Glacier View Landscape & Design, Inc. is a family-owned residential and commercial Boulder County area landscaping contractor. Dave White, Owner/Designer, started the company in 2008. Dave has 20 years experience in the landscape and nursery industries both in north Florida and Colorado and has been a Boulder County Colorado resident for 25 years. Honesty and integrity have enabled Glacier View Landscape & Design, Inc. to continue exceeding customers’ expectations. See http://www.glacierviewlandscape.com
Here are a few ideas to get your landscape into full bloom soon. The weather on the Front Range has finally warmed a bit and it seems the snows are gone for now. It is time to get out there and make some assessments about what you would like to accomplish in your landscape this season.
Take a walk around your property and look for any damaged trees and shrubs. The winds this winter wreaked havoc on lots of plants. As plants begin to leaf out you will notice some have “winter kill”. It is areas of the plant, usually shrubs, generally on the ends of each branch, that died back over the winter. You can prune those out as soon as the plant has leafed out. Perennials should be cut back before they start to sprout new growth. It is much easier than trying to keep from damaging tender shoots while cutting things back. Remove any dead limbs from trees using a saw or loppers. For larger branches, have a professional do the work. Clean out any leaves that have blown into beds after your fall cleanup…you did do the fall cleanup right? If not, you may have more work ahead of you than you think!
Now consider what projects you would like to accomplish. Prepare a mental budget before calling your landscape professional. Invite them out and go over what you would like done. They will prepare a bid for you at no charge. By starting early in the spring, you can reap the benefits of a rejuvenated landscape for the whole season to come. If you have established planting beds, consider having the professional install a “top dressing” of new mulch. Mulch deteriorates over time and some will have blown away depending on the bed’s exposure to the wind. Once perennials have leafed out, you may want to add more if some have died. Fill in areas that were sparse on color and ask your landscape professional for suggestions to complement the blooming times of specific species already in place. Consider planting a new tree or two this year. It’s good for our air, the planet, and can help offset cooling costs to your home if positioned appropriately.
Irrigation systems need to be started up now. Inevitably, some damage or breakage of heads or lines may have occurred. Repairs are usually quick and simple for systems that were working fine the fall before, but must be addressed since any leakage that goes unnoticed might mean a heavy water bill next month. Be sure to examine all drip emitters at each plant with the system is running to make sure that they have not become plugged or have popped out. Plugged emitters usually go unnoticed until the plant they are watering dies. Emitters that have popped out are easily noticed as the water will come out of the hole at high pressure and be obvious by the sounds they make.
A few simple steps early this spring can mean carefree enjoyment of your landscape all summer long.
The holidays are over. Guests have gone home. Family is back to work and school. It’s 12 degrees outside. Now is not the time most people consider their landscapes. But avid gardeners are searching seed catalogues and dreaming of that first nice day in spring when their gardens can be tilled. And then, as it happens every year, catching those off guard who love to work in their yards…that initial warm up when you realize you could be wearing just a tee shirt and working in your yard. But, you’re still inside doing spring cleaning. You’ll know it when you smell it. The smell of the thawing ground.
- You’ll want all perennials cut back before they begin to leaf out so you don’t have to prune around delicate new growth in March and April.
If you have larger landscape projects in mind for the year, January and February are the times to start planning. The absolute best thing you can do NOW is to get a plan on paper and a loose budget in place. If you are having a landscape contractor do some or all of the work, talk to them now to solicit ideas and get a bid in place before they get too busy in the spring. Before you know it, their time frame for installation will be August. Have a budget range to work with. There is no sense in designing a 1000 sq. ft. flagstone patio and walkways if your budget is only $5,000. Talk to your landscape designer to get an idea of what things cost and to get your ideas into a drawing. They can give you a ball-park idea of what various projects cost so you can plan accordingly.
That “water feature” that everyone dreams of….? Let’s just say that they are not inexpensive to install correctly. You certainly do NOT want one that leaks. I’ve seen so many that were out of place, empty after three years, the wrong scale for the landscape, or just plain ugly. Remember—water features should blend into the landscape in most situations. Sure, there are those next to pools and spas that have that modern, angular feel, and those should be a focal point. But most water features should be designed to provide a quiet and tranquil oasis in the landscape. And, if you are ready to start, hardscape features such as retaining walls, patios, walkways and water features can be installed in the winter months as long as the ground isn’t frozen solid. Along the Front Range plains, the ground is workable for all but a few weeks of the year depending on exposure. In fact, some areas never freeze at all. So, for your hardscape projects, call your landscaper anytime. If they start and it snows too much, they’ll simply be that much more ahead of the game when the snow melts. We can even shovel off the landscape so it is workable much sooner than if left to thaw naturally.
Finally, the last things you can do in winter is talk to your local nursery to find out what new plant cultivars (hybrids, or new sub species of plants) have been introduced this year, what they are going to carry, and about any deals you may be able to get on last years over-stock. Plant material that didn’t sell last year will be more acclimatized and have a stronger root structure than plant material fresh in from other states. Walking into local nurseries in winter will allow you to get to know their personnel better than during the spring mad-house rush. And last, but not least, please DO NOT FORGET to water trees and shrubs in the winter months. If we go 3 weeks without snow on the ground, give everything a soak on any day when the air temperature is above 45 degrees. Do this once a month at most, and your plants will thrive in the spring. Getting an early start will let your landscape burst alive with color, even through the March and April snows!
