Northscape

02/27/2015

02/27/2015

02/27/2015

02/27/2015

11/20/2014

Winter Planting Guide

Here are a few guidelines I use in my own company.

Native trees and shrubs – you can be very successful planting these however be mindful of your 10 day forecast and try not to plant during or before a freeze. Additionally minimize root disruption while planting. Plants are basically dormant at this point and may not have the ability to heal.

Tropical’s – I never recommend planting anything tropical this time of year.

Grass/Sod – Northscape has been very successful planting sod this time of year. Like with trees and shrubs be mindful of the weather. The grass you buy will be dormant and look dead. It is important to get alive and disease free sod from a reliable source .

Water – plants can dry out and die during the winter months from lack of water. We recommend not letting plants go 10 days without water. Additionally water can be a great insulator when absorbed in roots a day or two before a hard freeze.

Pruning – It’s too late to prune most trees and shrubs during winter, if you must prune be mindful of the weather forecast.

Feel free to ask me any questions, if you need landscaping I would appreciate you considering Northscape.

04/09/2014

Because of all the rain we have had the past few months I wanted to take the time today to post a video of a drainage project we did two years ago. I took this video two weeks ago and wanted to share with everyone how much water can fall in an extreme rain. The pipe in the video is a 10” pipe and is about a 3rd of the way full with a steady flow of water coming out. That is roughly 80 gallons of water a minute! That gives you an idea of how much water can come down on your property. Now, rains, like the one we had a couple weeks ago are not a regular occurrence but when they do happen they can be damaging. The amount of water that comes off of a roof during a storm can be tremendous. Something as simple as tying in gutters in to a drainage system can be a huge help. If you have a lawn that stays wet or has drainage issues a lot of times it can be solved relatively inexpensively. In fact, most of the drainage systems that we install cost under a thousand dollars. Standing water can be damaging to not only a landscape but also the foundation of a home, things that can cost well over a thousand dollars to repair.



We can install several different types of drainage systems. In most applications a simple 4 inch pipe and maybe a few catch basins is all that is needed to solve the problems and get rid of your headache. In more severe applications, it may require additional help to eliminate the problem. Such as installing a french drain or pump system, and in some cases up sizing the pipe to insure the system can hold the capacity of water flow.



Installing drainage is not as big of a task as one may think in most cases. When we install a new drainage system we make sure to either save the grass we have taken up to put back down when we finish, or we have some ordered and on the way to get there upon completion. When we finish the project we leave as little remnant of us being there as possible. Most drainage projects are completed in one day or less.

02/10/2014

This has been a very harsh winter and I have many customers concerned with whether or not to cut back certain plants this month.

Many people trim roses in February so I am going to start there.
Normally Valentines day is a good mark to cut back roses in zone 8(b) where we live in. However, if you are concerned with how cold it has been this winter and what lies ahead there are other ways to determine whether or not it is time. Forsythia is a flowering shrub that blooms in February and when it blooms it is a good sign that to start thinking about pruning back your roses. If you are not familiar with a Forsythia then watch for when the leaf buds begin to swell on your rose plants, meaning the bumps on the canes get larger and reddish in color.

For perennials that were not cut back in the fall consider waiting later in February or even into march to cut back, there is no rush. I would definitely encourage waiting a little longer to cut back some of the less cold hardy plants. The foliage, while dead, helps to insulate the heart of your plants. If you have already cut them back do not fear they will still make it. If you see that there is a going to be another hard freeze then consider covering where you have cut with a little mulch to protect the plant. I personally do not think we will have another damaging freeze. Normally we start cutting back heavily in February and March. If you wait too long you risk cutting into new growth.

We have cut back almost all of the ornamental grasses on the properties we maintain. February is a great month to do so. Again, if you are concerned about the weather it wont hurt to wait a little longer. I always recommend my customers cut back liriopie (monkey grass) to encourage a nice clean new growth for the year. It also eliminates the liriopie from becoming to thick.

As for you lawn, it is time to start thinking about putting a pre-emergent herbicide out at the end of February into March to help prevent summer weeds.

If you are looking to install a new landscape or lawn don't be discourage by the cold weather. We install both all year round. A little cold weather is not going to damage an already dormant new lawn or landscape. The only benefit to waiting until spring is it will look better when installed. The benefit to installing new landscapes or lawns in the cooler weather is that they are still dormant and won't go into a state of shock when installed. There is also less watering and care involved when planting in the cool season.

Thank you for reading and have a great week!

If there is anything that you may have a question about or are interested in hiring us please feel free to contact me!
228-861-4419

01/03/2014

While January is not a big month to do much in your lawn or garden, there are still some important things to consider doing this month.

-If you have an area in your landscape where you have some annual color planted it may be a good time to consider re-fertilizing. Most annuals will bloom great until the soil they are planted in runs out of nutrients. We still have a good 3 to 4 months with our winter annuals. April is a good time to start thinking about pulling them up and planting something new.
-December and January are a good time to look at some different varieties of Camellias and Sasanqua because of their winter blooms. It is also a good time to plant them along with many other trees and shrubs. If you have any Deciduous fruit trees, or you are looking to get one or more, this is a great time to plant, trim, and fertilize them.
-trimming back none spring blooming trees and shrubs can also be done at this time to improve shape.

12/30/2013

Before

This was a fun project that took about 7 days and had a huge improvement. hopefully doing some landscaping in the spring to really sharpen it up.

12/30/2013

2013

11/14/2013