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How Landscaping Adds Value To Your House

If you’re wondering how to add value to your house over time, you need to look no further than your yard. A great landscaped yard has the curb appeal that will make your house more valuable and be the envy of the neighborhood.

A well-landscaped yard is one of the few home improvements that will hold value compared to consumers’ tastes in a house’s interior. A well-landscaped yard can be achieved with minimal cost if you’re willing to do some work. However, you like the idea of a beautiful yard but don’t want to put the time into it, a landscaping professional will be happy to provide the necessary services.

Here is a sample plan to improve curb appeal.

Plant a Tree – Either Shade or Ornamental

A well-placed tree will provide structure and an anchor in your landscaping plan. In addition to the aesthetic appeal, a tree can help your home be energy efficient by either shading your home or acting as a windbreak.

Shade trees, like the big leaf maple, California sycamore, willows, bishop and coulter pines, are medium sized and perfect for any front yard.  Their crowns will reach no higher than 40 feet and will provide shade for generations to come.

Besides shade trees, ornamental trees should be considered. The Central Coast region can support a number of varieties. A few examples include the white alder, which stay under 30 feet; the Western redbud will brighten the yard in the spring with small pink flowers; and another pink-flowered ornamental tree, the Madrone, also flowers in the spring, and in autumn will bear small red berries that attract birds and other wildlife.  

Whether you plant new trees or already have several on your property, you will be well served to keep them pruned. An overgrown tree loses structural appeal. Also, it can be a potential hazard, and unfortunately, that may be learned too late.

Gardens

A well-considered garden along the house or walkway is a magnet of curb appeal. These gardens will give your yard visual interest, provide a sensual contrast, and give it a welcoming vibe.

There are plenty of plants that will work, but you should consider height and color. A common mistake is to load these gardens with too many varieties. It is better to keep it to a few for the utmost visual impact. A structural plant like Agave Blue Glow will draw the eye or a colorful display of Hummingbird Sage, which is a native plant and needs little care.  

A planter garden is another element that can add value. A welcoming display of assorted pots at various heights that serve as hosts for seasonal plantings will always have something for the eye. Like most decisions with your plant selection, you will have to know if the planters will be in full sun and partial shade. Once you do, choose the plants accordingly. Apache Plume, with small white flowers, would be a perfect contrast to a bold, primary-colored planter.

Having a beautiful landscape garden will give your property curb appeal, but it just can’t be planted and then forgotten. It will need some maintenance like weeding and adding mulch periodically. A fresh layer of mulch highlights the either foliage or blooms.  It also gives the first hint to a guest or buyer that this is a home that is cared for.

A little sweat equity and a few flowers can give you plenty of enjoyment in the present and put money in your pocket should you decide to sell.

To get started on your dream landscaping design, contact us today.

Several Tips to Keep Your Plants Healthy in the Summer

Prolonged summer heat with little rain for relief can be stressful for your plants. If you want to keep them healthy, you might need to make a few adjustments to your garden care plan to keep them happy and vibrant.

Here are a few tips to keep your plants healthy during warmer months.

Water. Water. Water.

Keeping your plants and soil properly hydrated during the warmer months is paramount. However, it may require you change your watering habits.

Much like the adage “breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” it is best for a plant’s health to water in the morning. Having the roots and soil hydrated will allow the plants to handle the withering heat throughout the day.

One of the great pleasures of having a garden is turning the hose on it. While this can be a visual pleasure, it is not the best method for our your garden’s health or most efficient use of water. Instead, fill a watering can, an empty milk jug, or soda bottle with water and apply it directly at the base of the plant.

When you water with a hose or sprinkler, less water gets to where it needs to be and the spray evaporates as it arcs to the ground or as it sits on the plants.  

If you find watering in the morning burdensome, consider a drip irrigation system with a timer. This will allow water to get directly and slowly to your plants.  This slow drip helps the water travel more deeply and can be stored in the soil.   

Before setting your alarm an hour earlier tomorrow to do this, please determine the type of plants that are in your care. Some plants need more water than others, and if you have cacti or succulents, they will have different watering needs than flowers or shrubs.

