ve taken other options. Pre-emergent herbicides are highly specialized weed killers, so they won’t kill existing weeds effectively. Rather, they keep seeds from germinating, so they work best when applied in early spring or late autumn, and only when you’ve successfully followed other lawn treatment tips to remove crabgrass and dandelions from your yard. When you’re choosing a herbicide, always be sure to follow all instructions on the package carefully.
Removing noxious weeds like crabgrass and dandelions, when they’re established, can be a real pain. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so follow these lawn treatment tips and put bothersome weeds out of your mind!
5 Steps to Choose the Best Landscape Maintenance Services
If you are looking for the best landscape maintenance service, finding it will take more effort than merely looking in the phone book. The unique nuances and needs of your property, as well as the niche of each company will go a long way in determining which landscape maintenance provider to choose.
Don’t Get Hooked by a Landscape Maintenance Low Price
Some landscape maintenance services will submit a very low bid in an effort to win your job. However, these bids are often accompanied by low quality project results. Look for bid contractors who will use high quality materials and safe equipment at all times. The quality of the landscape maintenance service provider’s craftsmanship is always worth the higher cost.
Check Track Records
Do not hesitate to contact the prior customers, reviews and references of various maintenance services. Each should be willing to provide you with a reference list who can testify to the quality of the work. Try to find a customer who had a job performed within the past year at an equal or a greater value than your current job. This way, you will be able to make an informed comparison when deciding on which landscape maintenance service is the best for your property.
The Type of Landscape Maintenance Work
Each landscaping company has a specialty area. Some are good at any number of projects. The key is to find the one that has a history of installing or maintaining the area of your yard that needs attention. Communicate exactly the type of work that you want done and your budget limitations. This will help you narrow your search to find candidates who can handle the specific challenges involved in your nuanced yard. Keep in mind that some landscapers offer maintenance services only, so vet each company thoroughly before progressing to more detailed matters.
Qualifications
Make sure that each landscape maintenance service is properly insured so that you are not liable for accidents that occur on your property. Ask for valid proof of the insurance before work commences. Find out the professional affiliations that the companies belong to as well. If they are active in professional associations, they are more likely to stay abreast of industry trends. Then, find out of they are licensed. Those that are certified by the state will provide proper employee training and will be held to the highest legal standards.
Build a Criteria List
Contact each potential landscape maintenance service and ask them a series of questions. You can mark off whether each meets your specific criteria. The one with the lowest bids and the most check marks will be awarded the project. Your checklist should contain key requirements like a company that is properly certified, licensed and insured. Get a written contract that accounts for a project price, material list and quality guarantees before work starts. Also, be sure to ask each candidate’s references whether the companies were able to complete the projects within the originally estimated timeline. Once you have gathered all of the pertinent information, you can make an informed decision about which landscaping company to choose.
Landscape Service Niches
Each landscape maintenance service company tends to do at least one thing very well. Some do it so well that they develop a niche in the field. If you are looking for a company that handles yard maintenance, repair, irrigation and water saving landscapes, give us a call today.
Picking the Best Landscape Maintenance Services
Landscape maintenance goes well beyond regular lawn care in ways that might surprise you. For starters, if you’ve ever wondered why local parks and upscale homes look so great year round, the reason is probably regular landscaping.
From pruning and lawn care to a reliable irrigation schedule and weed-reduction services, a landscape maintenance company remains an affordable way to turn heads and quickly increase your home’s curb appeal.
Myriad Benefits of Landscape Maintenance
Contracting out your landscape maintenance services, for instance, can increase your home’s resale value by over ten percent virtually overnight. A landscape maintenance company can also assist property managers lease space and offer a more professional face to the public.
A landscape maintenance company can work to expand on what’s already great about your home’s lawn and garden as well. Services like lawn edging, mulching and irrigation significantly enhance your home’s curb appeal and can give you more reasons to take daily pride in your home.
Pruning your home’s bushes and snipping overhanging branches are additional ways that a landscape maintenance company gives value back to homeowners. In short, a landscape maintenance company that can help you get your lawn, garden and walkway in shape is a win-win for you and your neighbors.
Unique Services Available to Homeowners
If you’re somewhat fuzzy on the nuts and bolts of irrigation, mulching and the right watering schedule for your home’s soil and climate, then you’re just like millions of homeowners from around the country.
A landscape maintenance company, fortunately, has decades of experience testing for proper pH levels, installing and/or maintaining sprinkler systems, and removing weeds or unsightly overgrowth from your yard.
If a landscape maintenance company determines, for example, that your pH levels are out of whack, then a lime treatment can be used to get your lawn back on its feet.
This is all a huge boon for homeowners looking for a little extra time on the weekends as well as property managers who want to spend less time worrying and more time leasing space.
Interestingly, some studies even show that properly placed trees and plants can lower your HVAC costs by as much as one-fifth. This might seem shocking until you consider the heat gain during the hottest months – or the heating costs squandered to poor ventilation – due to a lack of shade around your home or commercial property.
