Landscape pro tips

As the last winds of winter blow and the days become longer, it’s time to start thinking about the spring. In addition to cleaning up around the house, there are several landscaping activities that you generally want to do in the springtime. The question is, where do you start?

If you’re not sure how to tackle your spring to-do list, here are a few suggestions. These are some of the most common landscaping tasks that need doing once things start to warm up, and knocking them out early can make other landscaping tasks easier as the year goes on. Who knows, taking care of some of these items might even get you inspired to take on a larger landscaping project later in the year.

Clean Up That Winter Refuse

The winter can be rough on your lawn, with clumps of leaves that haven’t quite decayed, sticks and branches that fell in a winter storm, muddy spots where ice formed and thawed and formed again … it can all leave a bit of a mess behind. Spend some time cleaning up the mess left by winter before you get into any other tasks and you’ll find that the rest of your spring to-do list will be much easier.

Prune the Trees and Shrubs

Early spring is a great time to prune most of your trees and shrubs, since it’s before they get into a strong growth period. Early pruning allows you to shape them the way you want them to be and gives you a chance to eliminate unwanted overhangs and encroachment. If you wait until there’s new growth you can actually stunt some of that growth and make it harder to control how your trees and shrubs are forming.

Prep Your Lawn

If you want your lawn to look its best, you need to show it some love in the spring. Aerate the lawn to help break up soil packed by snow and ice in the winter, dethatch it to help it grow in thicker, and sow some seed to fill in bare spots once it’s warm enough. If your lawn has an uneven surface after the winter, bringing in a roller to go over the lawn wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Clean Up Your Flower Beds

If you’ve got flower beds around your home, chances are they could use a bit of picking up after the winter. Get rid of any damaged plants, pull any weeds or grass that tried to get established during the winter, and tidy up any debris or other crud that might have found their way into your beds. You should also pull away the winter mulch surrounding your perennials and divide them to get your beds off to a good start.

Feed and Protect

While you’re working on your lawn and your flower beds, go ahead and take the time to prep them for spring growth. Add new mulch to your beds as needed, give your lawn a nice dose of fertilizer, and make sure that all your other plants are similarly fed and protected. Everything’s going to be doing a lot of growing in the coming months, so you want to make sure that they have everything they need.

Plan Your Summer

This is also a good time to prepare for late spring and summer projects as well. If you’re going to have a garden, take the time to start prepping it now by tilling the soil, working in compost and starting some of your spring seeds indoors. If you’re going to undertake a construction project or add new features to your lawn, go ahead and start clearing the area. The work you put in now will make things so much easier later in the year.

Ready to Get to Work?

Depending on what you have planned, you may need a bit of help to get your landscaping in tip-top shape. Luckily, HomeKeepr is here it help. Sign up for a free HomeKeepr account today to connect with landscaping pros who can help you design and implement the perfect landscaping plan for your lawn.

Welcoming Your Plants Back after A Long Winter

If you’re a gardener, or at least want to be one, there’s no time as amazing as early spring. This is when your plants are starting to wake from their long winter’s sleep. The white snow and frost flowers are giving way to green grass and emerging vegetation that seems to multiply like magic day after day.

Although a lot of people sit back and wait for their plants to do whatever it is that they do in early spring, others, like you, are eager to help them be all they can be this year.

The Results of Minimum Plant Care

Many homeowners just let their plants come and go as they please. Usually, they’ve inherited the vegetation from the former owner and have little interest in gardening. It’s ok, it’s not for everyone. But, due to this minimal care for the plants, many varieties will start to die off from neglect. A slow death is still a death.

Obviously, you’re looking to do a bit more to help your plants get off to a good start. Because of this, your landscape will be healthier, live longer and produce more ornamental flowers than those of the neighbor who would have preferred a lot of grass and no plants to tend.

First Thing’s First, Reduce Your Plant’s Risk of Early Season Fungus

There are varieties of herbaceous perennials like bananas, cannas and elephant ear that can survive the winter in many climates if they’re tucked in under a layer of organic mulch that’s two to four inches deep. While mulch protects them from drying out or freezing to death when it’s cold, once these types of plants start to grow in the spring, that life-saving mulch can become a real enemy.

It’s vital that you pull back the mulch from your plants every few days to check for green growth above ground. Once you see it, hollow a moat out between the plant and the mulch. Make sure no mulch is touching the new growth and that the moat you’ve scooped is about two inches wide to allow for further safe development.

Several opportunistic fungi will take advantage of young, green growth that’s constantly touching something moist, like that mulch. There’s a fine line here, tread carefully.

Soil Testing and Amendment

If you have a garden plot and failed to fertilize it in the fall, now is the time to get to it. As soon as you can work the soil, take several samples and either use a home test kit to determine the condition of the soil or have them analyzed by your local university extension’s lab. The extension tests are generally around $10, but the cost varies by location.

