Physicians Parking Before

Physicians Parking After

Front Entrance Before

Front Entrance After

Parking Lot Island Before

Parking Lot Island After

Front Rose Bed Before

Front Rose Bed After

As you can see the new landscape is a significant improvement over what we started with.

The weather has been hot this summer. It has not been unbearable but it certainly has affected the plants and lawns. Add to the heat we have had a lot of rain which is a blessing and a curse, Warm night and days have meant the vegetable gardens have performed well in fact most everything from the summer garden is winding down and that canning has been going on for several weeks now. Nothing like home made salsa in the winter to bring back the hint of a warm summer afternoon. Still have a few more weeks to enjoy those fresh tomatoes right off the vine. The lawns have however been invade by annual grasses due to the ideal growing conditions. Crabgrass and foxtail have taken over a lot of lawns. The best solution I have found is to give then a shot of roundup as they brown out get some peat moss and seed. Work up the area apply seed and top dress with the peat moss. Keep the area moist and then in a couple of weeks the areas killed off will be back in good shape. This is also the routine I use for a whole lawn renovation, the difference is I rent a slit seeder and do the whole lawn with it after it has browned out and go in several different directions. The real trick to success with seeding is moisture you need to keep the lawn moist for four weeks to allow all the seed to germinate.This means a light sprinkling a couple of times a day. The best time to do this is the end of August this will allow the grass to establish well by the end of fall and establish a good root system for next year.

As I mentioned earlier we have been splitting up dayliles and hosta and replanting the beds. The excess have been potted up for use next year. Well that is except for a hundred of the daylilies that will be used at the outlying facility for the landscape renovation. This saved about $500.00 in plant materiel costs and will significantly enhance the whole project.

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The mulch should be going down the first part of the week and the flagstone path is scheduled for Wednesday. Leaving Thursday and Friday for the rest of the gravel to be finished.

These shrubs are waiting for mulch. They will also be trimmed to a uniform height and this area will be finished.

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We have till the 24th of the month to finish the project but my goal is to be done at the end of the week. The sooner it is completed the better the facility will look and that is the ultimate goal. I will update at the end of this week and will install a photo gallery of the whole project.

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We removed what ever little plantings remained and laid down landscape fabric. Then American Heritage Gravel was put down to give a clean look to the area.

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The plantings along the fence were overgrown with weeds and a lot were dead or missing so the area was cleared out.

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New plantings were added

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Diablo Nine Bark And Miss Kim Korean Lilac were added to the area to give it a full appearance and provide screening from the street. This will enhance the overall appearance as people drive by as well.

There are two more areas that are candidates for the American Heritage Stone one is a transformer box and the other is a parking area along the back of the building. Currently the parking area is a mass of winter creeper and weeds.

Transformer Box

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Parking Area

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These areas should be dealt with this upcoming week. Also all the planting beds should be receiving a heavy layer of mulch. The end results should be a very pleasing landscape that will be easy to maintain.

Of all the things that are needed the material handling is the most complex. In particular nursery stock. In order to get a good price the whole order must be placed and delivered at once. This is were the problem comes in the stock needs to be kept well watered and healthy till planting time. This is a time consuming task the maybe as much as an hour and a half to two hours a day just to get everything watered.

Photos Of The Material For Our Most Recent Landscape Project

Here We See The Knockout Roses And Some Of The Shrubs

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Diablo Nine Bark In Containers

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Yarrow, Lambia,and Coreopsis Ready For Planting.

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Can’t Forget The Cat Mint

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So as you can see there is a lot to water. More important this is all in addition to having to do our daily maintenance schedule and any special things that come up as well. To do a project of this size does require some planning and if it were not for the fact that we have 3 seasonal workers this year I would probably would have had to contract it out.

It is nice every now and then to be able to do a project like this .Yes it is hectic and stressful but in the end there is a great deal of satisfaction knowing that you have been able to accomplish something and that the fruits of your labor are seen by hundreds and hundreds of people every week.