summer
Landscaping and the Current Crisis — We’re Still Here for You
We are living in scary times, and landscapers are affected, even if not as deeply as some other industries or individuals. Nature is oblivious to the current medical crisis affecting daily life all around the country — spring has sprung and your landscape or garden has needs that won’t wait until the coronavirus is contained […]
Take Pictures & ID Your Plants While They’re In Bloom
Landscape design is typically done in winter and spring. That makes it difficult to determine which plants in your current landscape should be kept, moved, or removed and replaced. Images of your landscape now can provide you and your designer with guidelines for planning changes during a snowy winter. Summer is a good time to […]
Slow Down, It’s Summer
Sometimes, it seems that our plants are smarter than we are. They take it easy on these hot, summer days while some people spend their summers making landscape work. If there’s nothing to do in the yard, these people pace around, mow the parched, straw-like grass twice a week and still aren’t satisfied. They are […]
Summer Care For Spring Flowering Bulbs
How did your tulips and daffodils grow this spring? Did they come up the way you planted them or were they more crowded than in previous years? If they were too crowded, you can easily dig the bulbs up, divide them and replant them. After the plants have completely died back, remove the brown leaves […]
Making Your Landscape Pollinator Friendly
Plants can make plenty of pollen but many plants have no pollen transportation system. They have no way to get the pollen to female flowers so seeds and, ultimately, new plants can be produced. That’s where pollinators come in. Insects, especially bees and butterflies, and birds, especially hummingbirds, are the major transporters of pollen between […]
Ticks & Mosquitoes Expected To Be Out In Force
Entomologists predict that we’ll have a bumper crop of dangerous insects this summer. They are referring specifically to ticks and mosquitoes. Both of these insects carry diseases that are dangerous to people. Lyme disease is carried by deer ticks. While they are called deer ticks, they actually are carried by a number of animals, especially […]
Check New Growth Before Pruning Evergreens
June and July are the best months in which to prune evergreens. That’s when new growth forms. However, like everything in nature, there are no absolutes, no definitive dates to start pruning. New growth forms at the ends of branches. When the new needles or leaves first appear, they are a lighter green than the […]
Pruning Spring Flowering Trees & Shrubs
Spring’s spectacular display of color is coming to an end. Granted, later blooming plants will continue to show color to some extent but the green curtain will close on trees and shrubs like dogwoods, cherries, rhododendrons and lilacs. They will now be attractive foliage plants until next spring,. Throughout the winter and spring, I’ve been […]
An Outdoor Survival Kit
As we start spending more and more time outdoors, please consider using these items that I call, collectively, an outdoor survival kit. • Wide brimmed hat. I know baseball caps are fashionable and more comfortable than wide brim hats but baseball caps leave your ears and the back of your neck unprotected from the sun’s rays. […]
Get Tools Ready For Fall Maintenance
If just sitting around enjoying your landscaping is making you a little antsy, I have an idea. Put this time to good use by getting your tools ready for the fall landscaping season that will soon be upon us. If the summer to fall transition is anything like the spring to summer transition, it will […]
Keeping Our World Green 