Whether you're hosting a barbecue, sitting around the pool, or increasing security around your home, the right outdoor lighting is essential. Outdoor lighting can transform your front and back yards from basic to beautiful by adding a warm and welcoming aspect to your home's entrance and exterior spaces. Illumination provides the perfect landscape ambiance for an outdoor get-together, increases safety for your family, and creates focal points both on our home and in your landscape. In this post, … [Read more...]
The Difference Between Warm and Cool Season Grass
The grass is the most important aspect of any healthy lawn. Maintaining your grass can be an arduous task, depending on which kind of the 12,000 species of grass you have. If you choose to have turfgrass installed on your lawn, there are two main classifications to keep in mind: warm season grass and cool season grass. The type of grass you choose depends largely on the climate in which you live, but for locations with varying temperatures (known as transition zones), choosing warm or cool … [Read more...]
The Best Trees For Creating Privacy Around Your Yard
Summer is here and you’re undoubtedly going to want to spend as much time outside as possible. Whether you’re gardening, hosting a barbecue, playing with your kids or simply relaxing on your porch, you may find that you want a bit more privacy from the outside summer noise. Instead of installing a costly fence, consider planting trees to help give your yard a more organic type of privacy. Below is a list of several trees you can easily plant in order to get the privacy you’re looking … [Read more...]
Getting Year-Round Color in Your Landscape
No matter the season, color in your landscape can be easy with a simple plan. Incorporate annuals, perennials and shrubs with different bloom times for continuous bursts of color within your landscape. Planting and Bloom Times The best suggested times to plant are during the spring and fall, when the weather is cooler. The new plants and bulbs have time to adjust to the new environment before extreme temperatures of summer or winter begin. Specific plantings, such as summer annuals, can be … [Read more...]
Spring Mulching and Planting
Reasons to plant and mulch every spring are in abundance. Mulching helps plants and trees hold in precious moisture. Spring planting adds color to your landscape for the season – or even longer – depending on what you choose to plant. Whether you plan to redesign your entire landscape or you’re just looking to maintain your existing one, a little work now will reap big rewards the rest of the year. Choosing the Right Mulch Before you apply mulch, you need to decide what variety you are going … [Read more...]
What’s Bugging Your Garden?
2017 looks like it’s going to be a tough year for bugs in Northern Virginia landscapes. Every gardener dreads dealing with bugs and other pests; it can be both time-consuming and expensive. The old adage, “the best medicine is prevention,” is also true for landscape pests, though. Following good gardening practices, encouraging natural predators, and frequently checking your plants can go a long way in avoiding pesky insect damage. Uncovering the Source of Your Pest Problem Once you have … [Read more...]
Spring Lawn and Landscape Tips
Whether you're a seasoned homeowner or a brand new one, winter is a great time to plan ahead and make a spring to-do list for your yard. There are activities you may tackle yourself, like raking and mowing, but others – like aerating and fertilizing - may require some professional help. Planning now will help you achieve the lush green lawn and beautiful garden beds you’ve always desired. 7 Ways to Prepare Your Lawn and Landscape for Spring 1. Inspect As soon as the snow has melted, it’s … [Read more...]
Simple Steps to Winterize your Landscape
As summer ends, watering should not. Continue watering your trees, shrubs and plantings until the ground freezes. One of the biggest factors causing winter decline is the lack of water and the plants drying out. If you allow the plants to soak up the water all the way to the winter months, they have a much better chance of remaining healthy throughout the winter months. Spraying your evergreens for winter burn will create a waxy coating on the leaves and needles to help seal in the … [Read more...]
Benefits of Irrigatian Systems coincide with new Irrigation Management Services at Epling.
The installation of an irrigation system in your landscape has many benefits which include saving time, money and water. The awareness in the importance of conserving water has grown as effects of the drought have become commonplace. In addition, irrigation systems will help promote growth of healthy turf and reduce the weed population. Saving time is important to almost everyone. Hand watering with a hose can take away valuable time in both the morning and evening hours. Irrigation systems … [Read more...]
Think Spring, but plan in the fall: Designing a year-long color rotation begins in the fall.
Rotating Annuals provides color rotation which is a great way to spruce up bare spots and problem areas. Annuals can also accentuate a simple pot or window box and have a tendency to create a nice back drop. In most of Virginia one can change annuals three to four times a year. In our area we have many different options to choose from depending on what time of year it is. The first color rotation of the year would be the spring. During this part of the year one would want to … [Read more...]
