Landscaping
Can’t wait to get landscaping around your new build?
Every year at this time, I get so many emails from homeowners with new builds that are excited to start adding some green to their muddy front yards. This year is even worse as it’s my mother-in-law who wants to get out and start planting. She bought a new home in a popular adult-living community near the water. With lots of houses going in, the mess from the construction is starting to wear everyone down with the constant dust and mud on every surface. Unfortunately, there are a few things to consider before everyone runs off and starts grooming their yards.
Read more at The Chronicle Herald
Take back your lawn
Want to take back your yard from some pretty serious weeds? You are not alone.
Here is a question from a reader:
Q) For the past three years I paid a company to do my front and back lawns. This spring my back yard was full of white violets. Pretty to look at, however not good to have. The company that I paid under contract to look after the lawns advised me that they could not do anything for me. They advised I have the back lawn completely removed and new fill be brought in and sod or seeded and start over. They refused to mow it or to do anything. A neighbour did mow it for me with my mower. It is now green and full of weeds. Terrible.
I cannot afford to do what they have suggested.
I really need help/advise of what can be done to get the lawn back where it should be.
~ Elizabeth
Read more at The Chronicle Herald
It’s time for some backyard cleanup
I have a lot of people asking me what they should be doing at this time of year in the garden. Besides weeding and chasing bugs, there really isn’t a lot that needs to get accomplished, which is why summer is the perfect time to start a new garden bed.
I recently took on a new overgrown space and transformed it without any backbreaking labour.
Read more at The Chronicle Herald
Do research, ask the right questions for a great yard
I received a letter recently from Albert in Nova Scotia who has a very important question about sod. I felt I should share an excerpt with you.
“…I have a rough area in my yard and was torn between seed, sod and hydroseeding. My friends out west call sod “poisonous strips of green death” and advise against using them. Apparently as the sod grows in the fields, they are regularly, liberally doused with huge amounts of bug killing pesticides and insecticides…”
Read more at The Chronicle Herald
Should I seed or sod?
I recently received an abbreviated question from a reader and thought that it is a problem many new home owners struggle with.
So I thought I should share it with you.
Q: Hi Carson. So my husband and I, along with our three hard-working teenage children, built our dream home (contracted it out ourselves) four years ago on an acre property in Cow Bay, 20 minutes from Halifax. We have done a lot of the work. We did have an excavating company come in and grub and level it last summer but unfortunately weeds have started to pop up due to not getting to it quick enough.
So we have been going back and forth between seed or sod…
Read more at The Chronicle Herald
Brighten your garden with trees
To round out my series on my favourite garden specimens, I want to include trees with the last few articles on plants and shrubs. Now that I am writing this, I realize that I should have done trees first, as they are the backbone to any one of my garden designs.
I use trees to define the space. They are visual anchors in a garden and often act as the transition spot between two different garden beds.
Read more at The Chronicle Herald
Outdoor tips to get you ready for spring
With real spring weather actually on the horizon, it’s time to start thinking about starting backyard projects, what’s trending, planning your home garden, and the best ways to add pops of colour to your outdoor space!
Read more at the Toronto Star’s Keeping it Real-Estate blog
Landscaping tips
Check out my Q & A at The Lighthouse all about how you can improve your home through landscaping – specifically when it comes to preventing home and property damage.
Taking landscape design to a new level
One of the biggest challenges I have as a landscape designer is communicating my vision of a space to my clients. Hand-drawing, while absolutely an art form, is very difficult to make significant changes to. If I spend hours doing a drawing and a client doesn’t agree with some of my fundamental ideas, I may have to redo everything.
I spent a lot of hours learning a design software system which allows me to show my designs in a 2D format.
Read more at The Chronicle Herald