Glacier View Landscape & Design, Inc. is a family-owned residential and commercial Boulder County area landscaping contractor. Dave White, Owner/Designer, started the company in 2008. Dave has 20 years experience in the landscape and nursery industries both in north Florida and Colorado and has been a Boulder County Colorado resident for 25 years. Honesty and integrity have enabled Glacier View Landscape & Design, Inc. to continue exceeding customers’ expectations. See http://www.glacierviewlandscape.com
Continue reading about Winter Landscape Suggestions: Preparing For The Spring Color Burst
Centerpieces are in high demand during the Thanksgiving holiday. Which will add a table centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner. Centerpiece made with fresh flowers is sure to enjoy. Visitors every day of your Thanksgiving. Gifts can also be a great host or hostess of your Thanksgiving dinner. Variety of Thanksgiving centerpieces can be ordered online or you can create. Of you. Here the basic instructions you will need to be your centerpiece.
Necessary equipment, including plastic foam tray centerpiece flowers two candles. tapered, two candle cup, wooden stamp lines,. Selected by a small pumpkin. (Squash or small can. anchored with wood chisel) and pine cones. These devices are about the only crafts and other goods. Florist shop or online. You will need a license; seeded eucalyptus, husk, nandina, galax and dried oak leaves. Flowers are red and yellow roses yellow and red spray roses,. And orange and red mums vice. The design, you will need about six and roses. 3 boats spray roses and three of the boats. Vice mums. you may want to use berries hypericum. now. Flowers are recommended for this design are other options.
First you will need to cut foam to fit your flower centerpiece tray. Next you will need to wet the foam flowers. After you have your wet foam flowers in position and before adding the application designed to put middle foam cup candles and place flowers by candlelight. Now add a leaf. All you need to cover foam flowers before the flowers and place equipment. Oak leaves from the bottom then. seeded eucalyptus, and leaves a piece of shell. galax. You will want to cut a small branch of the boats so they have the right size for a centerpiece. Not afraid to be great little design.
One leaves the place where you can start to add the flowers. How many flowers are arranged. When flowers are spread evenly across a similar design. Other methods in the same flower. I recommend the bit. The only thing you can do with the color of the flowers. Now you can begin adding pine. cones and berries hypericum. but hypericum berries, taller pieces of eucalyptus. be seeded for the drop in the gap left between the flowers if any. Follow these basic steps you will have a beautiful Thanksgiving centerpiece.
Andy Smith
www.fruitflowershop.com
- New valentine’s day flower arrangements are now listed.
Hydroponics is the growing of plants without soil-meaning, the nutrients that are usually supplied through the soil to the plants should come from another source, usually through the water solution. Obviously, the advanced nutrients solution fed to hydroponic plants has a direct effect on their growth, health, and their yield. Soil has around seventeen different elements that would promote a plant’s growth – fortunately, even the most basic solutions for hydroponics have all these elements. The need to use formula made specifically for hydroponics should not be underestimated as regular fertilizers typically lack some of the elements needed by the plants. Also, special formulations and/or additives made to particularly evoke certain growth patterns in plants are available. Understandably, making the best nutrient mixture is not a very easy business, because there are so many factors to be considered: the kind of plant, the nutrient blend on which the plant thrives, the desired result, etc. The combinations of elements and quantities are endless. Essentially, this is chemistry; and if you took chemistry in high school, you probably remember that the right blend of chemicals can be beneficial, while the wrong blend can be catastrophic. Thankfully, there are a lot of products available where the homework has been done for you; but you still have to be aware of your plants and their needs, and read labels to ensure you are giving them the right thing-especially when it comes to advanced nutrients and additives. It is safe to conclude then that while basic nutrient blends promote the needed health of plants, it is the advanced nutrients that provide the extra push on some areas. Several blends deal with keeping the right pH balance in the water, which is very important in hydroponics. Others are about increasing the yield of harvest, encouraging thicker foliage, affecting the blooming stage and promoting accelerated growth. However, it is not as simple as placing an additive in your gas tank, or applying the right formula to get the desired result. Everytime you put something in the water, you’re feeding the plant something that’ll ultimately affect it for good or ill-just as “we are what we eat.” Just as taking a particular medicine, it may treat some symptoms but the fact that side effects could be felt is also there. In the same way, plants would feel some unwanted effects in some areas by the mere “taking” of a booster. Therefore, it’s really important for you to know about the different nutrients that affect plant growth, this way, you have a clearer idea of their results. Thankfully, many hydroponic developers want you to have the right result from their advanced nutrients, so they’ll put important information on the label. It is therefore very important to read the label before buying a certain product. Among the many pieces of information found in the label are the benefits of as well as the elements that make up the solution. If you don’t feel that the label has sufficient information, then follow your hunch – don’t trust it.