From relatively simple jobs like mowing and mulching to larger projects like aeration and irrigation, a full-service landscape maintenance company is truly a one-stop-shop for all of your home’s landscaping needs.
Hiring a Landscape Maintenance Company
Although you can probably find dozens of companies with mowers and leaf blowers in your area willing to provide simple services, a landscape maintenance company can provide more sophisticated services (e.g., irrigation) that bring experience and professional know-how to bear.
Many states even require that landscape maintenance companies have licenses before offering their services to the public. This coupled with the fact that a full-service landscape maintenance company can help with pest and weed control, sprinkler systems and pH detection makes this an easy call.
To reiterate, a landscape maintenance company can help homeowners and property managers in crucial ways – improving curb appeal, enhancing your home’s energy efficiency, and eliminating pests and weeds.
If you’ve always wanted a lusher lawn, contact the professionals at Xeriscape today for more information about a host of maintenance, repair and irrigation services.
Surviving Winter Drought
Since our “official” rainy season began October 2013, Sonoma County county has seen only two inches of rain bringing us the driest season that anyone can remember in the North Bay. This has resulted in another difficult growing season for farmers and gardeners. Many cities are already implementing water restrictions and encouraging citizens to voluntarily engage in water conservation.
So what can the home gardener do to use less water, enjoy the garden more, and help the environment? Here are DK Landscapings 10 easy tips:
1) Check for Leaks and Repair– Leaks can occur for many reasons and in many parts of watering systems. Review sites weekly for “weeping” valves, sprinklers, hose bibs, etc.
2) Choose Hand Watering – over automatic irrigation when possible. The more time you spend with the plants, the more they benefit from the attention, the sooner they establish, and the less water they need.
3) Avoid Runoff – To gauge the time to run off, turn on a sprinkler zone and track the time until water runoff begins. That is the amount of run time that should be entered into the controller followed by at least 30 minutes before the next cycle.
4) Inspect and Tune-Up your Sprinkler System Monthly – Adjust your sprinkler heads to prevent water draining off your lawn and down the gutter. Reduce sprinkler run-time, and don’t be a gutter flooder.
5) Get to Know Your Meter – Your water meter is an important conservation tool. It not only measures the amount of water you use, but can also tell you if there is a leak in your plumbing.
6) Incorporate Shrubs and Trees into the garden. Once established, these deep-rooted plants require far less water than shallow-rooted perennials and annuals.
7) Learn Soil/Plant Relationships – Landscape plantings need healthy soil to grow and thrive. The more healthy a plant is, the more stress it can tolerate. Knowing soil type will help with irrigation scheduling. Being able to identify plants will indicate how to best care for the landscape as a whole. In times of drought, reducing fertilizing and pruning can help plants survive with a reduced amount of water.
8) Water – between midnight and 6:00 a.m. to reduce water loss from evaporation and wind. Water your lawn and garden in 2 or 3 short cycles rather than one long one. Watering to a depth of 4″ to 6” will encourage deeper healthier roots and allow the plants to go without water for longer periods of time.
9) Reduce the size of water features (like a pond, stream, or water fountain) to conserve water while still attracting birds and wildlife.
10) Use a Broom, not a hose, to clean your driveway, deck, or patio. Washing a sidewalk or driveway with a hose uses about 50 gallons of water every 5 minutes.
DK Landscaping specializes in water conversation, water efficiency and water management and makes it a priority when serving our clients and our community every season of the year. It is a primary consideration in everything we do, from the selection of plants to the design of irrigation systems and the equipment choices we make.
Every drop matters, and each one of us counts.
Why Choose a Professional Landscaper
Now that summer is in full swing, you might be thinking about hiring a professional landscaper to maintain your lawn. Everyone loves having a manicured lawn and weed-free garden full of blooming plants and pretty flowers, but let’s face it! Achieving that look often means spending hours into your yard and garden maintenance. And others, may just lack that green thumb needed to make their gardens thrive. That’s where the professionals of a landscape maintenance company come in. A landscape maintenance service takes care of the lawn, the gardens, the trees, the fountains and patios. If it’s in your yard, there’s a good chance a maintenance service company can build it, mow it, rake it and help it grow.
DK Landscaping provides you some of the few benefits of hiring a landscape maintenance service:
- A landscape maintenance service can save you time! By using commercial-grade equipment, it can dramatically reduce the time it takes to mow and perform other maintenance tasks. Most landscape companies will have multiple employees working on your yard at the same time, allowing them to tackle several projects at once and complete them in a fraction of the time.
- A landscape maintenance service employs professionals who know not only how to mow your lawn and weed your garden, but to also make sure your plants are healthy. They can create sustainable landscapes that not only enhance the beauty of your home but are friendly to the surrounding environment.
- A landscape maintenance service will ensure that your yard will be maintained regularly whether you are home or not. Homeowners tend to overlook their lawn and garden especially in the summer months, in favor of recreation and leisure activities.