Mulch & Compost are your friends during hot weather

The best way to help your plants is to build soil. It’s the key to healthy plants and allowing them to withstand weather challenges.   

So how does mulch and compost help in warmer weather?

Think about a sponge after you’ve washed the dishes. It may not be dripping wet, but it’s not dry either. Mulch and compost act like sponges to hold more water, which is especially crucial when water is at a premium. An added bonus is that a new layer of mulch will visually refresh your garden, especially as older layers break down under the dual pressures of heat and time.

Taking Cover

Another way to protect your garden and add a touch of whimsy is to use umbrellas to protect your plants. A few hours of shade might provide enough relief to keep your plants thriving.

You don’t need to buy new ones.  You can upcycle old umbrellas that might be tucked away and unused in your closet. These will provide color, and the variety will create visual interest. If you want something a bit more low-key, you can use shade cloth as a tent.  It won’t be as attractive, but it will be effective.

Thinking Ahead

Whether you have a passion for gardening or you think you do but are still a novice, you might want to take a few notes during these hot days. By paying some attention to your garden in its current condition can help you make decisions for the future.

Like everything in life, things change. A once a partial sun garden is now full sun because a tree has been taken down. Or vice versa – a tree’s crown now extends ten more feet than it did when you planted your garden. Where there was once a full day of sun, there is now a lot less.

These observations will inform you when you go to the garden center and purchase new plants. Finding the right plants will go a long way in keeping your garden looking best under trying circumstances.

With just a few changes, you can keep your garden looking healthy throughout the hottest months.

If you need some help getting your existing garden thriving again, or to have a new garden beautify your yard, contact us today.

Five Plants That Will Make Your Garden Pop

There is something awe-inspiring about driving by a house that is meticulously landscaped that causes you to rubberneck and create one more reason for distracted driving. Whether it’s flowers, shrubs or succulents, visually interesting plants with a plethora of shapes, textures or colors working in concert or contrast will create a provocative landscape garden.

Virtually all plants will pop in a properly attended garden when they have enough room to prosper and are placed in positions that draw the viewer’s attention.

Here are five easy to care for plants that will help make your garden the envy of the neighborhood.

Wait! If only it were that easy . . .

Before choosing one or any of the plants below for your garden, there are several factors involved in selecting the right plant for your location. These include, but are not limited to the amount of sun, the type of soil, and the daily attention you plan on giving your garden. If you’re new to gardening, treat it like exercise and don’t overreach. Find plants that will not be overwhelming and cause you to be discouraged.

Consulting a landscape/garden professional will supply answers to these questions (well, except for your time commitment) so your investment in time and money isn’t wasted. Of course, they will be happy to assist in the care for your garden too. Admiring a beautiful space where all the work is done while sipping your favorite beverage is not a bad way to go!

As I said – we have chosen five plants that will make your garden pop.

Agave Blue Glow

Agave Blue Glow provides an architectural element that will bring your eye to it especially if it is given some space.

This ornamental plant is perfect for a water-restricted area. On the smaller side, it grows between 1-2 feet high and several feet wide. With its red and yellow edges, the Agave Blue Glow has the versatility to work with different plants on the color palette. It prefers well-drained soil.

California Monkey flowers

Just saying the name of it brings a smile! The flower is so named because it appears as though it’s a monkey grinning on the petals. This shrub can grow up to four feet tall and can prosper in a variety of soils. It prefers partial shade and a bit more moisture than some plants. The flowers are friends to pollinators. Both bees and hummingbirds are attracted to the California Monkey flowers and provide just one more point of interest for your garden.

Delphinium Cardinale

A wildflower native to California, the Delphinium Cardinale or as it is more commonly knows as, the scarlet or cardinal larkspur, can grow up to six feet high! Between their height and the red flowers, these will surely be a standout in the garden. They will grow in either full or partial shade and prefer rocky or sandy soil. Delphinium Cardinale will add activity to your garden, since they attract hummingbirds.

