Top 5 Things to Ask Your Landscaping Company
February 23, 2018Great landscaping companies do far more than just routine maintenance. While there are countless projects you can hire a landscaping company for, there’s not an unlimited number of companies capable of doing a great job.
How well you research and qualify these companies can mean the difference between a great looking landscape and one that can actually end up costing you MORE money. Picking the wrong landscaping partner may just mean a bad trim job, but in the worst case, you can be stuck with expensive legal bills should an accident occur.
Fortunately, you can screen out the bad apples with a bit of effort. We’ve taken some time to put together a simple, straightforward list of questions you should ask.
- Are you licensed and insured?
Deer Problems? Here’s What You Need To Know
February 8, 2018
Pennsylvania winters and deer problems seem to go hand in hand. According to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s website, we had the second highest rate of vehicle accidents involving deer in the country last year. In fact, Pennsylvania residents, on average, have a one in 70 chance of being in an accident involving a deer.
Unfortunately deer don’t just cause damage to vehicles, they also can be quite destructive to your landscape. As the winter arrives and their smorgasbord of food dwindles to scraps, deer will search for anything to satisfy their appetite.
If you’ve found your landscape the target of some hungry deer, you may be interested in some helpful information about minimizing winter deer damage.
Team Spotlight: Matt Vandewater
February 6, 2018
We’re starting a new spotlight series here at Hively, showcasing some of our talented team members. Matt Vandewater, Mowing Division Leader, was first to volunteer to sit down on the hot seat and answer a few questions.
Learn more about what Matt had to say below!
Q: What is your least favorite food?
A: Cheese!
Q: You’re hosting a dinner party. Who are the 3 people, living or dead, who you would invite and why?
Benefits of a Lawn Care Program
February 2, 2018It won’t be much longer until the Hively Landscapes team is out in full force in order to ensure our clients’ lawns are the greenest on the block. Can you believe winter’s on its way out already? Yay!
If you’ve recently considered a lawn care treatment program for your home or business, but haven’t yet committed, let us help make your decision a little easier by reviewing a few of the benefits our customers receive from their treatment programs.
Come Visit Us at the York Builders Home & Garden Show
January 31, 2018Hively Landscapes is proud to be a part of the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the York Builders Association Home & Garden Show. It’s a great event which we’ve found to be both fun and informative. If you’re interested in attending, take a moment to check out the details below.
What?
The 50th anniversary celebration of York Builders Association Home & Garden Show provides everything you need for your home or outdoors. This year will feature over 150 experts, along with stunning landscape displays and product demos for your home. There will also be loads of fun activities for children, making this a truly family-friendly event.
January & February Landscaping Tips
December 14, 2017Happy New Year! With 2018 just around the corner, it’s time to start preparing your landscape to look its best in the spring. While it is easy to hide away from the cold winter weather here in Pennsylvania, be sure to spend some time in January and February knocking out some simple yard work- beyond taking down the decorations you put up for the holiday season.
Not sure where to start? Here are a few helpful suggestions:
January
Believe it or not, January usually has a few nice, sunny days that provide the perfect opportunity to work on your landscape. It is the ideal time to inspect flowering trees and shrubs for broken, diseased, or weak branches and carefully prune them out. It is also the ideal time to prune flowering trees for shape but be careful, pruning is a skill that takes years to learn! You can also trim your fruit-bearing plants to encourage new growth and fruit production.
Up Your Curb Appeal with Professional Landscaping Services
September 28, 2017It’s no secret that curb appeal landscaping can increase the value of your home and the likelihood that it will sell successfully. However, moving is already a stressful time for any homeowner and you may not have the time to sort through curb appeal ideas, let alone implement any of them.
Fortunately, hiring an experienced landscaping company can be an easy and affordable way to quickly increase your curb appeal and your home’s value. These are the services we recommend to homeowners looking to put their house on the market.
Get Your Lawn to Make Some Green
A healthy lawn is one of the most attractive features a home buyer wants to see – and the first that they see. A healthy lawn signals to the buyer that the house has been well maintained during your ownership.
Proper aeration and overseeding can assist in ensuring a lush, green lawn that buyers will adore.
Color a Buyer’s Perspective
Green isn’t the only color that can add value to your home. Curb appeal landscaping that includes colorful flowers, shrubs and trees will add some wow-factor to your yard. Buyers will perceive your home to be more welcoming if there are lively, colorful plants surrounding it.
To make your gardens and flower boxes stand out, request that your landscaper use darkly colored mulch. A darker shade of mulch will add to the perception that the soil is healthy, while also adding a great visual contrast to all of those colorful plants.
Providing a Clean Slate
Hardscaping is an important factor in curb appeal. Begin with a thorough pressure washing of your decks, patios and walkways. Once clean, inspect your hardscaping for any cracks or deterioration. Repair, replace and repaint as necessary. Having your hardscaping looking new and pristine will drive value into your home.
Light It Up
While most buyers will only see your curb appeal landscaping during daylight hours, installing outdoor lighting is a smart, inexpensive way to highlight your home. Landscape lighting helps reassure buyers that your home is located in a safe, desirable neighborhood.
Does your curb appeal need an upgrade? Contact Hively Landscapes about any of these services. Our experts can help you enhance your curb appeal so that your home is ready to sell.