Either way, you’ll have some kind of indication about the condition of your soil, as well as what you can do to fix any problems. For example, you may find that your soil is low in nitrogen, a vital nutrient for plants that grow a lot of leaves very quickly, like your lawn. In this case, you’ll follow the instructions for feeding the type of plant you intend to place in the tested area, using a precise amount of fertilizer, so as not to encourage long, spindly growth in those eager plants.

The same applies to other types of fertilizer, including balanced fertilizers like 10-10-10 and 15-15-15. Most established perennials are fine with fertilizer that’s mixed into the top two to five inches of soil, but always check before you get too wild with it. A few species may have unusual reactions, including but not limited to developing an overall burned or wilted look due to root destruction. Never apply more fertilizer than necessary due to the risk of runoff and pollution of waterways.

Turn the Sprinklers On!

Once the nighttime temperatures are consistently above freezing, you’re ready to turn the water back on. Your plants will appreciate the long, deep drink and you’ll be happy to not have to water each one by hand. Remember, when turning irrigation systems back on after being drained, do so slowly. Opening the valve too quickly can result in a high-pressure water surge that can rupture sprinkler heads or burst fittings.

Be prepared to turn the system back off if a surprise freeze creeps on, but waiting as long as possible to get the irrigation started again is also a fairly safe bet.

Check for Signs of Insect Infestation

As your plants start to bud, you’ll be able to tell if they’ve developed any problems during the winter. Generally, these are caused by insect infestations, but in ornamental and fruit trees, a whole range of fungal invasion is also likely.

Small holes in the trunks of trees and shrubs are likely caused by boring insects like clearwing moths, which spend most of their life cycles inside the plant. This makes them very hard to get rid of and often results in the hollowing of the interior of limbs and branches. Those hollow branches pose a major risk to anyone walking below, as they can reach a point where they are no longer structurally sound and suddenly break away from the tree.

Don’t Forget to Call Your Landscaper

You don’t have a landscaper? Well, it’s never too late to meet one, especially when you’re part of the HomeKeepr community! Your real estate agent can recommend their favorite plant experts with just a few clicks and you’ll have access to their complete contact information without ever having to pay for any sort of membership.

Smart Sprinklers

You’re all alone at home when you hear it. Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shhhhhhhh… and it seems to be coming from outside. You look around, very puzzled and a little afraid, then it comes again sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shhhhhhhh.

Oh! It dawns on you suddenly. “Alexa, turn the sprinklers off.”

Smart devices are popping up everywhere, even on your front lawn. And while many seem kind of silly, like voice controlled outlets, others, like smart sprinklers are very likely the smart device you never realized you needed.

The Basics of Smart Sprinklers

Sprinklers have been becoming increasingly smarter over the years, but those standard sprinkler systems still can’t hold a candle to a smart sprinkler. These babies are so efficient that in research studies, they’ve been able to save up to 70 percent of the water a traditional sprinkler will use. That’s not just good for the environment, your driveway and your neighbor’s cat, it’s great for your pocketbook.

Smart and Not As Smart Sprinklers

There are two different types of smart sprinklers on the market right now. The main difference is in how they determine when they need to be running (if you let them do their thing instead of programming them directly). Those are:

Sensor-based. This type of sprinkler relies on one of several types of soil moisture sensors to figure out just how wet the soil is. When it’s wet enough, the sprinkler stops. They can either check the sensor on a schedule, watering or not watering depending on the moisture, or they run automatically when the moisture in the soil is out of a programmed range.

The down side to sensor-based sprinklers is that they can literally only measure the moisture around the sensor. If your lot is uneven or unusual, these may not really do much for you and could end up wasting a lot of water.

Weather-based. Also known as a signal-based or evapotranspiration controller, these controllers are actively scanning for weather reports so they can adjust the amount of water they let loose on your lawn. Some systems also consider historical data for your region, others collect on-site weather information to make the most accurate calculations.

Weather-based smart sprinklers are amazing, there are no two ways about it. But they can also get very expensive very quickly. That being said, over the long term, they’ll save you more money because of the increased precision, but if you’re not willing or able to let the computer take control, these are not for you.

For Extra Bang, Add a Flow Meter

Some smart sprinkler systems can be fitted with an optional flow meter, which can prove to be a huge help down the road. You can use a flow meter to measure the amount of water that your sprinklers are putting out, but generally, your smart sprinkler can also do that. What they can’t do is tell you if the pressure is too high or too low, indicating a problem in the system.

For a lot of systems, the optional flow meter is a less than $50 upgrade. When compared to the water bill a broken sprinkler line could cost you, it’s not much in the way of an investment.

