Greensboro Landscaping involves creating cohesive outdoor spaces for easier and more enjoyable use. It includes design planning, terrain assessment and incorporating structural elements.
A well landscaped yard can add curb appeal, increase resale value and lower energy costs. Beginner-friendly landscaping tips include understanding scale, pacing, and the importance of choosing plants adapted to your home’s climate conditions.
A lush lawn is the cornerstone of any landscape design. Proper lawn care includes regular mowing, watering, fertilization and weed control. In addition, a regular soil test will tell you what percentage of the soil is made up of sand, silt and clay and how acidic or alkaline it is, which is important information for your grass health.
Getting rid of weeds is one of the most difficult parts of lawn care, but it’s essential to keeping your yard healthy and aesthetically pleasing. Weeds can quickly choke out grass, leaving it sparse and brown, which makes your entire yard look less attractive. Weeds also attract pests and insects, which can damage your lawn. Regular weeding with a hand or power weeder and spot treatments of targeted weeds is a good start.
Raking is a necessary part of lawn care, especially in fall when the leaves begin to fall. A thick layer of wet leaves can trap moisture and create an environment where diseases and insect pests thrive. Raking helps prevent this, and should be done regularly along with leaf blowing or vacuuming.
A well-maintained lawn is not only a source of pride, but it can increase your property value, provide a place for outdoor recreation and serve as a buffer between your home and the surrounding environment. The best way to maintain a lush, beautiful lawn is to develop and implement a regular treatment schedule for your turf grass and monitor its health on a weekly basis.
The timing and frequency of treatments depend on your climate and the type of grass you have on your property. A soil test will help you determine how often to water, feed and aerate your lawn.
Trees
Trees are an essential element of landscaping and serve a dual role of beautification and utility. They provide shade and cool their surroundings, block noise and pollution, prevent stormwater runoff and soil erosion, and offer habitat for wildlife. They also improve air quality, reduce energy use and increase property values.
When choosing a tree for your yard, it’s important to consider its size and growth rate at maturity. You don’t want it to outgrow your landscape within a few years. You should also take into account its soil and sun requirements.
Evergreen trees provide year-round color, texture and visual interest to your landscape design. They are also easy to grow and require minimal maintenance. They are excellent focal points for your front yard curb appeal or as anchors and backdrops in your backyard landscape.
Flowering trees add color to your landscape during the spring and summer. They also attract pollinators and reduce air pollution. Some examples include dogwood, cherry and magnolia.
Native trees and shrubs are an essential part of your landscape. They are adapted to your region, which helps conserve water and land resources. They are more resilient to insects, diseases and harsh weather conditions, which reduces your maintenance needs. They also support local wildlife and help preserve our natural heritage.
If you have questions about your landscape, you can contact a local, experienced professional. They will be able to assess your needs and provide advice on lawn care, plant selection, trees, mulching and much more. Often, they will provide a free initial consultation to get started. You can then decide if their services are the right fit for your property. If so, they will begin working on your landscape design and make sure everything is up to par.
Shrubs
Shrubs offer a wide variety of colors, fragrances and forms. They can fill in flower beds, provide groundcover on slopes or be used to visually divide a yard. Many are evergreen, enhancing the green of the landscape and protecting it from cold winds. Others are deciduous, adding color in the fall and providing winter interest, when they often have twigs or bark that glow with bright colors. They can also be fragrant, including some that emit a sweet aroma (such as lilacs and forsythia) or produce fruit, like cranberries, shadbush and cotoneaster.
Unlike perennials, shrubs are woody plants that have persistent stems above the ground. They can be either deciduous or evergreen, and they generally have a lower maximum height than trees—Goodspeed defines it as up to 13 feet, although some shrubs, such as roses, may reach that height or higher. Some shrubs, such as rhododendrons and hollies, are both deciduous and evergreen, while others, such as spiraea, laurel, cotoneaster and yew, are evergreen only.
A plant can be any size or shape, and it can also have multiple branches that aren’t necessarily the dominant ones; it could also have a rounded or pyramid-like structure, or a weeping habit, which works well for covering slopes. Some shrubs, such as lilacs and honeysuckles, can develop into small trees in particularly favorable conditions. Others, such as pyracantha, sassafras and many viburnums, can be pruned into tree form to make them taller. For a more formal look, they can be grown close together as a hedge.
Flowers
Flowers are not only beautiful to us, but they serve a critical purpose. They are how plants reproduce, enabling plants to produce seeds so they can continue to grow and bear new flowers and seeds.
Flowers come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, from single, solitary blooms to huge clusters. The diversity of flower forms is a remarkable display of the plant kingdom’s incredible creativity and adaptability.
The basic parts of a flower are the sepals, petals, stamens and pistils. The presence or absence of these parts determines whether the flower is complete or incomplete.
Sepals are the green, leaflike structures present at the base of a flower. They protect the flower bud and may also serve to attract pollinators. Collectively, the sepals are called a calyx.
Petals are the colorful outer portions of a flower and, like sepals, may attract pollinators. The number of petals that a flower has helps to identify its species and family.
Stamens are the male reproductive parts of a flower and consist of an anther and filaments (stalk). They produce and store pollen. When pollen lands on the pistil, it sticks to a sticky surface at the top of the stigma and is carried down through the style into the ovary to fertilize the egg. The ovary then develops into the fruit that contains the seed.
Sometimes a flower will have both male and female parts, called perfect flowers or bisexual flowers. Other times the plant will have only one sex, such as the breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis, Hawaiian ‘ulu or Samoan and Tongan ma’afala). Flowers can be radially symmetrical or bilaterally symmetrical. Flowers that are perfectly symmetrical are called regular or actinomorphic, while those that are not are irregular or zygomorphic.
Irrigation
Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the soil for the purpose of promoting plant growth and keeping outdoor areas hydrated. It’s one of the most important components of landscaping. Irrigation is used to grow crops such as wheat, fruits and vegetables, and grasses in fields and on golf courses. It also keeps lawns and gardens healthy and vibrant, and enhances the aesthetics of residential and commercial properties.
Landscape irrigation involves making decisions about when, how much and what kind of water to apply to the field. This is based on a variety of factors including plant water needs, soil water storage capacity, and the seasonal distribution of precipitation. When irrigating the field, it’s necessary to minimize water loss by evaporation and deep percolation. This can be done by limiting irrigation sets to a time period of 15 minutes or less, and by using nozzles that deliver a uniform spray.
Traditional spray irrigation is expensive and inefficient, since a significant amount of water evaporates or blows away before it gets to the roots of the plants. In some regions, this type of irrigation can lead to environmental problems such as salt accumulation in groundwater. More efficient systems include trickle and drip irrigation, which use a network of pipes that supply water to small nozzles or drippers. Another option is the center-pivot system, which uses a water tube fixed in a circle around the field. Electric motors rotate the frames on which the water is squirted, thereby applying water to the whole field. In addition to reducing initial installation costs and operational expenses, these systems offer long-term savings through reduced maintenance and water conservation.
