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Questions to Ask a
Landscape Design Contractor
Once you’ve decided to implement a landscape design for your
lawn or garden, the next step is deciding whether or not to
hire a landscape design contractor. Depending on the
difficulty of your landscape design, a design contractor can
save you time, trouble, and money.
Choosing a landscape design contractor can be a difficult and
confusing process. Researching local landscape design
contractors and relying on recommendations by your friends,
family, and neighbors can help you decide which contractors
are reliable and affordable. Preparing yourself with questions
for your potential landscape design contractors and educating
yourself about local rates and operating standards can help
you select a landscape design contractor with confidence.
The first question to ask your potential contractor regards
education and experience. Find out how long your contractor
has been landscaping and if he is certified with any
nationally recognized organizations, such as the American
Society of Landscape Architects. Find out if your potential
landscape design contractor can supply references from
previous clients.
Check out your design contractor’s credentials and company
history, as well as previous work. Ask about his design
process and what designs he envisions for your lawn or garden.
Make sure you ask your designer what his timetable estimates
are. How long will your landscape design contractor take to
finish your lawn? How long were you expecting the project to
take to finish? Are your timetables compatible? Make sure to
ask about what is included in the contract.
Does your landscape design contractor collaborate with other
professionals to complete the job if necessary or do you need
to find your own electricians or other contractors? Does your
landscape design contractor guarantee his work? What happens
if you are not satisfied with the completed project? Does your
landscape design contractor understand your ideas and vision
for your lawn and garden?
Make sure to know what the local landscape design rates are
before meeting with your potential contractor and asking about
his rates. Decide on rates and payment before any work is
begun on your landscape design project. Don’t be afraid to ask
your contractor to explain details of his contract, designs,
rates, or timetable. Communication is an invaluable tool to
ensuring complete satisfaction with your landscape design
project.
Tips For Pruning Fruit
Trees
Pruning fruit trees can be a necessary part of getting a
healthy fruit yield and extending the life of your fruit tree.
While pruning fruit trees may seem like a complicated and
time-consuming project, with a little education the task
doesn’t seem so difficult. Fruit trees need to be pruned every
year to ensure a good fruit yield. By following some very
basic pruning steps and gaining an understanding of the
purposes of pruning fruit trees, almost anyone can achieve the
desired results.
There are several reasons that pruning fruit trees is
necessary. Fruit trees can be overburdened with fruit during
the growing seasons, which can cause branches to snap or bend.
Pruning helps your fruit trees grow a strong enough frame that
branches will not become overburdened and brittle. Pruning
fruit trees can help them grow from a centralized structure,
rather than spindly and separate. Pruning fruit trees also
helps promote better fruit production.
Another reason for pruning fruit trees is to remove dead or
diseased limbs from the tree. Dead or dying limbs can quickly
infect the rest of your fruit tree branches and can cause the
tree to weaken or die. Another objective for pruning fruit
trees is to keep the branches spread out enough that the lower
limbs are not completely shaded. Thinning out your branches
allows light to reach every portion of the tree, again
promoting a healthier and heartier yield of fruit.
Most fruit trees should be pruned in the very late winter, or
the dormant season. Pruning done in the summer should be very
minimal and done with caution. During summer months, the tree
relies on its branches and leaves for most of its energy.
Removing too much of the tree can cause the tree to be injured
or even die. Pruning during dormant seasons promotes new
growth, rather than stunts existing growth.
There are many types of pruning cuts that you can use. The
most important thing to remember when pruning is to try and
make your cuts so that the tree will heal quickly. Long jagged
cuts can be more susceptible to infection or disease.
Cuts can be made for the purposes of thinning, shaping, or
heading the tree limbs. Shaping cuts are the most drastic and
should be avoided whenever possible. Heading cuts remove old
growth or part of a branch, rather than the entire shoot.
Thinning cuts serve to thin the trees branches allowing for
maximum light exposure and better fruit growth.
Greenhouse Gardening
Tips
Greenhouse gardening can utilize the outdoor gardening skills
you have learned and provide year-round results. Greenhouse
gardening can help you raise flowers and vegetables all year
round, can help you get an early start with planting your
seeds, and can let you experiment with cross-pollination and
creating your own flower varieties in a controlled
environment.
Greenhouse gardening has many advantages over outdoor
gardening. A greenhouse allows you to easily control the
growing environment of your plants by regulating temperature,
humidity, sunlight exposure, and other factors. Greenhouse
gardening can allow you to grow all kinds of different
varieties of flowers, vegetables, herbs, and fruit.
When choosing a site for your greenhouse, the most important
factor to remember is the amount of light you need for your
plants to grow optimally. Choose a flat spot in the open
sunlight. Make sure you choose a spot that will not be
obscured by the shade from any trees. Sunlight will be a large
source of the elevated temperature in your greenhouse. Make
sure you keep a thermometer in the greenhouse to carefully
monitor its temperature.