Echeverias

Echeverias is a textural gem with its rosette design that draws the eye. With its fleshy blue-green flesh and edged in scarlet, Echeverias seem otherworldly and gives the garden a contrast between the textures of deciduous plants and succulents. Echeverias, like the Agave Blue Glow will work well with different colors in the garden. It can serve as a host plant for butterflies, can exist in a variety of different garden locals, and is low-maintenance.

Hoffman’s Nightshade

This perennial will not only catch your eye with clusters of purplish-blue flowers and hairy stems but your nose with its sweet fragrance. A plant native to the Central Coast, Hoffman’s Nightshade is extremely versatile since it can be grown in a variety of soils and can handle full or partial sunlight. One caveat, it can be poisonous to humans and some animals so this may be a consideration.

A little yellow, a little blue, a little red, and a lot of green will fill your garden space with color and delight.

If you want a garden landscape that will pop, contact us today.

Three Tips For Growing Better Vegetables Right Now!

Is your garden looking a little wilted? Are your peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes not quite where you dreamed they would be when you planned your garden in the winter? Are you simply watering, weeding and harvesting and wondering if this is the best the garden will be?

With just a little bit of effort, you can give a boost to your plants and perhaps even reduce the time you spend watering and weeding.

Experienced gardeners understand gardening’s real work is not with plant care but readying the soil to create a successful environment and then boosting it to keep vegetables well fed. At the start of a season, gardeners might throw a bag or two of organic soil purchased from the local garden shop, or will add some amendments just before sowing, but otherwise believe the soil will do it on its own.

After everything is planted, it’s usually a simple routine of watering and weeding.

Think of all the energy the garden has been using and the soil has expended! Taking tiny seeds and nascent seedlings and turning them into food producing machines! At this time of year, the soil might be a little tired and could use a bit of a kick. And who could blame it?

These three simple things will provide that much needed boost for your garden. Doing all of them will give your garden the boost of a lifetime. However, each of these suggestions should improve your vegetable garden’s output.

1. Compost tea

If you’re like most suburbanites, you probably don’t have a compost pile brimming with decomposing plant matter in your back yard.  However, there is a simple solution. You can purchase a bag of composted manure from your garden supply store.  

Once that is secured, you can dump your homegrown or store bought compost into your garbage can or in a bucket.  Add water and try to maintain about 1-30 ratio of compost to water. Allow the tea to steep for about 24 hours.

Water your garden with it.      

2. Side dressing

Maybe you don’t want to figure out a 1-30 ratio or rummage around for receptacle to make compost tea. However, if compost tea is like a having a double shot of espresso for your garden, side dressing is more like a single shot – it will provide a boost but not as fast.

Once again, it starts with compost.

If you are side dressing a row crop like carrots or kale, you can make a small furrow 1-2 inches deep along side of each row. Add your nutrients. Water.

For individual plants like tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, add the compost matter around the plant stem. Water.

As the composted matter breaks down, it will work like intravenous with nutrients getting into the soil slowly.

all photos courtesy of www.creativecommons.org

3. Mulch

Mulching is a common tactic at the start of gardening season, but it can be useful in mid-season. As the first round of mulch has deteriorated under the summer sun, it’s no longer doing its job as a weed restrictor or offering nutrients. A new layer of several inches thick mulch will do the trick!

If you have grass clippings, you can place them in the rows and around plants. One caveat is that you may be inviting weeds into your future garden. For this season, it will reduce weeds in your garden and help retain moisture.

No grass clippings – don’t worry. Hay can be purchased and used instead. If you have a choice, look for weed free hay.

Like side dressing, mulch will help your garden in the long term as it will help build the soil’s organic matter.

These simple tips may reacquaint you with your garden, and you’ll enjoy the bounty for your effort.

Want more help with your landscaping efforts? Give us a call 805-773-5395.

Spiny Redberry

The Spiny Redberry stays green all year and is native to northern Baja and coastal areas. It grows in the chaparral with companion plants like Coastal Sage Scrub. It’s a great choice for adding year-round color to your coastal property.