- Many landscapers go beyond mowing grass and taking care of gardens. Some of these services include pool cleaning, building decks, installing pavers, patios, mulching, tree pruning/removal and building home irrigation systems.
- A landscape maintenance service will save a homeowner the expense of purchasing the various tools and equipment necessary for lawn and garden maintenance, tools and equipment that include lawnmowers, weeders, edgers, fertilizer, grass seed, leaf blowers, and shovels.
- And last, but not least, if you are a new homeowner and you’re just getting started, a landscape maintenance company will help you design the yard of your dreams.
Choosing the right Landscape Maintenance Service
Get references! Don’t waste time looking through the yellow pages, radio/TV ads, or mailer discounts when your best source is your neighbors and/or friends. Ask them how much they pay, what kind of jobs the service handles and if they’re satisfied with the results. If you don’t have neighbors that use professionals, you can check with local nurseries and garden supply stores. These businesses often keep lists of professional landscape maintenance service contractors.
When interviewing landscape maintenance services, ask questions! Check out the company’s qualifications and references. Reputable landscape companies are proud of the work they perform and will be happy to show you.
Finally, know the work you want to have done and know what your budget is. This will allow the company to determine its best price quote. It’s also a good idea to get quotes from several companies if possible.
Hiring a landscape maintenance service will cost you money, but the convenience and curb appeal will enhance not only your yard but your quality of life and give you peace of mind that it will get done right!
Got Curb Appeal?
First impressions are everything! The same concept holds true when speaking about your landscape. From a real estate perspective, a good first impression, aka “curb appeal” is about using your landscape to enhance the appearance of your home. Whether you want to boost your curb appeal, market the value of your home or simply want to transform your space to make your lawn & garden look pristine, DK Landscaping helps you come up with the inspiration for the look you desire and making your property the talk of the neighborhood:
Here are a few simple ways to enhance and maintain your landscape:
General maintenance: Mowing your lawn, pruning back trees/shrubs weeding, fertilizing, mulching, leaf and debris-free to watering will keep your yard looking beautiful and eye-catching throughout the entire growing season.
Visually inviting entryway: There are a lot of little things you can do to spruce up your front entryway including keeping it debris free. If you have an old, dull concrete stoop with cracks? Update to a beautiful stone stoop or porch.
Providing a focal point: Plantings, landscape lighting like lamp posts, and decorative pieces like a small water fountain are good ideas.
Colorscape: Adding a splash of vibrant annuals and perennials flowers and plants will make a big statement.
Landscaping lighting: A small yet impactful solution, outdoor accent lighting can not only enhance your yard aesthetically but also eliminate any dark, shadowy areas at night and prevent any safety hazards.
Updated driveway and/or walkway: If your driveway is old and outdated or starting to crack, updating it can have a big impact. There are pavers that imitate any stone for driveway landscaping—brick, travertine, limestone, etc. Same goes for any walkway in your yard. A new stone or paver walkway is a great front landscaping idea.
Stairways: Like retaining walls, stairs are ideal for hilly yards. Adding a staircase walkway to your sloped yard is a great way to add curb appeal—and give your visitors easier access to your door.
It is pretty easy to do many of these things yourself, but perhaps your front yard is devoid of plants and eye-catching features. You may consider planting a tree as a focal point, installing a trickling fountain, or even building a patio. In addition to these memorable details, it is important to use color to attract and focus attention on positive attributes of the landscape. This not only requires planning, but you may need a landscaping company to see some of these designs through.
Having good curb appeal makes selling your house easier, as potential buyers are looking for an aesthetically pleasing home. But don’t brush off having curb appeal even if you are not putting your house on the market. An attractive landscape design is always important!
Protecting Your Landscape From Frost Bite
The temperatures in Northern California are beginning to drop which means winter will be before us, before we know it. Night time temperatures that get down to freezing and below will damage some trees and plants if you don’t take precautions against frost. These low temperatures can begin late November and continue through February and beyond.
DK Landscaping helps you prepare your landscape and provides tips to protect your delicate plants from frost bite.
WINTERIZE
Fall is prime time to clean up your landscaping and remove the dead landscaping before it gets too cold. Removing dead plants can also stop the growth and spread of fungi that could infect your plants’ new growth in the spring.
PLANT
Planting trees and shrubs in the fall is a an optimal time before the first frost arrives and best time to take advantage on some great end of the season deals. Planting in the fall gives roots plenty of time to become established before the next growing season begins. Not only will you get to enjoy the changing leaves for a brief time, you will also put less stress on your young trees because of the cooler weather and rain conditions fall offers.
MULCH
Mulching can be a great first step in preparing for winter’s frost. If you are unfamiliar with mulching, check out our previous blog post called Mulch About Fall. There are many benefits to mulching your lawn and plants, especially before winter. Mulching in the fall can help protect your plant’s roots as well as help them retain moisture during the cold, dry winter.
Just a few preparations for winter can guarantee that your landscaping will come back fresher than ever in the spring.
For more information on the care of your landscape, please contact David or Kathy Lee from DK Landscaping (707) 280-3632.
