When you have a great looking garden and lawn it gives your home what is known as kerb appeal. This not only adds a great deal of value to the home, but gives the homeowner a sense of pride and satisfaction in the home they own. A beautiful lawn is probably the single biggest factor in adding good looks to your home and it is often missing in areas of new buildings due to the site being dozed to level it. Often the developers do not save the topsoil and put it back over the top after they have finished levelling. But grass cannot grow well on sub soil that is lacking the correct nutrients. And lawn that is not healthy is more prone to disease and insect attack. In Brisbane, lawn grubs can be a pest and do lots of damage in lawns, leaving them with brown, unsightly patches. If your lawn is non-existent or growing on clay and looking shabby due to insect attack, it is imperative to add more topsoil. Companies that specialise in turf supply in Brisbane will usually advise on what must be done to prepare the site for new turf. Some will even do it for you. If they do not, make sure you do not go to the expense of laying new turf on sub soil, or you will simply have the same problem. Once you have your soil and lawn sorted out, you will be able to spend some time in choosing landscape supplies in Brisbane. You may choose to have a pebbled section to cut down on mowing or just to add another colour and texture to your landscape design. Pebbles often look good with a water feature or as inorganic mulch over gardens. In these days when costs are sky-rocketing and people often work all week, a low maintenance garden is necessary. By choosing easy-care perennials and permanent shrubs and trees any garden can look attractive all year round and give that kerb appeal to your home that will make the neighbours envious.

6 Steps to Creating Your Very Own Maintenance Free Landscape

on Long Island

By Kevin Godberson

In the world of landscaping, any reputable landscape company would tell you that the key to a maintenance free property starts with a proper (what we call in the Long Island community) Spring Opening or Spring Clean-up.

We all want a maintenance free property Dont we?  So here are 6 steps to help you create your very own maintenance free landscape.

Step # 1  Raking Leaves and Thatching Grass

Start by raking all leaves, sticks and acorns from all flower beds and thatch all grass areas. This will give you a clean foundation to start from. Now your lawn areas can breath and are ready for the first application of lawn crabgrass control with fertilizer.

Step # 2 Weeding and Mulching

All beds should be treated with a healthy layer of mulch to slow down the germination of weeds. A pre-emergence weed control can be used to also stop the weeds from coming up. A good covering should be put down over soil before the mulch is spread. Who wants to weed beds on the weekend?  NOT ME.

Step # 3  Crabgrass Control

For a lawn to really prosper it should have an application of pre-emergence Crabgrass control put down. This will stop crabgrass from flourishing later in the season. Spot seed all bare areas so lawn fills in. Be sure to keep fertilizer away from bare areas as it will stop the seed from germinating.

Step# 4  Watering Your Lawn

At this time you should water the fertilized areas in order to green up your lawn. Make certain to go over all heads. If you have a sprinkler system, make sure you inspect each head for proper operation.  Rotation of heads and spray distance is important to get entire lawn watered. We don’t want areas of your lawn to burn up as they take a long time to come back to life.

Step# 5  Crabgrass Control  (revisited)

After about 4 weeks I like to go back and put down a second application of crabgrass control. This will ensure that you have covered the entire lawn. One application never works 100% and you may end up with some crabgrass that will seed itself across the rest of your lawn. Trust me the second application really works.

Step# 6 – Weed control

So in closing, follow the above 6 steps to your best ability and transform your Long island landscape into one that’s both extremely easy on the eye as well as maintenance free.

About Goodway Landscape : Goodway Landscape will meet with you during the design process to ensure that you are comfortable with the direction the design is going in. We will meet with you once more before the design is finalized and provide you with an estimated cost. While the design doesn’t typically change much at this point, we can determine how much of the project will be installed during the first phase. Because financial considerations are given at the outset, Goodway Landscape is often able to accommodate your budget and therefore install the design in one phase. For every pest in nature there is a predator bug that will leave the plant alone while dining on the bad bugs. These are called beneficials and include ladybugs, praying mantis and lacewings. Protecting beneficials takes advantage of nature’s control mechanisms. Chemical pesticides kill both pests and beneficials, which leads to pest population explosions once the predators are gone. The new approach to pest control is through least toxic measures designed to protect beneficials while controlling pests.

To lower pH, ferrous sulfate and aluminum sulfate are often recommended. Ferrous sulfate, which also adds iron to the soil, is of the most help to plants that show yellow leaves as well as overall poor health. You’ll also lower the pH of alkaline soil over time by regularly applying organic amendments such as compost. * You may have noticed that soluble fertilizers – like the liquid mixes – must be applied every week or two. The reason is that plants are only able to utilize seven or eight percent of the nutrients per application. So they need to be reapplied quite frequently which can be costly and tedious. Conversely, organic and natural fertilizers only need to be applied a couple times a year, because as they break down, they continue to feed the roots. Goodway Landscape News Most projects begin with tearing out the existing landscape unless there’s already nothing there. Be sure to let your design consultant know if there are any items you wish to remain so that we can incorporate it into your design. Before the tear out takes place we ask you to tie bright colored ribbons or tape on the plants that are going to stay. Plant more trees. Many newer neighborhoods in this country just don’t have enough trees. Recent suburbs and developments are built on former farm fields with no trees. If possible, homeowners should plant trees. Trees, just like all plants, breathe oxygen back in to the atmosphere. They create shade which can cut air-conditioning costs for your home and they add all-season beauty. Goodway Landscape Caring for a pond takes less effort than maintaining a lawn. The ecosystem you have helped to create by having Goodway Landscape install an Aquascape™ pond does most of the work for you. So aside from stepping out of the way and allowing nature to take its course, there are a few basic things you need to know. Purchases to Make and Tools You Need * Mail in your warranty card for your Aquascape™ pump that came with your pond. * Purchase a digital thermometer for your pond. * Pond and waterfall lights won’t last forever. Simply remove the bulbs and take them to your local hardware store. Easy to replace! * Aquatic plants are necessary for taking up sludge and excess nutrients. Goodway Landscape installs plants for 90 percent of our customers; however, many of you enjoy adding plants after we have gone, as well you should. When adding plants take them out of their containers. * Algea are a natural part of any ecosystem and should never be thought of as something you want to completely do away with. however, string algea is best taken care of with a product call Algae Fix® . (Coming soon to our Products page.) * Pond Salt only gets added once per pond filling and is optional. Add 1 cup of Pond Salt for every 100 gallons of pond water for healthier fish. Using more than this application will hurt your plants and is not recommended. Less is more, in this case. A good formula for figuring out pond gallons: Length x Width x Despth x 7.48 = Gallons. (Example: for an 11′ x 16′ pond the formula would be: 11 x 16 x 2 x 7.48 = 2,633 gallons or 25 cups of Pond Salt.) * Test your pond water with an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Test Kit. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals sells a kit that provides a chart for aquarium solition / PH Balance / Pond Salt for Ponds with plants.