Smart Sprinklers May Be Covered By Utility Rebates

Although they can be a pricey initial purchase, the cost of a smart sprinkler system will often be rebated to you by your water utility. Because of the amount of water saved and the run-off that’s eliminated, more and more utilities and municipalities are issuing rebates for these smart devices.

Check with your utility company and the EPA’s WaterSense site to determine which devices are covered in your area.

When You’re a Little More Indoorsy..

Just log into your HomeKeepr community to find a landscape expert who can help you choose the right smart sprinkler system for your home. You can trust they’re going to do the job right, after all, they’ve been recommended by your Realtor.

Waste less water. Grow more grass. Do it all from a smart device app in your phone!

Easy care landscaping

Is your landscaping full of weeds? Are you finding yourself driving by neighbors’ homes, envying their perfect, weed-free plantings? If so, you may be in need of some easy-care landscaping. Many of the problems you see in your own yard and others are due to outdated landscaping practices or general neglect of installations that were assumed to be “one and done.” The good news is that you can have a low-care landscape, even if the upfront labor means giving up a few weekends.

What’s Going Wrong in the Landscaping?

It’s not hard to guess what’s gone wrong with your beds if weeds are popping up where they should never be or your mulch looks like it’s turning to dust. There’s something keeping that mulch from mixing with the soil and that something is probably a geotextile or plastic mulch.

Geotextiles are woven fabrics that allow water to pass through into the soil, but prevent evaporation. They can be good deterrents for weed seeds that are in the soil, but once an organic mulch like wood chips or pine needles is placed on top, they prevent the breaking-down mulch from mixing with the dirt below. Instead, that mulch powder creates a medium for new weed seeds to take root, eventually poking holes through the fabric below with their roots.

This is not awesome, as you might have guessed.

The best solution for this situation is to take out the old landscape fabric or plastic (if it’s plastic, you have a huge job ahead of you, as it tends to tear aggressively after only a few years in use) and rethink the whole situation. This is a demolition job that takes a lot of elbow grease, but no particular expertise. Just try to get most of the powdered mulch onto the bed below so it can finish breaking down.

The Pros and Cons of Geotextiles

As previously mentioned, geotextiles allow the soil below to absorb and retain water, but they don’t let nutrients from above mix in. They’re frequently used on landscape installations and overhyped as “maintenance free” barriers. What a typical homeowner hears is “I’ll never have to do anything with this again.” What the typical installer means is “you’re gonna get some good years of ignoring this, but wait too long and you’ll pay in backbreaking labor.”

Geotextiles are not a permanent solution, for a lot of reasons. We now know that they discourage insects and earthworms, since there’s not direct access to the surface of the soil. Since those creatures are needed to help aerate the various layers under your plants, soil compaction can become an issue. Then there’s the matter of that broken down mulch up above: it has nowhere to go. It can only clog the geotextile at worst and hang around to grow weeds at the best.

If you’re prepared to completely remove all your mulch when it starts to break down, or want to use inorganic mulches like stones, then a geotextile may be a fine solution. A careful installation of professional grade fabric, reserved for plants that have a central stem or that are already mature, is ideal. Keep in mind that spreading plants can’t function properly under any sort of weed fabric, as it stifles their growth, too.

Another Option: Mulch and Lots of It

For homeowners who are less interested in interacting with the landscape and more interested in just looking at it, organic mulch without a weed barrier is the best solution. You’ll need to replace broken down mulch yearly, but a few pre-emergent herbicide sprays throughout the season should be all you really need to keep the beds healthy.

Organic mulches like bark, shredded wood, pine needles and cotton seed hull break down, eventually feeding the plants below. They also allow you to plant whatever you want, since anything from single trunked trees to spreading rhizomes like Iris can move through and above the soil with equal ease when necessary.

If you’re installing a mulch-only cover, remember to use a four to six inch metal retainer so the mulch won’t slide away during heavy rains or winds. There are several on the market that you essentially just pound into the soil around your beds, they’re a snap to install.

With that skirting installed, you’ll want to fill your bed with two to four inches of fresh mulch, depending on local weather conditions and the size of your plantings. Just make sure that the mulch doesn’t touch any trunks or stems. Create a little donut-shaped moat around each plant for best results.

It may be less expensive to buy mulch by the truckload if you have a lot of beds, make sure to check with your local municipality about free or low-cost mulch created from limb and yard waste from your area. This isn’t the most attractive mulch sometimes, but it can help lower the costs of a whole yard makeover. Just top with about an inch of nicer mulch for a gorgeous, inexpensive mulch job.

What If I’m Not the Landscaping Type?

Don’t worry, your friendly local landscapers can come by and renew your plantings for you. As members of the HomeKeepr community, they’ve already been recommended by your Realtor and are ready to take your job seriously, with the commitment and eye of true professionals. Before you know it, your shrubs, perennials and trees will be gorgeous again and you can sit inside, admiring them over coffee while you watch the sprinklers spray.