Why the Spiny Redberry Belongs in Your Garden

Spiny Redberry is an attractive, beneficial shrub. Some of its landscaping benefits are:

• It’s evergreen
• The glossy red berries brighten your yard
• Dense leaves and height of six to eight feet make it perfect for a privacy hedge
• It looks great in natural landscaping

An evergreen shrub with bright red berries dresses up your yard over the winter. The “berries” are actually drupes, small fleshy fruits containing one or two seeds. The Chumash tribe created yellow dye from the roots and used it on buckskin. Some Native American tribes ate the fruit. The Kumeyaay fed the drupes to pet mockingbirds.

The Spiny Redberry’s flowers aren’t impressive. In order for the shrub to pollinate and produce berries, you’ll need at least two plants. The leaf points are as sharp as thorns and the leaves can cause mild cases of contact dermatitis, so it’s best to keep these shrubs away from where children and pets play. The sharp leaves make the shrubs good privacy hedges, and a natural fence looks much nicer than stockade fencing. A Spiny Redberry enhances the curb appeal of your property, and the sharp leaves deter intruders and some wildlife.

The Spiny Redberry and Wildlife

Every wildlife garden should have a couple of Spiny Redberry shrubs. Mockingbirds, bluebirds and other songbirds love to dine on the fruits. If you want more birds in your yard, plant a pair of these shrubs.

The Hermes copper butterfly, a small butterfly with yellow and brown wings like autumn leaves and a furry, silver-gray body, reproduces only on Spiny Redberry shrubs. Hermes copper butterflies are increasingly rare, almost officially endangered, due to habitat loss caused by wildfires and humans building further and further into the butterflies’ traditional territories. By planting Spiny Redberries, you’re providing a home for the Hermes copper and you get to enjoy their beauty.

Landscaping with the Spiny Redberry

Environmentally friendly (or eco-friendly) landscaping involves using native, drought tolerant plants, recycled landscaping materials and solar lights. It’s also called sustainable landscaping. It reduces water use, works around your existing plants and encourages planting trees, shrubs and perennial flowers. You can use broken concrete in a tiered garden or plant perennials so that they grow inside half a damaged terracotta planter and spill out onto the ground.

Spiny Redberry and its companion plant, Coastal Sage Scrub, are ideal selections for sustainable landscaping. Coastal Sage Scrub is a short, full shrub with grayish-green leaves. It shares nutrients with Spiny Redberry during extreme droughts. Both look great as part of rock gardens, grow in rocky, sandy soil and prevent soil erosion.

Things to Remember:
• Wear gardening gloves when watering or pruning Spiny Redberry
• Plant multiple shrubs together
• Keep a water source close to shrubs for wildlife

Contact us to inquire about our stock of Spiny Redberries.

7 Household Plants with Benefits You Didn’t Know About

Seven Household Plants with Benefits You Didn’t Know About

We bring plants into our homes, give them as gifts and take them to invalids. Is there more to the keeping and giving of houseplants than simple beauty and a little cheer when you can’t get outside? After you read about some common beneficial houseplants and herbs, you may look at the plant on your desk differently.

Houseplant Air Filtering Benefits

Trees absorb harmful carbon dioxide-based pollutants and recycle them into oxygen. Houseplants do the same. We learn more every day about the potential dangers of a polluted home or workplace. Everything from carpet to fabric softener emits some degree of chemical pollution. Some of the best plants for cleaning the air in your home are:

• Boston Fern
• Spider Plant
• Chrysanthemum (Garden Mum, common)
• Snake Plant (Snakeplant)

You probably have a Boston Fern hanging on your porch or patio. Bring it indoors. This household standard is perfect for the kitchen and doesn’t require direct light. Another good spot for a Boston Fern is the laundry room.

Spider Plants are frequently seen in offices. Does your co-worker pour on the cologne or use scented laundry detergents? Add Spider Plants to your work area. They help remove formaldehyde and xylene from the air.

Chrysanthemums make great gifts because they’re hardy and, when trimmed properly, can flourish inside all year. They add color to any room. Cuttings are easy to root in water. One chrysanthemum can lead to a whole window full of beauty, and cleaner air.