Add Color to Your Landscape with These Fall Flowers
September 21, 2017Leaves are falling and Autumn is knocking at our door. For most fall color means the browns, reds and oranges of those falling leaves, but if you are wishing for more color, plants that are hearty enough to withstand the falling temperatures. To get you started, we’ve created a list of our favorite fall flowers.
Mums
With a variety of available colors and a reputation for being one of the easier plants to care for, Chrysanthemums or mums, have become a fall staple for many gardeners and homeowners. Reds, pinks, purples, oranges and yellows can be combined and arranged to create depth and dimension to your landscape.
Mums that can be purchased at the store tend to be of the non-hardy variety, and will more than likely die before winter. Selecting the right variety, along with early planting, can help you maintain that pop of color throughout the cooler months.
Pansies
Like mums, pansies are another fall flower favorited by many. While the plant family offers the warm colors of fall, it also offers cooler colors to balance out your landscape palette: blues, purples and even blacks.
One reason pansies are so popular is their versatility. Pansies can be used in container gardens, as ground cover or companion and border plantings.
Ornamental Cabbages and Kales
While these plant varieties do not produce blooms, they can still provide vibrant color to your landscape. Whites, pinks and purples are available in a range of textures.
Asters
If mums bring the warm tones of fall, asters give the cool colors of the season. Asters, or Michaelmas Daisies bloom in vibrant pinks, purples, blues and whites. As their nickname suggests, these flowers resemble daisies, but can be found much later in the year than the real deal.
Sedum
Sedum, also called Showy Stonecrop, takes a while to bloom, but is worth the wait. This shrub-like plant produces bright pink and purple blooms that become richer in color throughout the season.
Want to bring some color into your fall? Let the experts at Hively design and install a landscape that will keep its vibrancy all season long. Contact us today to get started.
Prepare Your Landscape For Winter with Fall Lawn Care
August 31, 2017Cooler weather will be here before we know it! And while it’s tempting to assume that the change of seasons means you can take fall lawn care off your to-do list, this isn’t the case. Continuing upkeep and maintenance on your landscape is essential during the cooler months, especially if you want to have a healthy, lush lawn by the time spring rolls around. Here are some simple steps to winterize your landscape.
Soil Testing
Soil testing your yard is one of the easiest ways to determine the overall health of your landscape. Measuring the pH and nutrient levels of your property allows us to prescribe the best fall and spring lawn care plan for your soil’s specific needs.
Mowing and Maintenance
Cool weather grasses will continue to grow in Central PA in the fall. It’s important to continue to cut your lawn until the first frost of the season. You may even want to cut the grass slightly shorter than usual. This makes it easier to aerate and fertilize.
Aeration and Fertilization
This is the best time to aerate and fertilize your lawn. Fertilizing the grass now will ensure it has the nutrients it needs to thrive in the spring, while aeration will allow the roots easier access to those nutrients. The aeration and fertilization one-two punch is one of the best ways to prepare your lawn for the winter ahead and the spring to follow.
Removing Dead and Dying Plants
Pruning and removing dead trees does more than improve your landscape’s appearance. It also prevents possible property damage from falling limbs and branches. As an added bonus, removing smaller dead plants from gardens and composting the remains is a natural way to give your garden beds a boost for the spring.
Remove Leaves and Debris
Ailing limbs and branches aren’t the only dead things that need to go when prepping your lawn for winter. Removing leaves, which prevents bald spots on your lawn and reduces cleanup after a snowfall, is essential for a healthy lawn in the spring.
Mulching
As temps cool in mid to late Fall covering temperature-sensitive plants with mulch will help insulate your garden from the dropping temperatures of the season. It will also help reduce weeds come springtime.
Herbicide
It may seem strange to worry about killing weeds in the fall, but using a well timed pre-emergent herbicide now will leave grass with more room to grow and minimize early germinating weeds in mulch and planting beds
Ready to prep your lawn for winter? The experts at Hively offer fall lawn care services so you can have a beautiful landscape by spring. Contact us today.
Lawn Aeration in the Fall Creates Healthy Landscapes
August 17, 2017Turf grass, like any plant, needs a strong root system to thrive. However, turf grass is pruned far more frequently than most plants– every time the grass is cut! This means grass spends most of its energy growing new foliage, instead of strengthening its root system. A poor root system means a plant, including grass, can’t get the nutrients it needs, is not able to survive extended dry periods, and is less resistant to pests and pathogens.
If you are a Hively Lawncare customer, you’re already helping your turf grass with regular fertilization. But what else can you do to improve its health? Lawn aeration! Lawn aeration, which refers to the removal of thousands of small soil ‘cores’ from the turf grass, allows water and fertilizer to more easily reach the root zone. Aeration also improves soil structure by reducing compaction, reducing thatch, and creating room for new roots to grow. At Hively, we recommend an annual lawn aeration due to the clay soils in our region.
For you DIYers out there, mechanical aerators are available at most local rental stores, but consider yourself warned— aerating is dirty, noisy, hard work, and it’s surprisingly easy to mess up! Hively offers both spring and fall aeration; the summer months are not ideal. So if you have better things to do with your time, contact Hively to learn more about lawn aeration and you’ll be one step closer to a healthier lawn!