“I take very good care of my grass. For a few years my turf looked great. But now, it just looks tired. What happened?”
If your lawn or landscape is starting to look seedy and shabby despite regular maintenance, don’t worry. Chances are you aren’t doing anything terribly wrong. Most likely, it’s simply grown past the point where maintenance alone will do the trick. It’s time to renovate.
Just like your home or your car, your landscape needs regular maintenance to look its best. But eventually, all three will need more serious work.
A car may need its engine rebuilt. A house might benefit from a new kitchen, roof replacement, or addition. And your landscape will eventually need renovation work beyond the basics.
Landscape Maintenance: Maintaining The Status Quo
Let’s talk about maintenance first. Landscape maintenance includes all the things that are necessary to keep your landscape safe, looking manicured along with staying healthy from week to week or month to month. Maintenance like:
- Mowing
- Fertilizing
- Pest control
- Pruning
- Trimming
- Weeding
These are the normal recurring services that maintain the status quo of your landscape — in theory.
In reality, however, you’re going backwards a bit with each season. That’s because a landscape is dynamic. It grows and changes.
You can’t simply maintain something that’s dynamic — you have to manage it. Without enhancing and upgrading, after a season or two, your lawn may start looking scruffy, your beds crowded, and your shrubs gangly.
Fortunately, you can have your beautiful, lush landscape back. Chances are all it needs is a little landscape renovation.
Landscape Renovation: Making ‘Beautiful’ Your Status Quo
Renovation goes beyond the basics to actually restore and revitalize your lawn and beds. It’s like putting a new engine in your car or resurfacing your driveway rather than just patching the cracks. Landscape renovation services include:
Plant Replacement, Removal, Upgrades
Plants have a life span and can outgrow their surroundings. They are also are often planted for quick curb appeal to prevent a new bed looking skimpy.
Or sometimes, their surroundings may change so that they no longer thrive in that area. For example, if a neighboring tree has grown so that a sun-loving bed is now in shade.
To stay picture perfect, it’s necessary to switch things up from time to time. That may mean taking out plants and/or planting new ones.
Tree Services
Trees may need to be limbed up to allow clearance. They may need to be crown thinned. Some may even require removal if they are crowding each other or getting too big for the location.
Mulch
Remulching is a definite renovation need, and should typically happen twice per year in our area. Mulch should be thick enough to provide a nice appearance and good coverage against weeds, but not so thick as to suffocate plant roots or prevent moisture penetration.
A good landscape pro can help you determine the correct mulch for your needs and how thick to lay it.
Turf Renovation
Over time, turf gets compacted. This makes lawn aeration, periodic thatching as well as overseeding (for all season green) a definite must.
If there are young trees in the area you may also find that as they grow, you may need to replace your sun-loving turf species with a mix better suited to shade.
Seasonal Color
Just like people, plants need rest. If you want a continuous display of color, consider using flowering annuals and changing them out once they start to taper off. This is typically done two to three times a year in our area, often just for beds or containers in highly visible areas.
Special Events
We all have moments we want to celebrate, and what better way to do it than with a flourishing display of blooms? Whether you are hosting a wedding, vendor event, special visitor, or other occasion, your event may require blooming plants or special décor.
(And don’t forget to budget for landscape cleanup afterwards!)
The Unexpected
Natural events like storms, snow, ice, and flooding are a fact of life, and often require landscape cleanup and restoration.
Consider also the Murphy’s law element, such as someone running off the road into your shrub bed fountain or a hungry gang of wild hogs making a mess of your turf.
If your insurance policy has a high deductible, these incidents will also fall into your landscape renovation budget.
Smart Landscape Renovation Planning
We recommend renovating in increments rather than all at once. It’s just like home renovations — it’s less costly to take care of things as they are needed, rather than to wait until the whole place is run-down. This approach also keeps your property looking its best!
Reserving a category in your budget for landscape renovation will allow you to enjoy a property that’s beautiful all the time. However it’s hard to know exactly what to set aside.
If you need help, contact us online, or give us a call at 478-750-7733. With 25 years experience in landscape maintenance and renovation, we can help you develop a budget that will meet your needs to a T!