You may have a Snake Plant and not even know it. They have tall, sturdy, pointed leaves. The leaf color varies from grass green to true green, striped with white. It’s a good plant for the office because it will still be healthy if no one waters it during your vacation. Snake Plants like a dry environment.

Other Houseplant Health Benefits

Some of your favorite plants clean the air and have additional health benefits. Others are healthy and tasty. Our suggestions are:

• Aloe Vera
• Mint
• Basil

Got a minor cut or burn? Snap off the tip of an aloe leaf and apply the gel. Aloe works its air-cleaning magic at night, so you may like to keep a plant in the bedroom as well as the kitchen.

Mint repels insects outdoors and indoors. Keep a plant in a sunny kitchen window. Pinch off leaves, freeze in ice cubes and add to your drinks.

Basil is delicious, easy to grow in windows that receive full sun most of the day and has anti-inflammatory benefits.

A Healthy Indoor Garden

The plants discussed here are ideal for experienced gardeners and people who just want a few plants around the house and kitchen. They’re easy to maintain. Plants from your landscaper are healthier than those from big box stores.

For a well-rounded indoor garden with a variety of health benefits, contact us. We’ll work with you to find plants that suit your lifestyle.

Things to Remember:
• Most air-cleaning plants need lots of light
• Keep humidity-loving plants in the kitchen or bath
• Plants and herbs aren’t substitutes for medical care

Contact us to learn about our selection of beneficial houseplants.

What Plants and Flowers Are Known to Cause the Most Allergies?

Allergies to plants are on the rise. Adults who have never experienced allergy symptoms are suddenly reaching for tissues and making appointments with allergists. Whether allergies are a new problem for you or you’re used to sneezing and itchy eyes, this info about the worst plants for allergy sufferers can help you make the best of spring and summer.

Pollen

Intensely fragrant flowers may make you sneeze, but that’s a reaction to a strong scent. Pollen causes allergy symptoms. Indications of serious plant allergies are asthma and tightness in the throat. See your doctor if you have difficulty breathing, new allergy symptoms or your allergies worsen.
Skin reactions after handling a plant are caused by toxic oils. See a doctor for any skin problem like hives or a rash after touching a plant.

The Worst Plant Pollens

The worst and most pervasive plant pollens come from trees and grass. You can’t get away from tree and grass pollen. Tree pollen is at its height in spring. Grass pollen is a problem from spring through summer. All you can do is be prepared with allergy relief medications, avoid parking your car directly under trees and try to stay inside when someone is mowing grass. 

Trees and grasses with particularly irritating pollens are:

• Elm
• Maple
• Mulberry
• Oak
• Pecan
• Bermuda grass
• Mountain cedar
• Rye grass

If you’re highly allergic to mold, make sure to have dead leaves removed from your yard so that they don’t decay and produce molds that will make you miserable in the fall.

Wildflower Pollens

Your landscaper can remove irritating wildflowers from your property. That may alleviate some of your allergy symptoms and enable you to enjoy your yard and patio. Some of the worst wildflowers for allergy sufferers are:

• Pigweed
• Ragweed
• Daisies
• Forsythia
• Sunflowers
• Wisteria

Pigweed, also known as stinging nettle, is an unattractive wildflower second only to ragweed in terms of highly allergenic pollen.

Goldenrod takes the rap for ragweed’s ferocious allergy-inducing pollen. The plants look similar, and goldenrod is often more visible, making it seem to be the source of your allergy.

If you have allergies, you may want to avoid daisies. Even Gerbera daisies can make you sneeze.

Forsythia grows wild but is also a popular flowering shrub used in landscaping. It flowers in late spring and is a major cause of plant allergies.

Who doesn’t love sunflowers? They grow wild along roadsides and are used to edge vegetable gardens and fences. Most people don’t know that they’re a major source of allergen-producing pollen.

Beautiful blue wisteria is another landscaping shrub that can wreak havoc on allergy sufferers. Wisteria grows wild as a vine and can be abundant. Removing it from your property means digging up the root, and if you’re already ill from allergies, it’s a job for a pro.

