Landscape Designers and Contractors - Investing in Their Experience Will Save You Money Long Term

With the onset of spring and summer fast approaching, now is the time to clean up the yard and plant shrubs, flowers and trees. Waiting later in the summer will just mean that it will be a little more expensive and time consuming. Depending upon the hopes and vision a home owner has for their property, it may not be practical to attempt all, but the simplest of landscaping.

The average individual is perfectly talented enough to plant a few plants here and there. It becomes much more strenuous and complex when the vision entails creating whole beds with mulch or stone and walkways with pavers. Even though many home owners enjoy doing a little gardening, most do not have enough free time to create a beautiful landscape from a basic lawn.

The most time consuming tasks with regards to creating a landscape design is the designing, planning and preparing stages. Once these steps are taken care of it is smooth sailing. Not really. A lot of physical labor will go into crafting an oasis.

Because of how much of a home owner's time can be consumed, very often it makes more sense to hire a landscape contractor and designer. Even though some people will just run out to the big brick-and-mortar software store to pick up a generally mediocre piece of landscaping software, it usually will not allow them to save money on design fees. These programs can actually end up costing the home owner more money over time.

Most landscape design software will allow an individual to select a variety of plants and location to install them, however, almost none of the software on the market takes into account what plant hardiness zone a property is in, nor does it account for the future growth of roots and other nearby plants. Planting particular plants to close to one another or near water pipes could have expensive ramifications in the future. A landscape designer brings experience and knowledge to a project that software just can not match.

What the investment in hiring a landscape company provides is the minimal time it will take to install all of the flower and rock beds. Where landscape contractors really save the owner from back breaking labor and extra cost is when walkways, retaining walls and water features are installed. What can easily take a home owner months to create, a landscaper can accomplish in just a week.

For more information on environmentally responsible landscape design visit, www.EnvironmentalDesignLandscape.com.

Article independently authored by Daniel P. Elliott. The content herein may or may not reflect the views and opinions of Environmental Design Landscape.

How to Buy and Plant Grass Seed

Are you tired of looking at your tired lawn or maybe you just built a new house and need to establish a lawn. Either way, buying and planting grass seed can be a bit daunting. There are many names and technical terms that are used and it can be a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, a little bit of information can help clear the picture and make the decision making much easier.

The first consideration is what type of climate do live in. There are two major regions that divide grass seeds into groups. The warm season grasses are for lawns in the south and cool season grasses are for lawns in the north. In general, warm season grasses will grow poorly in a cool climate and vice versa. However, there is a narrow transitional area going across the country where both types of grasses grow well.

Cool area grasses grow and do their best when the soil temperature is 65 degrees or less. If it gets too hot the grass will go dormant and turn brown. Warm area grasses, on the other hand, do their best when it is very hot and turn brown when it is cooler.

For cool season areas, there are several popular grass types:

    * Kentucky Bluegrass
    * Perennial Rye
    * Tall and fine fescues

For warm season areas, there also are several popular grass types:

    * Bermuda Grass
    * St. Augustine Grass
    * Zoysia Grass

Once you have decided on a grass type, it is time to buy the seed. The first thing to look for is the date on the bag. Old seed will not germinate as readily as newer seed so make sure that you are purchasing the newest bag possible. Also, be sure to check the weed seed count. It is impossible to separate all the weeds from grass seed but you should not be planting any bag that has a weed seed of .3% or more.

Once you are ready to plant, prepare the soil by breaking it up with a hoe or other implement. Just putting grass seed on bare un-prepped soil will lead to a very poor germination rate. Next, scatter the seed on the soil. You shouldn't have seeds in clumps but there also should not be large areas without seeds. The ground should be evenly covered. Following this, very lightly rake the seeds into the soil. Grass seed germinates based on the moisture content in the soil and by being in significant contact with the soil. Many people just leave the grass seed on the surface and limit the germination rate by doing so. Optimally, the seed will just be barely covered up. Next, cover the ground with straw or other similar covering. This helps the soil retain moisture. Keep in mind that a little bit of straw goes a long way - you should still be able to see the ground through the straw. Finally, water the grass seed with a fine mist to get the soil wet. Don't overdo this. Watering too much can cause the seed to wash away as will delivering the water with too much pressure.

Be sure to keep the straw in place over the next few days and keep the soil moist until the grass is well on its way.

Hopefully, these tips and information will help you along in growing a healthy lawn. Next, you need to find a good lawn mower!

For further information on landscaping and lawn care visit www.EnvironmentalDesignLandscape.com.

Article authored independently by Eric Parish. The content herein may or may not reflect the views and opinions of Environmental Design Landsape.