Sunday 4 August 2013

Choosing the right landscaping contractor for the job

It is vitally important that you do your best to choose the perfect landscaping contractor to work on your yard or project. You cannot afford to choose randomly from the Yellow Pages when looking for a good landscaping contractor because with this method you have no way of actually knowing if they are any good at all. And you need your landscaping contractor to be good, very good. 

You can talk to the landscaping contractors that you see in the phone book but do not choose one before you have talked to them and seen some of what the landscaping contractor can do for you. You may be able to get them to actually take you to some of their previous projects, this is the best way to see what they can do for your yard. There are other ways of course such as pictures. You can have them show you a portfolio of their past work as well. This too is a good way to help you make your final decision as to which landscaping contractor to choose. 

This landscaping contractor will be the one to come up with the design of your entire yard perhaps in the front and the back yards. You want your landscaping contractor needs to be creative and full to brimming with all kinds of fantastic ideas. So when you have your meeting with the landscaping contractor, have them come over to your home. He or she, or the whole team should come over and go over your yard with you. They should also give you some top ideas for how they can transform your yard into a wonderland of awe. 

There are many ways in which the landscaping contractor can do this. They can use slopes and hills or they can use color and texture. The landscaping contractor that you choose will have their own ways of doing tings and making an impression, you just need to make sure that this impression will be one that you want to make as well. You do not want to get stuck with a yard that look like crap do you? That is why you need to see some samples of what this landscaping contractor can do for you.

Thursday 1 August 2013

Choose the landscaping company that will do the best work for you

In this day of the information age it has never been easier to find out what you need to know in order to hire the right landscaping company for the job. No matter if your job is a small one of a large one you still need to make sure that the landscaping company that you choose is reliable and trustworthy and that they actually know what they are doing.

You should start by finding out how long this landscaping company has been in business, the longer the better. If they have been in business for 20 some odd years then there is a much better chance that they are good at what they do. Of course there are exceptions to this rule but it is a pretty good rule of thumb. If they were so bad they would probably not have been able to stay working for so many years.

Your checking up should not end there however. You still need to find out just how well run a landscaping company they are. Look at it this way: most landscaping companies are small business and they only have a few people working there. The owners have to do the bulk of the work on their own. That is why they are not always as reliable as they should be. Like other contractors they have a lot on their plate and they can at times get overwhelmed and not show up for a job when they were supposed to. While I do not excuse it I can understand it. They have a lot of people demanding certain things from them. The owners of the landscaping company will generally have to do all of the free estimates themselves, take the appointments, get to the appointments, do the books and then do the actual landscaping company work. Wow, that is enough tot run anyone into the ground.

That is why you should find out how many clients a potential landscaping company has at the time you ate going to hire them. If they sound as if they will be too busy then you might want to choose another landscaping company, one that will have the time that you need. You need to choose a landscaping company that will be dedicated to the work that you are getting done, you are paying for a service and you deserve for it to be as good as it can be.

Sunday 28 July 2013

Low maintenance landscaping Chicago

If you live in the Chicago area and you are interested in getting some landscaping, Chicago native plants are your best choices. If you choose native plants you will find that your garden or yard will be much easier to take care of as time wears on. At first working in the yard may not seem like a big deal but you may get sick of it when the bloom wears off the rose, no pun intended. This is normal, we start to take our yards for granted and it is not so much fun to work on the landscaping Chicago anymore.

You can even use these native plants to solve your drainage problems. Chicago, for instance has many problems when it comes to drainage. They get a lot of different weather there and it affects the gardens more than you might think. When you are landscaping, Chicago weather needs to be taken into consideration at all times. Talk to your landscaper about what plants will be best for your yard. Don’t skimp with your landscaping, Chicago residents will know you did it and that is never cool. Take your time and find the perfect plants to suit you and your goals. And mention to the landscaper if you notice that you have any drainage problems and perhaps he will be able to suggest some good landscaping Chicago native plants to use. Just make sure that you see a picture of any plant before you agree to use it. Who knows what you might get otherwise. Everyone’s tastes are different and yours may be the polar opposite from the landscapers.

When trying to choose the right plants for landscaping Chicago take a look around you. What kids of plants do your neighbors have? Which ones do you like and which do you despise? Show the landscaper that you choose what you are interested in seeing if your own landscaping. Chicago landscapers tend to be very flexible and open to ideas. This is your yard after all and you and your family are the ones who have to live with it forever.

When looking into landscaping, Chicago perennials may be the way to go. This way you will not have to plant new flowers and plants each and every year. That is a lot of maintenance and most people with landscaping, Chicago residents anyway, do not have the time for this kind of thing.

Thursday 25 July 2013

Is home landscaping different than other landscaping?

home landscaping is no different than any other kind of landscaping. It is natural for people to want their home to look as fab as it possibly can, who does not want the kind of yard that the whole neighborhood is envious of? And he beauty of home landscaping is that it does not have to be hard and much of it can be done by you. All it will take a it a little elbow grease and some time to spare and you can design your own home landscaping design quickly and easily.

There are even products on the market that will help you to find the best home landscaping idea out there. You can choose to use home landscaping software for one. These programs can be a great help to you as you are trying to figure out what will suit your home and yard the best. With these types of programs you will get to see a few different layouts and options are always good when trying to narrow down your choices.

If home landscaping software programs are not for you, then you can try doing a search online for some wonderful home landscaping ideas. The internet is full of great sites that you can use to get everything done the right way. It is important to do plenty of research before you start your own home landscaping so that you keep the number of mistakes made down to a minimum. If you do make a boo-boo, don’t worry about it, any thing can be fixed.