Things to Remember:
• Trees and grasses are the worst sources of pollen
• Skin and breathing reactions to plants require medical attention
• A landscaper can remove bothersome wildflowers

Make this year easier for the allergy sufferers in your family by setting up an appointment to remove problematic plants.

How to Grow Award-Winning Roses?

Growing prize-winning roses is a skill developed over time. Before your roses can win awards, you must learn what goes into creating the perfect bloom. These tips will help you go from a casual rose gardener to a proud pro.

What Do Roses Need?
Roses need three essentials to flourish. They are:

• Sun
• Perfect soil
• Support or height management

Roses love the sun. Plant your roses in an area of your garden that receives full sun all day. If that’s not possible, place roses on the east side of your garden.

Before planting roses, test your soil’s pH. Your landscaper can perform the test for you. The best roses grow in soil with a pH between six and seven.

This means that your soil is slightly acidic to neutral. The low end of neutral on the pH scale, 6.5 to 6.6, gives you the best chance of prize-winning roses. Your landscaper can advise you on ways to bring your soil to the perfect pH.

Shrub roses, or rosebushes, may need the support of rose stakes. Prune roses after the last frost and remove dead wood when shrubs begin producing.

How Do I Care for Roses?
Roses need care to produce a winning flower. The basics of rose care include:

• Watering
• Fertilizer
• Aphid control

In addition to an inch of water per week at the base of the plant, roses need a weekly light bath. You can give your roses a shower on a sunny day. Use the light setting on your garden hose nozzle. If you’re only tending a couple of shrubs, you can use a large spray bottle.

Landscapers advise using fertilizer on roses no more than every six weeks.

If your roses have leaves with holes, are dropping petals or just not thriving, look for tiny, pale green aphids on the stems and undersides of leaves. An inexpensive, old-school solution to aphid control is to combine one part dish soap and three parts water in a spray bottle and spray stems and the undersides of leaves regularly. The dish soap should be the regular type, not “ultra,” degreasing or antibacterial.

What Type of Rose Should I Grow?
Prize-winning roses don’t only come from shrub roses. Other varieties to choose from are:
• Miniature roses
• Climbing roses
• Tree roses
• Groundcover roses
For prize-worthy shrub roses, prune and leave only four canes (branches) on the bush for the largest blooms.

You can grow miniature roses in extra-large planters on sunny patios.

Climbing roses are probably the easiest for beginners wanting to break into rose-growing competitions. You’ll need a sturdy wooden trellis.

Tree roses are spectacular landscape elements. They require some expertise in height management and pruning.

Take care to keep fertilizer off the leaves and blooms of groundcover roses to avoid burns. Water with a hose or sprinkler set to the lowest setting. Be careful not to overwater.

Things to Remember:
• Roses need sun
• Soil pH must be neutral
• Keep an eye out for aphids

Are you ready to grow your own prize-winning roses? Contact us today to see how we can help.

What’s the Best Way To Clean a Backyard Pond?

Water elements are the jewels in your landscaping crown. People love backyard ponds for many reasons.

Some homeowners just enjoy the look of a pond, while others have always dreamed of a koi pond.

If you’ve designed your landscaping to create a relaxing atmosphere, a pond is the perfect place for enjoying nature.

Like all landscaping elements, ponds require cleaning and maintenance.

Before Installing a Pond

A pond comes with responsibility. Some things to think about when planning your pond are:
• Wildlife
• Mosquitoes
• Plant life
• Maintenance
• Location
• Filtration systems

Backyard ponds are great landscaping features and enjoyable for the whole family.

Just be prepared for frequent maintenance.

First Steps

The first thing to ask your landscaper is what part of your property is most suitable for a pond.

You should place your pond in an area of your property that’s level and shaded or partially shaded.

You should discuss mosquito management with your landscaper.

Dragonflies will find your pond and eat mosquitoes, as will frogs and bats, and wildlife will drink there, especially during periods of drought.

We strongly recommend against using insecticides that could harm beneficial wildlife.

Use pond-specific enzymes instead.

Insecticides may also harm natural aquatic plants and plants like water lilies that you add to your pond. Filtration systems make cleaning easier and discourage mosquito breeding.

