Improve Ambiance, Comfort & Safety with Simple Landscape Lighting
August 24, 2016One of the often forgotten and generally underused secrets of a beautiful landscape is landscape lighting. Used properly, landscape lighting brings out a property’s beauty in a way that’s much different from the way in which natural lighting highlights that same beauty.
Because landscape lighting doesn’t reveal everything, your eye goes just to the parts of your landscape that you and your lighting expert choose to highlight. With 50 years of experience in beautifying landscapes, the team at Hively qualifies as experts, and our landscape design team has perfected the use of landscape lighting to bring out the beauty of your property after the sun goes down.
Ensure Landscape Success with Simple Soil Testing
August 24, 2016Summer is in full swing, and our recent travels around York, PA have revealed that this summer’s heat and lack of rain has taken a toll on local lawns and landscapes.
Many landscape owners believe that the problem is simply the inevitable result of this year’s extreme heat and irregular rain, but something else may be having an effect, and even with ideal temperatures and rainfall, that factor can prevent lawns and landscapes from being fully healthy and looking great.
Fortunately for these home and business owners, the team at Hively Landscapes has the ability to transform their lawns and landscapes from an eyesore into the lush green lawns and beautiful gardens you thought were only possible in commercials.
Natural Pest Control
June 21, 2016
In celebration of Shark Week 2016 kicking off this Sunday (June 26), we wanted to draw attention to a real danger to humans here in Pennsylvania… mosquitoes! You may be surprised to learn that the deadliest animal in the world is also one of the smallest in size. Here in Pennsylvania, we most associate mosquitoes with the West Nile Virus, and in other parts of the world they also carry malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, encephalitis, and the much talked about, Zika virus. Mosquitoes are hard to escape as they are found in every region of the world except for Antarctica, and in Alaska they’re so big and plentiful that they’re the unofficial state bird.
3 Options for Proactive Landscape Maintenance
May 24, 2016If you’re familiar with our blog you’ve likely read our previous article on the benefits of proactive lawn care maintenance. From maximizing your flowers and growth to early identification and treatment of problems, residents and businesses alike have found that by selecting a proactive landscape maintenance plan with Hively Landscapes they’re maximizing their landscape investment, while avoiding costly replacements, removals, and other landscape troubles.
We offer three forms of proactive maintenance, and have outlined each below.
5 Lawn Care Tips to Keep Your Grass the Greenest on the Block
April 15, 2016If your landscape is like many, the most visible part of it is the grass. Grass, or turfgrass, is a source of pride and often frustration for many DIY homeowners. The team at Hively Landscapes would like to help alleviate some of that frustration by providing you with a few simple lawn care tips we’ve learned over the nearly 50 years we’ve been beautifying landscapes in Dover, PA.
If you’re interested in helping improve your lawn’s curb appeal, without pouring much more of your hard earned money into your landscape, we encourage you to follow these lawn care tips.
Let it GROW! The ideal length for the most common grasses in our region (fescue and bluegrass blends) is between 3 and 4 ½ inches. Grass cut to this length is better able to withstand dry stretches and longer grass can help inhibit the growth of many common weeds.- MULCH it! Most professionals prefer to mulch grass clippings generated by mowing and not to bag them. The truth is that grass clippings contain a high percentage of nitrogen, which returns to the soil when these clippings break down. Nitrogen also happens to be a key component of fertilizer and very beneficial to healthy grass.
5 Things to Look for In Your Next Landscaping Company
March 31, 2016Choosing the right landscaping company is easy, when you know what to look for.
With spring underway, it’s now time to dive headfirst into everyone’s favorite landscape maintenance tasks! If you enjoy this dirty, sweaty, and tiring chore as much as we do, you understand that this job comes with no finish line. As soon as you think you might be done, it’s time to start all over again. Lawn and landscape maintenance is a hobby that just keeps on giving! Day after day, week after week, year after year. Mowing, pruning, weeding, mulching, etc, etc, etc.
Ok, we realize it’s not quite as much fun for everyone as it is for us, and that’s why we offer proactive maintenance plans and other landscaping services for those people who just can’t find the time or the passion to do this kind of work.
So, if you don’t want to spend your wonderful spring, summer, fall, and even winter hours pushing a mower, digging out weeds, or pruning unruly trees and shrubs (and who can blame you?), how do you select a landscaping company that will do the job right? How do you know that company will treat your lawn and landscape with the same respect that you would, if you actually wanted to do all the work yourself?
