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How does your garden grow?
Admin • May 31, 2019
Probably not with silver bells and cockleshells*, considering there aren’t any sandy beaches in central Kentucky
😉
~ Have you ever moved into a new home that has either a badly neglected flower garden or no garden at all? It’s happened to me a few times, and the untended space always starts me longing to fill it with a beautiful new garden of my own design. But I always hit the same wall, where do I begin?
At this time of year those trips you make to the big-box store for new faucets and door knobs begin to include the lure of the garden center.
Waves of brightly colored blooms and intriguing vines, flowers and shrubs in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and textures draw the eye like magnets. I usually find myself overwhelmed by all of the wonderful options on display, and frustrated by indecision. You know you can’t just grab a random selection of your favorites and expect to somehow make it work, sadly there is little chance of success in creating a garden you will love with impulse choices.
The best way to start planning a front garden is to take a step back. Remember that the front flower bed is meant to compliment the architecture of your home, to look like it was specifically made for your home as an extension of it’s exterior. If your home’s architecture is formal, for example, you may want to soften that a bit, but you can’t ignore it all together. A cottage style garden on a colonial home, as much as you may adore them, will be an awkward fit. Go crazy in the backyard if you must, but respect the role the front garden plays in curb appeal. Your neighbors will thank you for it, and a well designed and maintained front garden will play a part in curb appeal should you decide to sell you home in the future.
Step one is the work of creating the perfect garden bed. While it’s easiest to just put in the standard rectangular bed running the length of the wall, it’s not the only – and rarely the best – way to go. Gently curved garden borders that carry to the side wall do a great job softening the straight, square edges of some homes, while the undulating border that follows the curves of other styles of home helps the garden bed blend as a more natural extension of the home. Once you’ve mapped out the shape of the bed, it’s time to choose what you’ll use to define the border and put a clean edge between your garden and your lawn.
Soil preparation is next up, and your garden’s success is best achieved by first choosing which plants you’ll be adorning it with. While there are a few plants which are highly adaptable to any soil type, they are the rare exception. Nearly all plants have specific soil, sun, and water needs in order to thrive. What is the optimal pH range, soil texture, and water retention level? Some plants don’t mind being watered from above, while others will suffer if not watered at soil level. Likewise drainage – certain plants simply can’t survive wet feet and will not tolerate heavy clay soils
Choosing your Foundation Plants
Take a look at the more established homes of neighbors. You’ll find many homeowners regard the front garden as simply a functional extension of their home to be installed and maintained, but otherwise uninspired. They choose common and sensible foundation plants, contract for maintenance, and forget it. Not everyone is a gardener, so this works well for them. But if you love gardening, it’s fun to design something a bit more inspired.
You can cover all of the bases without being limited to the boring and staid – squared shrubs of boxwood all in a row with monkey grass for a border. There’s room for your personal creativity, and a wonderful array of perennials in size, shape, texture and shades of green when not in bloom to choose from. The appearance of your foundation plants – those which will most perfectly compliment the home for many years to come – is the best place to start.
If you don’t want bare branches in the winter months, why not go with evergreens? Evergreens will give you a consistent look year round, and are highly adaptable to acting as backdrop support characters in the more whimsical spring, summer and fall garden plantings. From the stately columnar arborvitae to the graceful sprawling fronds of the juniper, you can follow the lines of your home from tall to small, and taper the ends with low and spreading choices. They all appreciate a good trim, but you can also turn the arborvitae into a towering spiral, and the juniper into a compact orb for the perfect contrast.
Although these coniferous varieties are the first to come to mind when you hear the word ‘evergreen,’ not all evergreens are conifers. Other evergreen plants include euonymus, rhododendron and holly bush. While the holly can be a nightmare to work with, the beauty of it’s shiny waxed leaves, bright red berries in the gray of winter, and superior ability to ward off would be burglars make it widely popular.
Key Considerations
Are there windows across the wall which serves as a back drop to your garden? If so, and actually in all cases, know the full potential in height and spread of the plants you choose. A great looking approach is to plant bushes that will grow to skirt the bottom of the window across it’s span, and add the columnar conifers on either side of the window. It’s also the perfect approach where a bay window is concerned.