Cleaning Your Backyard Pond

Decorative ponds without koi should be cleaned in the spring.

Don’t forget frogs and frog spawn.

Clean your pond before frog spawn appears.

Frogs are beneficial, insect-controlling backyard wildlife.

Experts advise letting your established pond go as long as five years between cleanings.

The key to a clean, healthy pond is to think of it as a small swimming pool and use small nets to remove anything that can rot and spoil the water.

Cool temps (under 70F) are best for pond cleaning day.

Fish are easier to move on a cool day rather than a warm day.

Your landscaper may also suggest removing floating decorative plants to avoid damage.

Never totally drain your pond.

Leave a few inches of water, and don’t forget that you’ll need to replace pond enzymes as well as water.

Cleaning a backyard pond is a task that takes up most of the day, but much of that time is gradually refilling the pond.

Check the water temperature before and after cleaning.

When the water is back to pre-cleaning temp, you can safely replace plants and koi.

Don’t discard all the “dirty” water because it contains good bacteria that your pond needs.

Are You Ready for Koi?

Koi are gorgeous creatures that require feeding and extra care.

Koi ponds are spectacular, but you don’t have to add fish to your backyard pond to make it attractive and interesting.

Things to Remember:
• Pond cleaning should be infrequent
• Clean decorative ponds in spring
• Ponds with fish should be cleaned on cool days

If you want a backyard pond for your yard contact us at (805) 773-5395.

Is Your Landscaping Ready for Spring?

Stormy winter winds off the ocean have done a number on your property. Your yard needs spring-cleaning. Where do you start? We’ll help you get your landscaping ready for spring with lists and tips prepared by pros.

Start Here

Walking your property is the first thing to do when preparing your landscaping for spring. Look for:

• Damaged trees
• Hardscape deterioration
• Lightning damage

Broken tree branches, damage to retaining walls and stone pathways and non-working lights are dangers to you and your family and should be addressed first. We recommend hiring a professional landscaper handle these problems. Landscapers have the equipment to deal with broken branches in the tallest trees. Broken or dead branches and trees must be removed before they fall and leave you with an expensive roof or car repair.

A retaining wall with a foundation crack is a disaster waiting to happen. Scheduling an immediate repair will prevent a huge cleanup and the time and expense of rebuilding a collapsed wall.

Outdoor lighting always needs maintenance after a harsh coastal winter. If you have extensive lighting, let someone else do the job of cleaning fixtures and repairing and replacing components.

Sprucing Up Your Landscaping

When you’re going over your property, keep an eye out for major eyesores and problems like:

• Ragged or overgrown shrubs
• Areas of dead grass
• Holes in the ground
• Damaged fencing

Pruning and shaping up shrubs is an early spring necessity. Getting your shrubbery back in shape will give your landscaping an immediate lift and make the plant grow fuller foliage and more flowers.

A landscaper can overseed thin grass or seed an area with no grass. Landscapers can also protect grass seed from birds, squirrels and other wildlife.

Speaking of wildlife, holes in the ground mean that something is tunneling. The tunnels could be moles or rats. They could also be snake holes. Note where they are and show them to your landscaper. In addition to possibly housing vermin, extensive tunnels can cause soil collapse and injuries.

A damaged fence reduces your home’s curb appeal and doesn’t do its job of keeping your kids and pets in your yard and other pets in their own yards. If your fence is painted or stained, it may need cosmetic attention after a winter of scouring winds.

Improving Your Landscaping

Common post-winter landscaping issues are:

• Dead plants
• Soil erosion
• Additions to landscaping

You can address soil erosion in a couple of ways. You can replace soil, plant shrubs that help prevent erosion or do both. Everyone loses a few plants over winter, so planting flowering shrubs or attractive grasses is a good idea.

Have you been thinking about additions to your landscaping or even “redecorating?” Now is a great time to start prepping flower and garden beds and adding new plants.

Things to Remember:
• Look for dangerous winter damage
• Up your property’s curb appeal
• Deal with soil erosion

Appointment slots are filling up fast. Call or email us to reserve your time.