Here are five things that you should look into before hiring any landscaping company:
- Reputation
While it may seem obvious, we still find it quite common that people will hire landscaping companies strictly on price, with no consideration of reputation or references. Don’t make this expensive mistake! There’s a reason why these companies charge $5 to trim a bush, and the next spring you find that your beautiful bush is barely alive. So check into what companies your neighbors are using. Then ask if these companies have solid references. If your neighborhood is like most others in Pennsylvania, you get bombarded in the spring and summer with flyers advertising grass mowing for a price that just seems too low to be true, such as $20.00. The truth is, these companies cannot maintain that price, and once the season kicks into high gear they’re nowhere to be found. We encourage you to check with friends and neighbors to see who their landscape contractor is, and if they’re happy with the work the company is doing for them.
The Many Benefits of Proactive Lawn Care Services
March 30, 2016Lawn care service and maintenance are much less costly than replacement, but many businesses and homeowners fail to realize just how much time and money they can save on their landscaping each year simply by planning ahead. Just like your car which goes into the shop regularly for oil changes, tire rotations, and tune-ups to avoid engine problems, worn out tires, or other hazardous issues, your home landscape can receive the same kind of preventative care to save you headaches from plant diseases or insects, overgrown and unruly plants, or even the loss of your favorite tree or shrub.
We want to help you enjoy your landscape investment for more than just the short term! Our blog today aims to detail a few of the benefits of choosing proactive lawn care services with an experienced team of landscape contractors like the one you’ll find at Hively Landscapes.
Patio Paver versus A Stamped Concrete Patio – Which is Better For Me?
February 12, 2016Potential and current customers frequently ask us if they should choose patio pavers or a stamped concrete patio. There’s no simple answer because every homeowner has different desires and expectations, so we begin to help them choose by explaining the significant differences between these two materials. Let’s clarify that “pavers” is a generic term for interlocking concrete pavers. Patio pavers are manmade from high-strength concrete and come in an almost infinite variety of shapes, thicknesses, textures and colors. We use pavers frequently, and we also construct many hardscapes from natural stone materials, using similar installation techniques.
Costs
Let’s get right to it; many people assume that a stamped concrete patio will be less expensive than a paver patio. In some cases, they will be right but since no two design/installations are the same, it’s not really possible to make this judgment without some research. It’s also not really an apples-to-apples comparison, as we will explain.
Construction
The most important part of any patio installation, regardless of material type, is the base. This is the foundation of the final surface and as the saying goes, what you see is “only as strong as its foundation”.
5 Winter Lawn Care Tips for Your Landscape
December 23, 2015
If you believe that the care of your landscape simply stops once the weather gets cold, you are making a mistake that we see all too often and a mistake that leads to costly damage to your plants. Even if this winter turns out to be mild overall, it’s still winter, and the stress of weather that changes from cold to warm to cold can damage your trees and shrubs if they aren’t properly prepared. So, you can help your plants flourish once the spring arrives by following these simple winter lawn care tips:
Holiday Planter Ideas
November 30, 2015With the Christmas season quickly approaching, we thought it would be appropriate to share some holiday planter ideas that you can use to decorate your business or home. You can easily make those entryways more festive and welcoming to your guests or customers with some great looking custom holiday decorations.
If you’re looking for ideas for creating a great holiday container, follow these helpful tips:
- Start with a variety of greenery. Boxwood, cedar, pine, cypress, and fir trimmings all make for great additions to your planters or window boxes. You can also mix in a living element with dwarf varieties of evergreens.
- For a mix of colors and texture, you’ll want to mix in some branches, pinecones, or fruit. Some favorite examples include yellow or red twig dogwood branches, winterberry branches, corkscrew willow branches, bittersweet, Osage oranges*, pomegranates, and sweetgum pods.
- Add some decorative lights. If you have something already planted, wrap it in Christmas lights or even add a bow, and then decorate the base with a skirt of evergreen boughs.
*Osage oranges really aren’t oranges. They’re those green fruits that look like brains, and they also go by the names of hedge apple or monkey ball.
To help you develop your own beautiful planters, we’ve put together a sampling of containers that will give you some inspiration and ideas.