Planting a rose garden.

A good garden loam with organic matter is important when planting roses. It should contain some peat moss, leaf mold, compost, rotted or commercial manure, and the bed should be prepared as far ahead of planting as possible to allow for the soil to settle. GreatGrass

Autumn is the best time for planting out roses, but you can also plant in spring. When they arrive from the nursery, plant at once. If they have dried en route, soak the roots and put the tops in a bucket of water before planting. Trim back any roots that are weak, long or broken. Dig a hole that is wide enough to allow the roots to spread without crowding.

The rose is properly placed when the bud (the point where the top joins the roots) is just under the ground surface. Space hybrid teas about 18 inches apart in any direction. Prune the branches 6 to 10 inches from the soil.

To grow good roses it is necessary to cultivate, to prune and to spray. If you have a well-cultivated bed you need not worry about watering. But if you start to water in hot weather, you must keep it up, soaking the roots thoroughly about once a week. Spraying every 10 days will guard against diseases and insects that attack roses. Nicotine sulphate wipes out the green lice; arsenate of lead is used against chewing insects; or sulphur and arsenate of lead may be used in a dust, as may DDT dust.

Winterize your roses by mounding sod around them after the first frost, or mulch with straw and evergreens. In colder parts of the country, (like Michigan) remove the supports from the climbing roses and place the canes on the ground, peg them, and cover with soil mounds.

In spring, cut back your roses to within 6 inches of the ground. Lop off all but three to five canes on hybrid teas. This pruning will give you strong plants. When your plants grow out from spring pruning, you will have to disbud, cutting off all the buds except the top ones on the cane. This is the way to grow large blossoms.

Remember to enjoy your roses! Cut some nice stems from time to time and place them in a vase inside your home. Share them with friends and neighbors. After all, what good is growing a beautiful plant if you cannot enjoy it and share it.

how to deal with landscape contractors.

We have all read articles similar to this one before and they all say the same thing. They encourage you to get three estimates, check references, and consult the BBB for each contractor you are considering.

First, you want to choose the contractor that’s right for you. One popular theory says that there are three aspects to consider. Those are timely service, quality work, and pricing. This theory states that you can’t get all three aspects with the same company. That is you can’t get great quality work, fast, at a competative price. There is some truth to this theory. That being the case you should decide what’s most important to you.

Do you need the job done fast or is it alright if the contractor takes a few weeks to complete? Are you only interested in top quality work or it it ok if it’s a little imprefect in places? And are you willing to pay top dollar or are you looking to get more for less? You should consider these aspects thoroughly and then follow your instinct.

Once you have chosen the contractor you want to work with you should handle your payments very carefully. After all that’s really all that’s motivating the contractor to come to your house and do the work. Most contractors will demand a deposit of 1/3 or 1/2 of the total job cost to put you on his schedule. You can go ahead and put down this deposit, but you need the agreement in writing which includes all specifications of work to be done and the time frame in which he will start and finish.

Even if the contractor mentioned some work he could do during consultations you had with him, if it’s not in the contract then don’t expect it to get done. Even something as small as pruning some shrubs or clearing an area. Get everything in writing.

Also make sure the contract has real time frames. If he says he can start in a week and complete within two weeks, again get it in writing. Ask for a penalty clause that says for every day that goes by outside of the time frame set he will deduct $100 from total job cost. Contractors are familiar with this clause and should agree to it.

Once a job is halfway completed, some contractors will ask for another payment. If the payment schedule was broken into thirds and the work is going well then go ahead and pay the contractor so he can complete the work. If things have gone very badly to this point then don’t pay and excuse the contractor from the job.

When the job is almost completed the contractor will ask for the final payment. This is where you have to be strong. Make a list of all the details that have not been finished and tell the contractor he must finish the list before you will pay him the final payment. If you are comfortable you can pay him the majority of the final payment, but withhold 10% or so until the finishing list is completed. I’d suggest even waiting a few more days or a week to make sure no other problems come up. It will be difficult to get them back to work on it if they’ve already been paid in full.

Planting Manhattan 4 grass seed.

My yard was finally ready and prepped for grass seed. So I went to our local lawn supply store to get some seed, I was told they stocked a special West Michigan seed blend. They suggested this Manhattan 4 instead, saying it should perform well in my sandy and very sunny lawn. (well, dirt at this point)

The seed germinated within the 5-7 days as promised. In fact I planted it Friday night, and by Tuesday I could see some grass seed growing! Very exciting to see something happening after waiting so long and working so hard. The grass continues to grow, but at a slow rate. I am hoping this is the nature of the grass seed. A slow growing but strong grass would be great. I would love to spend less time pushing the mower and more time with other things. After 3 weeks, most of it is still only 1-2 inches high, but seems to be doing okay.