A temperature too high could require ventilation in your
greenhouse. Lower temperatures may require additional heating
to optimize your greenhouse gardening results. Make sure you
know the best growing temperatures for the specific plants you
intend to grow in your greenhouse. Strive to keep the
temperature in your greenhouse stable. Too much fluctuation on
either direction of the thermometer could be detrimental to
your growing environment.
Plan your greenhouse to have an adequate amount of workspace
within. Benches and tables for planting, repotting, watering,
and pruning can turn your greenhouse gardening experience into
a convenient and fluid routine. Lay out your plants carefully.
Make sure you know how much light each plant requires for the
best growth and position them to receive the optimal amount of
sunshine.
Choose your soils carefully. Research the best type of
nutrients for each plant. Growing herbs in your garden can
function as a natural pesticide. Position these herbs
strategically for the best effect. Drip systems can be very
effective when it comes to keeping your plants moist. Research
different methods of irrigation and choose which one suits
your needs the best.
Guide To Gardening
Zones
Being familiar with gardening zones can save the average
gardener time and trouble. Gardening zones are a guide to the
lowest mean temperature variants and estimated frost arrival
times of various regions around the world. Gardening zone
guides can help a gardener decide what to plant, how to plant
it, and when to plant it.
Having a familiarity with the gardening zone you reside in, as
well as the individual gardening needs of the varieties you
intend to plant, can greatly increase your chances of raising
a successful garden.
Gardening zones, sometimes called hardiness zones, are updated
every year and keep a running tally of each region’s vital
statistics. The lowest winter temperatures are averaged and
each region is given a zone number. While relying on the
planting advice of the gardening zones and regions, be aware
that there are also criticisms with the zoning system.
The demarcation of regions into gardening zones does not take
into consideration higher temperatures of that region. Regions
with a more temperate winter climate but a hotter summer
temperature could be categorized into the same gardening zone
as an area that is temperate all year round.
Another factor not taken into consideration by the gardening
zone placement is the accruement of snow. Regions with a
heavier snowfall tend to have more blanketed ground
insulation. Thicker ground insulation can lead to more
temperate ground conditions and therefore a longer growing
season.
Gardening zones do not record the amount of snowfall, so
regions that receive heavy snowfall that lasts a long time on
the ground can be placed in the same gardening zone as areas
that receive no snowfall, or where snow initially falls but
doesn’t linger on the ground.
Gardening zones are particularly effective in determining an
average winter temperature. Low winter temperatures can be one
of the major factors in the survival rate of plants. Because
gardening zones are determined by several years’ worth of
average winter temperatures, they are moderately reliable, but
not infallible.
Summer temperatures can also be a factor for plant life
survival, and winter temperatures can occasionally be
unseasonable warm or cold. But gardening zone recommendations
can serve as a good general indicator of the success rates of
different plant varieties in a particular region.
Tree Pruning Guide
Different kinds of trees require different kinds of pruning
and have different optimum times for pruning. Flowering trees,
shade trees, and fruit trees all have different types of
specific pruning. Generally, the best way to prune a tree is
not to cut the branch off directly at the trunk of the tree.
Leave a few inches of the branch you are cutting away from the
main trunk of the tree.
Cutting directly against the trunk can cause the tree to have
difficulties in healing, and may inadvertently result in the
death or stunting of the tree. There are many reasons for
pruning trees. Tree pruning can result in new, thicker, and
healthier growth. Flowering or fruit trees in particular need
to be pruned on a regular basis to encourage better growth and
more productive fruit or flower growth.
Branches that are dead or diseased can be pruned away at any
time during the year without causing damage to the tree. But
specific varieties of trees have different times when tree
pruning will do the most good. Flowering trees for instance,
are pruned to promote flower growth and thin out the existing
flowers for better displays.
The best time to prune flowering trees is in the late winter
or the very early spring. Thinning the flowering branches can
also prevent the tree from taking disease.
If your overhead flower cover is too thick, it can act as a
shade for the lower branches and cause the lower flowering
branches to wither. Flowering trees should be thinned
regularly so the branches do not touch. Fruit trees should be
pruned in very late winter. Make sure to prune any leftover
fruit buds off the tree to encourage growth.
The best time to prune shade trees, such as oak trees is also
in the late winter. Shade tree pruning should be done around
this time so the tree has enough time before the summer months
to heal. Shade trees that are pruned too late in the season
can be more susceptible to rot or disease during the summer
months. Shade tree pruning is often done for the purpose of
branch control, particularly in trimming the lower branches
that hang down over walkways or neighbors’ fences. |
