CNY, NY Commercial and Residential Lawn Mowing and Landscaping Maintenance Services Since 2002
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Regarding enhancing your CNY home's curb appeal in North Syracuse, Baldwinsville, Radisson, Cicero, Liverpool, or Clay, NY, driveway landscaping and entrance ideas can significantly impact. A well-designed driveway and entrance can create a welcoming atmosphere, increase property value, and showcase your unique style. Here are some ideas to consider for transforming your driveway and entrance into a stunning focal point of your home.
Enhance the entrance of your CNY home by adding a pathway lined with vibrant flowers, shrubs, or trees. Incorporating colorful plants along the driveway can create a natural border and add visual interest. Consider planting a mix of different heights and textures to create a dynamic landscape that will catch the eye of visitors. Incorporate lighting along your driveway to improve visibility and create a warm and inviting atmosphere. LED lights can be placed along the pathway or integrated into the landscaping to highlight certain features. 315-506-6999
The first step to having a beautiful landscape is developing a good plan. Whether you are designing a landscape yourself or hiring a professional, a good plan will allow you to create an area that works for your needs and plan to execute it. Some key components to beginning your landscape design process include recognizing your needs, creating a base map, drafting a design, and implementing your plan. Determine Your Needs Often people approach landscaping haphazardly, buying attractive plants they see in a nursery and planting them somewhere they may latter regret. The first step in planning a landscape is to decide what you want it to be. Here are a few common interests to consider: Curb and window appeal. Improve the view to and/or from your house. Create an outdoor living space. Disguise your garden from public view and create outdoor living rooms. Provide recreation opportunity. Design a play area or structures for children or pets. Entertain your friends. Establish outdoor cooking and sitting areas. Attract wildlife to your garden. Create a backyard habitat for birds and butterflies. Now, not all of these benefits will be sought after from everyone. Depending on a person’s landscape, design, or plant preference, the emphasis will differ. Landscape use preference Backyard area for entertaining or dining Active play area with hard surface or lawn Private areas to read, tan, or reflect. Wildlife habitat for birds or butterflies. Edible garden Pet friendly Design preferences: View(s) you want to keep or hide. Outdoor decking or patio area. Fence or gate in your garden. Outdoor lighting. Grill or cooking area. Planters, sculptures, or rocks. Water features. Plant preferences: Shade tree.s Ground cover. Lawn. Spring/fall/summer flowering shrubs. Vegetable or herb garden Fruit trees. When considering what landscape ideas will work for you, also be sure to consider some of the following limitations: What level of maintenance are you willing to commit too? Will you hire a professional to install or maintain it or will you do it yourself? Are there existing property conditions that may affect your design? Are there home owners associations, neighbor, or other factors that may affect your plan? Creating a Base Map The next step is to inventory your property’s existing features and put them on a base map. A base map is an overhead view of your property in which you can use to later sketch out ideas for your landscape design. Property boundaries and dimensions An outline of your home, driveway, patios, and other structures Property orientation in order to determine the sun/shade patterns Any other tree’s, existing shrubbery, or areas in which are un-usable for your new landscape design Layout Your Design Once you have established your usable area within your property, you are ready to layout your design. Don’t select your plat verities just yet. Simply deciding location, height, and type of plant are sufficient. Some general tips when designing your layout: Keep it simple. Complex designs result in more maintenance and overcrowding Provide adequate width for your bed. A generous width will give your plants room to grow into their natural shape, reducing maintenance. Use plants to screen unsightly views and create privacy. A natural hedge can provide privacy from neighbors or busy roads. Grasses can be used to hide electrical boxes or water meters. If you are having difficulty designing your layout on paper, take your thoughts to the yard and mock up the beds. You can use your garden hose, string, or paint to outline beds and see how they look in your current yard. This will help you get a better feel for the space required, and what room you have left for other uses. Leave these markers up for a few days to see how they feel with foot traffic. Choosing the Right Plants Choosing the individual plants can sometimes be the most rewarding part of designing your new landscape. The key to success is selecting the right plant for the right place. A list of the basic plant material you have to work with: Trees – Trees will typically have the largest design impact Evergreen trees provide strong textural statements and are often used for screens or backgrounds. Deciduous trees lose their leaves in winter and will want summer shade and winter sun. Large Shrubs – Shrubs can range in height anywhere from 1 foot to 15 feet. There is a wide variety of shrubs adapted for different climates (dry to moist, hot to cold) and therefor offer many choices for your garden. Vines – Vines provide an inexpensive screen with color and interest. They are usually grown on fences, arbors, or trellises. Low-growing shrubs and perennials – Arrange these plant types in a group of like species. Ornamental Grass – Grasses provide a versatile choice for your garden. They are very tolerant shrubs that can serve a variety of purposes. Ground cover – Ground cover will tie the plant layout together and can often be used in place of lawn. Annuals, perennials, herbs, and vegetables – Annuals such as pansies and impatient only last one year and must be replanted. They are often used as a focal point of a garden which provides seasonal color. Perennials such as day lilies, iris, and hostas come back year after year and are available in a wide variety of flower color and foliage. If you want to grow vegetables, reserve an area with full sun and rich cultivated soil. The key to a successful landscape project is choosing the right plant for the right place on your property. Selecting plants that are adapted to your local conditions should grow better, require less maintenance, and require fewer inputs such as water, fertilizer, and pesticides. When selecting the right plants for your area, be sure to also consider these factors: Climate – Be sure to always consider the fact that your shrubs will endure a harsh winter and must be tolerant to the temperature and extreme conditions we have. Microclimate – Consider the microclimate of your yard such as sun or wind exposure. Water needs – Group plants in your landscape design accordingly with their water needs so they can be watered efficiently. Soil and drainage – Consider the soil preference of the plants you select. If there are plantings near a house, drainage, or gutters, be sure the water is irrigated appropriately. Placement in the landscape bed – Know the plant’s growth potential and provide adequate space to reach its maximum width and height.