Your garden and land around your house is very important to the overall look of your house, and by employing a good landscaping company you can not only add value to your property but massively improve the overall appearance. If you select the right landscaping company they will be able to offer you advice on your best options, they can provide you with the walls, paths, patios, driveways, large plantings and even irrigation systems that you want. It is important, however, that you pick the right design and materials for your garden and that are in keeping with your house. There are a number of important factors to consider when you are selecting which landscaping company to choose.

Cost of landscaping company.

Obviously the cost the landscaping is important, and if you intend to have a lot of work done around your property the bill can rise to quite a large amount. Do remember though that a well-designed, good-looking garden can add 10% onto the value of your house, so it is an investment. The cost you pay your landscaping company will undoubtedly be an important determining factor but it shouldn’t be the only factor that determines which company you choose.

Check their portfolio.

The portfolio is the best way to check the standard of their work. Looking at their portfolio is especially important if they are offering a very low price. It could be that they are offering a low price because you are their first or one of their first clients. If this is the case there is no reason why you can’t still use them, the low price will usually be combined with an exceptionally high standard because they will want to use the work they do for you to start building their portfolio. Break the work you want doing down into smaller sections and hire them to complete the first part; they shouldn’t mind if they have nothing to hide. If they do a good job you can use them for the rest of your requirements.

Type of project.

If you want decking built at the end of your garden, you should be looking at companies who have experience in building decking. Look at their portfolio or ask them for details of their experience. They may be the best company there is at building walls but if they’ve never built decking you should tread very carefully.

By taking all these factors into account you will be able to make an informed decision regarding your choice of landscaping company. If you do pick the right company for you, you will be able to rest easy knowing that they are creating exactly the effect you want at a price that you deem reasonable.

The goals of your garden irrigation system.

In order to create and maintain a perfect looking garden with healthy, vibrant planting you need to ensure that your garden gets the right level of watering. To ensure that your plants get good watering you may need to create an irrigation system that gives a steady, accurate and uniform level of watering as required.

An irrigation system can be as complicated as a couple of strategically placed sprinklers or as complex as a full underground irrigation sprinkler system. To make sure that you are giving your planting exactly the right levels of watering you can either consult an irrigation system company or a landscaping system, or if you have the required knowledge you could build your own irrigation system.

Things to consider when building a garden irrigation system.

The first and most obvious factor is how much water your plants need, but there are many different things that determine this. Some plants require more water than others and the surroundings of each plant will also play an important part. You need to ensure a uniformity of water spread that is right for your plants and for your soil type.

Different soil types have a different infiltration rate. An infiltration rate is the amount of water that a soil type can take per hour without creating run off. You should consider exactly how to manage the water run off, and at very least your beds should slope forwards so that any excess water can run off to the front of the beds avoiding over watering of your plants.

You need to consider the time of day that you are watering your plants. For instance, watering in the mid day sun will lead to scorching your plants; the water dries on the leaves and the rays if the sun are magnified through the water burning the leaves and depleting the nutrients they need to grow healthily.

Your irrigation is best set to water immediately after sunrise, when the wind is typically at it’s lowest although you should manage your irrigation system so it will perform just as well in the highest wind conditions you expect.

Set the pressure of your irrigation system so that it isn’t too high. High water pressure leads to small droplets of water being created which are easily blown by the wind; this adversely affects the uniformity of your watering leaving some areas with too much watering and other areas lacking the water they require to remain healthy.

Maintenance of your irrigation system.

Regular maintenance of your irrigation system is vital to continued growth and health in your garden. By running simple tests you can ascertain whether your system is still running at its very best. Alternatively, you can arrange with the company that installed your irrigation system to come out and do routine annual checks.

In order to check your irrigation system is running properly and efficiently, get hold of several flat-bottomed containers of the same size. Place each container evenly around the area you are testing, usually ten foot apart will suffice, but you can shorten this distance for a more accurate test. Now run your irrigation system for approximately 15 minutes and then measure the amount of water in each container using a plastic ruler. Each of the containers should have the same amount of water in, and if they have then everything is fine.

If one of your containers has an unequal amount of water when compared to the other containers then you should move the rest of your containers in to this area, shortening the distance between them considerably. Again run your system for 15 minutes; if necessary wait until the next day so as not to over water your plants. By using this process you should be able to tell exactly where is receiving more water and you will be able to amend your watering system accordingly.

west michigan landscaping » creating an irrigation system for your garden