Category: Landscape Maintenance
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.