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Maintenance of a healthy and attractive landscape involves much more than just keeping plants alive. Even so-called low maintenance landscapes require some regular care. While many homeowners are able to keep their lawn and gardens in top condition without help, there are others who call Meadows Farms Grounds Maintenance for assistance.
- The mulch used on most landscapes will last a year or more until it decays enough that it must be replaced. In most cases remulching will require only about half of the mulch that was used on the initial installation. Wood mulches break down into the soil so it is not necessary to remove them prior to adding new mulch. Mulch serves several purposes: helping to keep weeds down, retaining even moisture in planting beds, and maintaining even temperatures in the Winter so the freeze and thaw cycle doesn't damage plants.
- We do not use weed fabrics as a standard on our landscapes because they do not allow water to flow freely to the soil, and in fact can be responsible for preventing water from reaching the roots of plants. Although they prevent most weeds from growing through, some weeds can grow through the fabric and some will grow in the mulch over the fabric. Also, spreading perennials that we include in many of our landscapes are prevented from spreading as the designer intends.
- Weeds should be pulled or sprayed with an herbicide regularly. If not, weeds can compete with ornamental plants for water and nutrients, and they are unsightly. Many weeds can be pulled by hand while they are young with the additional advantage that they won't go to seed and spread. Once a weed is established they can become difficult to pull so the most practical option might be an herbicide such as Roundup. Roundup is relatively safe to use, and is available at all Meadows Farms garden centers. Leaves that are sprayed will kill almost every plant, with the exception of some hard-to-kill plants such as ivy, poison ivy, and brambles such as blackberries.
- To maintain a crisp definition between grass and mulched beds, we use a garden spade to cut out sod that encroaches on the bed. Many homeowners use a power edger to define lawn edges along driveways and walks, but the spade works best to define the edge between lawn and landscape beds.
Links
Watering your landscape
Effective water use
Landscape pest control
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