The options are nearly endless, so why not just browse various designs on the internet. You’ll not only find garden designs that spark your creative juices, you’ll also come across those which will help you define exactly what you do not like! A great way to conduct such a search is to refer to your home’s architecture. For example: “Best garden designs for ranch style homes.”
Once you have your foundation garden exactly as you like it, you can move on to the foreground plantings, where the rules are much more lax, leaving room for your personal touch to take center stage.
Next week we’ll get in to how best to approach the addition of color and interest with complimentary perennials and annuals that will put the finishing touch on your perfect garden.
Welcome To Spring!
If you’d like to consult with a landscape design professional for help with your garden design, and get the hard dirty work done for you, look no further than Mow Mow’s Family Landscaping. Jennifer does an amazing job of turning your vision into a reality. The Mow Mow’s award winning team is prompt, professional, and knowledgeable. Satisfaction guaranteed! Give Jennifer a call at 859-475-4500
* Random reference to Mother Goose’s nursery rhyme ‘Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.’
February 15, 2019 Lexington, KY – Mow Mow’s Landscaping is proud to announce that it has earned the home service industry’s coveted Angie’s List Super Service Award (SSA) for the second year in a row! This award honors service professionals who have maintained exceptional service ratings and reviews on Angie’s List in 2017 & 2018. “The service providers that receive our Angie’s List Super Service Award demonstrate the level of excellence that members have come to expect,” said Angie’s List Founder Angie Hicks. “These pros are top-notch and absolutely deserve recognition for the trustworthy and exemplary customer service they exhibited in the past year and overall.” Angie’s List Super Service Award 2018 winners have met strict eligibility requirements, which include maintaining an “A” rating in overall grade, recent grade and review period grade. The SSA winners must be in good standing with Angie’s List, pass a background check, record a current trade license attestation and abide by Angie’s List operational guidelines. “Mow Mow’s goal has always been to exceed our customer’s expectations in quality of work, professionalism and promptness of service. It is an honor to receive this reward and be recognized for attaining this goal for the 2nd year in a row.” – Jennifer Medrano, Owner Mow Mow’s Landscaping has been listed on Angie’s List since 2017 when the company was first launched. This is the second time Mow Mow’s Landscaping has received this honor. Service company ratings are updated continually on Angie’s List as new, verified consumer reviews are submitted. Companies are graded on an A through F scale in multiple fields ranging from price to professionalism to punctuality. For over two decades Angie’s List has been a trusted name for connecting consumers to top-rated service professionals. Angie’s List provides unique tools and support designed to improve the local service experience for both consumers and service professionals. ### For over two decades, Angie’s List has provided trusted reviews and information to help millions of consumers make smart hiring decisions. Angie’s List offers more than 10 million verified reviews in over 700 service categories, providing its members a credible resource for researching and comparing local service providers. Angie’s List is based in Indianapolis, Indiana and is an operating business of ANGI Homeservices (NASDAQ:ANGI). Contact: Steffanie Finkiewicz Angie’s List 303-963-8384 mediarelations@angieslist.com You can check out Mow Mow’s Angie’s List reviews here .
If you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to start your garden, this is it. It’s time to start seeds indoors so they’ll be ready to plant outside when spring begins in earnest. It’s a fun project to get you through the late winter period that’s really all about waiting for spring to finally come calling.
With this record setting cold, central Kentucky is experiencing what’s known as a ‘hard freeze.’ But what exactly defines a hard freeze? –
here’s plenty of time before spring comes a long, but it’s always fun to look through magazines like Southern Living at the beautiful gardens and landscapes featured there. They’re always lush and thriving, often filled with unique plants and flowers you may have never seen before. But before you start pining for that unusual flora, there are several factors to consider if you want to be successful in having the gardens of your dream. The four most important are sun, soil, water and zone – these factors are the key to having that green thumb. Unfortunately, you can’t count on a plant’s label to give you the whole story, it’s a generalization at best.
Happy New Year! With the beginning of 2019 here upon us, 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 central Kentucky, 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:
Ice melting products can damage your landscape. Rock salt is by far the leader in causing landscape damage both in the soil and via wind driven salt spray.
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