Lawns are generally the largest consumer of water for a typical property. During times of drought, your lawn can suffer damage that reaches much farther than initial browning. Most weeds require much less water than grass to survive. During times of drought weeds can continue to thrive and drown out the surrounding suffering grass. A general rule of practice requires your CNY lawn to receive one inch of water per week. Some extra ways you can help protect your lawn during a drought are: Mow weekly so you don’t remove more than one-third of the grass blades Mow the lawn higher during times of drought. Taller grass blades will promote deeper roots and the grass will shade the soil resulting in less evaporation Leave grass clippings on the lawn as you mow. This will help feed small amounts of nitrogen back into the soil When watering, try to avoid watering during the peak heat. Watering in the early morning or as the sun begins to fall will leave little room for burning and create less evaporation.
1. Spring Clean up Depending on the cleanup you were able to do in the fall, spring cleanup can be a daunting task for those that weren’t able to remove the leaves and debris. Keeping your landscape bed clean of debris is vital to keeping harmful mold, rot, and pathogens out of the garden. Removing the leaves from the landscape bed as well as any dead that was not cut back in the fall will help get your garden off to a fresh start for a healthy season. 2. Maintain Edges Maintaining the edges to your landscape beds are a vital part to not only the look of your landscape bed, but also the health. Keeping a nice clean edge on a landscape bed can help retain and mulch, compost, dirt, or stone within the bed giving it a professional look. As the snow in our area melts, and the spring rain comes through, keeping the edge updated will help prevent any washout from the rushing water. Having an edge on your landscape bed not only keeps the material in the bed, but also the grass out. Keeping the creeping turf out of the landscape bed will help prevent grasses and weeds within the bed which can take up vital nutrients needed from your garden. 3. Shrub Pruning Spring pruning and trimming can be an essential part of a plants long term health. Being in the weather climate that we are in, one of the first things you should do during your spring walk around is to check for any damage from the winter. Any branches which have suffered damage from twisting, breaking, or bent should be pruned now. A clean cut is easier for the plant to heal compared to a tear as the shrubs raise from dormancy. As you begin to make your first round of pruning you must first ensure that there are no further signs of frost as this can cause damage to the shrubs. Along with your normal plant pruning, be sure to trim your roses at this time as well. You can prune 1/4-/1/3 of the rose bush as well as any dead canes to give them a lift for the year. 4. Perennial Clean Up While most of your perennial clean up should ideally be done in the spring time, some people like to leave some shrubs up for foliage during the winter. If your clean-up wasn’t done in the spring now is a good time to get to it. You want to start this process early and remove all of the dead from the shrub giving room for the new growth to sprout. Hosta, grasses, daylilies, and cone flowers and all are cut back heavily nearly 90% to allow for the new green to come in. Don’t wait too long to do this though because the growth will start at the first sight of spring! 5. Dividing Perennials Take a look around your garden. Do you see any encroachment on shrubs into others? If you notice some crowding of your shrubs now, before they have received their summer growth, they will only become an issue. Spring is a great time to assess your garden and decide which shrubs should be divided. Not all shrubs can be divided, but some of the more common species include daylilies, irises, hosts, grasses, cone flowers, and yuccas.
