Lawn Maintenance – How We Do It
When we come to your property we are going to be completely thorough in our service.
Lawn Care service includes the following: 1. Mowing with a professional grade lightweight mower that won’t tear up your yard 2. Line trimming all the areas on the property including fences, around posts, trees, and curbs 3. Edging the sidewalks, driveways, and curbs with a metal blade edger 4. Cleaning up all grass clippings on the property.
The price you pay is determined by the sqare footage of the turf on the property. We don’t upcharge if you live in a fancy neighborhood; the price is the price, and it’s fair across the board.
Some other things to note during service: If we are servicing your property and notice an empty trash can needs to be brought back up to the house from the road then we are going to do it. We pick up kids toys before we mow and place them on the porch. We refill your dogs water bowl if we notice it getting low. These are the extras that set us apart, and it’s just normal day to day activities for us.
Hedge Trimming
Established hedges require trimming to keep them dense and compact that’s why we provide hedge trimming service. Formal hedges require more frequent trimming than informal hedges.
When to Trim Hedges
New hedges require formative pruning for their first couple of years after planting. Formative pruning is usually carried out in winter or spring.
After this, maintenance trimming is carried out, usually once a year for informal hedges and twice a year for formal hedges. Some formal hedges may need three cuts a year. Maintenance trimming is generally carried out between spring and summer.
Trimming Techniques
Hand-held hedge shears are fine for smaller hedges, but for large hedges you’ll probably find it easier to use an electric or petrol hedge trimmer. No matter what you use always make sure the equipment is sharp and well lubricated.
Always think of your safety when using a powered hedge trimmer. Wear safety goggles and sturdy gloves. Before starting, remove any obstacles on the ground. Avoid using powered tools above shoulder height and use sturdy step ladders or platforms, ensuring they are stable. Electric hedge trimmers are ideally used with a residual current device (RCD) and should not be used in damp conditions. Place the cable over your shoulder to prevent it being accidentally cut. See our advice in electricity in the garden for more safety tips.
Formal hedges
There is no need for the width of even vigorous hedges to exceed 60cm (2ft) if they are regularly trimmed. Formal hedges should be slightly tapered on both sides so that the base is wider than the top and light can reach the bottom of the hedge. This is known as cutting the hedge to a batter.
Follow these tips to ensure an even, symmetrical hedge:
Cutting straight, crisp edges by eye can be difficult. Use a taut horizontal string tied between two stout canes to act as a guide to cut the top of the hedge level. Canes or stakes pushed into the ground help with vertical lines.
To shape the top of the hedge (e.g. to an arch), cut a template of the shape required from cardboard or plywood. Place the template on the hedge and cut following the line of the template, moving it along as you proceed.
When using shears, ensure that the top of the hedge is cut level and flat by keeping the blades of the shears parallel to the line of the hedge.
When using a hedge trimmer, keep the blade parallel to the hedge and use a wide, sweeping action working from the bottom of the hedge upwards, so that the cut foliage falls away.
Mulching
Spring is coming and it’s time to start thinking about mulching your flower beds for the summer. Our flowerbed mulching services are very useful for you because natural mulch is extremely beneficial for a garden. It traps moisture in the soil so you don’t have to water as often, and it acts as an insulator so your plants’ roots don’t get too hot. (It has the same effect in the winter, keeping plants from getting too cold.) And it suppresses weeds, so you don’t have to weed as often!
What is the Best Natural Mulch?
There are a number of natural mulches out there, with hardwood bark mulch, pine straw and old hay most popular. Which is the best choice for your garden?
Using pine straw mulch
Pine straw is good for suppressing weeds. It has a tendency to form a thick mat, and woe to the weed that tries to come up through that! But pine straw is not for every garden. Over time it can turn your soil acidic and make it difficult to grow anything there. Some plants love acid soil. If your flower bed is primarily made up of these acid-loving plants, then pine straw is not only okay, it’s perfect. and use a wide, sweeping action working from the bottom of the hedge upwards, so that the cut foliage falls away.
Using hardwood bark mulch
Most people’s gardens grow plants that prefer their soil neutral to sweet (alkaline). Hardwood bark mulch is the best for those plants. It decomposes into a rich, sweet-smelling black dirt, and it looks ever so tidy while doing it. Plus, hardwood bark mulch is the best for amending your soil. The problem is, it’s expensive, especially when you’re buying it from a garden center at a dollar seventeen a bag (and they’re not big bags, either).
Using hay as a natural mulch
Old hay, on the other hand, is dirt cheap. If hay gets wet and spoils, farmers can’t use it to feed their animals anymore; it might kill them. For a gardener, however, that spoiled hay is just exactly what your garden needs. In fact, your garden will probably like it better than the fresh, unspoiled stuff and your vegetable garden will probably like it better than the hardwood bark mulch, and you can often get an entire bale of spoiled hay for just a couple of bucks.
The problem with old hay, of course, is that hay is made from grass (or grains). Grass in a garden are called weeds, and that hay is just chock full of the seeds of its kind, plus some other weeds that may have got bundled up with it. What’s a gardener to do?