Before you start your home landscaping you will need to also look into any gas lines and electrical lines that may be running through your yard. This is very important if you are planning to be doing a lot of digging. You cannot afford to hit any of these things, not only can it cost you a bundle to fix, it can also be very dangerous. Hitting an electrical line with a metal shovel could put an end to all of your work, your life too. 

You will also need to find out about zoning restrictions that could affect your home landscaping. In some places you cannot have trees too high and even some fences are not allowed. Find out these kinds of things before you start your home landscaping work and you could save a lot of time and money.

Sunday 21 July 2013

Layering garden landscaping

Could your home do with a little more garden landscaping? Probably so, and that is a good thing. In fact you should be very excited about it because there is nothing more fun than garden landscaping, it will get your imagination working overtime and you will have a ball planting and rearranging your plants and flowers.

By layering your garden landscaping beds you will be able to add a whole other level of beauty to your landscaping design. Your yard is the first thing that people will see when they come to your house and giving a grand tour that includes a fabulous garden is always fun and exciting. You will be the talk of the neighborhood, and for all the right reasons this time, when you do some really good garden landscaping.

Layering your garden landscaping design is easy to do. You need to know the flowers that you are going to plant first however. The choices that you make as far as the flowers and other plants will affect just how your garden landscaping is laid out. For example you do not want to have the taller plants in front of the shorter ones. This is obvious but you should still make a rough sketch of where you want things laud out for your garden landscaping before you begin. This will help you to keep thins as simple as possible. Your garden landscaping will go a lot faster this way and you will run into fewer problems as you go.

When layering you should have about three layers. Your back row should face north, if it can, and the back row should have the tallest plants and as the rows descend so should the heights of the plants and flowers. The trick of this kind of garden landscaping is that oftentimes the plants we buy are baby plants. So you will need to talk to those working at your local gardening store about how large the plants will grow to be. This is key to successful garden landscaping. If the front or middle row of your garden landscaping design is going to grow much higher than the last row, then you will have to do some rearranging.

The layering affect of your garden landscaping design will add depth and make your garden much more interesting to look at. This is what will make your garden landscaping a success.

Thursday 18 July 2013

Easy front yard landscaping

Having a low maintenance front yard is the goal of many people. You can get easy to manage front yard landscaping done by any of the professional landscapers in your area or you can do it yourself. Either way you can have front yard landscaping done that will take minimal work to keep looking fantastic all year round. If you are going to get a professional in to do your front yard landscaping though, be sure to tell him that this is your over all goal, that you want to have a yard that will not take a lot of work to keep up.

If you have less grass in your front yard landscaping then you will cut out a lot of maintenance time right there. Mowing the lawn can take up a lot of time and energy so keeping the grass to a minimum is a great way to save on work. Talk to the front yard landscaping expert about alternative that you can use to keep your yard look good with little lawn area.

Some people choose to use clover instead of grass. Using a clover lawn in your front yard landscaping is a good idea because it will save you money and time. You will not have to mow it very often at all and a clover lawn is even good for front yard landscaping in area that is prone to droughts. They do well virtually everywhere. And best of all for those who want to get out there and enjoy their front yard landscaping, bugs hate clover.

Watering the yard can be a big hassle as well. That is why many people incorporate automatic irrigation systems into their front yard landscaping designs these days. This can save you tons of time and money. This is one of the easiest ways for you to keep your yard looking healthy and well watered during the hotter months of the year. No more hooking up the sprinkler or having to drag out the hose. You can get a professional to install one of these systems for your front yard landscaping design quickly and easily or you can get a kit and do it yourself. I would recommend getting in a professional however, unless you have experience with this kind of thing. If you were to cause a leak then you could face some flooding and rotting and neither of these is going to do anything for your front yard landscaping, do you know what I mean?

Sunday 14 July 2013

Planning for desert landscaping

If you live in a dry and arid climate then your desert landscaping is going to take a little more planning than some other parts of the country. desert landscaping will have to work with a plan that includes only plants and trees that can survive with much less water than some other plants. There is no point in planting something if it can not sustain itself afterwards. So take some time with your desert landscaping plan and make sure that you have done everything suited to the climate.

You could spend the money to get better irrigation put in but the money will be great and the time will be all consuming. It is much simpler for your desert landscaping plan to just include plants that will thrive even in the hot sun all day.

What makes using desert landscaping friendly plants so great is that not only will these plants do well even in the hot sun they will also be able to thrive in poor quality soil. This is a much needed quality because places that have so much sun tend to have poor soil as well. So in essence you are killing two birds with one stone as they say.

Here are some wonderful plants that you can use in your desert landscaping:

Longwood Blue bluebeard
This is a shrub, it is deciduous and it will grow back each and every spring. It will always come back healthy and happy and this makes it perfect for desert landscaping. It is not a tiny shrub, it will grow to be anywhere between 3 and 4 feet high with a width of about 2 feet. This is a lovely plant to use in your desert landscaping as it is not only beautiful with its pretty blue flower clusters and silver foliage, it is also very fragrant.

Autumn Joy
This is a wonderful perennial that you can plant for your desert landscaping. With this choice you will have great leaves in pretty whorls. These leaves can be any number of different colors and can be bought to go with any desert landscaping design. This plant is the ultimate for desert landscaping because it can grow in rock gardens with ease. This lovely desert landscaping plant also has a unique and interesting flower unlike any other I have ever seen. These small flowers grow in clusters and they can be a few different colors and shades. The most common are yellow, orange and red and pink. If you plant these in your garden you will have butterflies around all of the time and they make for lovely entertainment on their own.