Central New York’s harsh climate is often responsible for the damage to plants. Winter wind and cold temperature can damage bark and injure or kill branches, flower buds, and roots. Snow and ice and break branches and topple entire tree’s. Salt used for deicing streets, parking lots, and sidewalks can kill plants. Winter foot shortages force rodents and deer to feed on bark, twigs, and flower beds sometimes killing trees and shrubs. Cold damage Cold temperatures can cause damage in several ways. Injury is more prevalent and more severe when low temperatures occur in early fall or late spring, when there is little or no snow cover during the winter or when low temperatures are of prolonged duration. Pronounced fluctuations in temperature can be extremely detrimental to plants throughout the fall, winter, or spring. Discoloration of evergreens Browning or bleaching of evergreen foliage during winter occurs for three reasons: Winter sun and wind cause excessive foliage water loss while the roots are in frozen soil and unable to replace lost water. This can result in browning of the plant. During bright, cold winter days, chlorophyll in the foliage is destroyed and is not resynthesized when temperatures are above 28. This results in bleaching of the foliage. Cold temperatures early in the fall before plants have hardened off completely or late in the spring after new growth has occurred can result in injury of this non-acclimated tissue. Dieback Deciduous trees and shrubs can incur shoot dieback and bud death during the winter. Flower buds are more susceptible to injury than vegetative buds. A good example of this is forsythia, where plant stems and leaf buds are hardy, but flower buds are very susceptible to cold-temperature injury. Little can be done to protect trees and shrubs from winter dieback. Plants that are marginally hardy should be planted in sheltered locations (microclimates). Plants in a vigorous growing condition late in the fall are most likely to suffer winter dieback, so avoid late summer pruning, fertilizing, and overwatering. Fertilize in the spring on sandy soil or in the fall on heavy soil after the leaves have dropped. Root Injury Roots do not become dormant in the winter as quickly as stems, branches and buds, and roots are less hardy than stems. Roots of most trees and shrubs that grow in Central New York are killed at temperatures at or below 0 to +10°F. These plants survive in CNY because soil temperatures normally are much higher than air temperatures and because soil cools down much more slowly than air temperature. Many factors influence soil temperature. Moist soil holds more heat than dry soil, so frost penetration will be deeper and soil temperatures colder for sandy or dry (drought) soils. Snow cover and mulch act as insulators and keep soil temperatures higher. With newly planted trees, cracks in the planting hole backfill will allow cold air to penetrate into the root zone, reducing fall root growth or killing newly formed roots. To encourage fall root growth and to reduce root injury, mulch new trees and shrubs with 3 to 6 inches of wood chips or straw. If the fall has been dry, water heavily before the ground freezes to reduce frost penetration. Check new plantings for cracks in the soil and fill them with soil. Frost heaving Repeated freezing and thawing of soil in fall or spring causes soil to expand and contract, which can damage roots and heave shrubs and new plantings out of the ground. A 4- to 6-inch layer of mulch will prevent heaving by maintaining more constant soil temperatures. Snow and ice damage Heavy snow and ice storms cause damage by bending and breaking branches. Multiple leader, upright evergreens, such as arborvitae and juniper, and multiple leader or clump trees, such as birch, are most subject to snow and ice damage. Relatively small trees can be wrapped together or the leaders tied with strips of carpet, strong cloth or nylon stockings two-thirds of the way above the weak crotches. These wrappings must be removed in spring to prevent girdling, and to allow free movement of the stem. Proper pruning, to eliminate multiple leaders and weak branch attachments, will reduce snow and ice damage. For trees with large wide-spreading leaders or large multi-stemmed trees, the main branches should be cabled together by a professional arborist. Salt damage Salt used for deicing walks and roads in winter can cause or aggravate winter injury and dieback. Salt runoff can injure roots and be absorbed by the plant, ultimately damaging the foliage. Salt spray from passing autos can also cause severe foliar or stem injury. To prevent salt damage, do not plant trees and shrubs in highly salted areas. Avoid areas where salty runoff collects or where salt spray is prevalent, or use salt-tolerant species in these areas. Burlap barriers may provide protection to some plants from salt spray. Animal damage Mice, rabbits (rodents), and deer can all cause severe damage to plants in the winter. These animals feed on the tender twigs, bark, and foliage of landscape plants during the winter. They can girdle trees and shrubs and eat shrubs to the ground line. Deer can cause significant injury and breakage by rubbing their antlers on trees during the fall. Trees can be protected from rodent damage by placing a cylinder of ¼-inch mesh hardware cloth around the trunk. The cylinder should extend 2 to 3 inches below the ground line for mice and 18 to 24 inches above the anticipated snow line for rabbit protection. Deer feed on and damage terminal and side branches of small trees and shrubs. Repellents containing thiram provide some control if feeding pressure is not extremely heavy. Plants can be sprayed or painted with the repellent; however, the most effective procedure is to hang heavy rags near the plants to be protected that have been dipped in concentrated repellant. Repeated plant applications or dipping of rags is necessary. Deer can also be successfully excluded with fencing. To be effective, fences must be high and constructed properly. If deer are starving, there is little that will prevent feeding. Providing more palatable forage may help, but it may also attract more deer.