Month: June 2018
The winter weather in Calgary is a challenge for any landscape. Trees and shrubs can sustain damage due to the variable weather. It is important to take care of trees throughout the winter to keep them healthy for next spring’s thaw.
Calgary Landscaping: The Challenges of Winter Weather
Calgary’s unique position in southern Alberta places it right in the path of the warm chinook winds coming off the eastern slopes of the Rockies. The winds pick up speed and strength going through the Bow Valley. This warm wind can cause extreme temperature fluctuations. Add dry air to the mix and you may see tree damage everywhere.
Tip Kill
As the air warms up, but remains dry, the tips of tree branches start to dry out. Since the roots are frozen, they are unable to bring water into the tips to replenish the supply. This leaves the tips starved of moisture, which causes them to die. This condition is known as “tip kill” or “die back”. Common signs are dry twigs and discolored evergreen needles. The damage done can be extensive enough to kill smaller plants. Creating wind breaks or covering plants with mulch are effective options for preventing this kind of damage.
False Spring
Calgary landscaping professionals dread false spring. When the warm Chinook winds stay around longer than normal, it begins to warm the ground. The warm ground can bring trees out of dormancy too early. The sap flows and the tree begins spring growth. When the winter winds return, the freezing temperatures can cause severe damage to the new growth that won’t go away with the approach of real spring.
Another cause of false spring is sun scald. Snow is on the ground and the sun is bright in the sky. As the sun’s rays reflect off the snow, it can cause tree tissues on the south side to start thawing. Then, when the sun goes down, the thawed tissues refreeze. This continual freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw cycle can cause the tree’s bark to split. This can damage inner tissues and even kill the tree. If you notice a split limb or trunk, wrap it to prevent further damage.
Animal Damage
Non-hibernating animals like deer and rabbits are another challenge for Calgary landscaping professionals. They will eat tree bark during winter, plus pillage your perennials and shrubs. This can cause exposure of the tender inner tissues of the tree. Placing wire fencing around the base of the tree is an effective option for preventing this kind of damage.
De-Icing Agents
Plants along sidewalks and near parking areas are vulnerable to any DE-icing agents you put down. Use those DE-icing materials sparingly and only where necessary. Excess use can cause damage and even kill smaller trees and plants.
If you need help with your winter tree care or want a four-season land maintenance company, call us here at Mirage Landscaping. We have been proudly serving the Calgary area for three generations with landscape services and snow removal.
Are you the one who has the yard all the neighbors talk about? Maybe
your yard stands out for all the wrong reasons? If that is true for
you, turn things around by sprucing up your yard. Here’s some great inexpensive landscaping ideas to improve your yard
to assist you in transforming your yard! Sketching out a design of what
you would like your final landscaping job to look like is a good cheap
landscaping ideas that you will benefit from. You’ll be able to get a
clear idea of the results and the materials needed to achieve those
results. It’s way easier to do a drawing than to actually get physically
started.
Use local plants when fixing your yard. Native plants
are a lot easier to care of because they are already comfortable in
your climate and soil.
A softly curving border can give just the
right bit of focus and eye appeal that your landscape needs. The look
of soft curves is more popular now than the look of straight lines and
sharp corners. It does not cost much to cut fresh edges, and doing so
can transform the look of your flower beds and lawn. Another inexpensive
landscaping ideas to improve your yard is to use local plants when
landscaping. Plants which are native to the area are simpler to maintain
because they have are already used to the climate and soil. This means
that they are low-maintenance. Your local gardening store will be able
to advise you about the types of plants that will thrive in the area
that you live.
Test the pH and composition of your soil before
gardening or starting a landscaping project. This will enable you to
have happier plants as well as having a beautiful garden.
Select plants wisely, because that could seriously affect the result of
your overall landscaping project. It’s no good to wind up with plants
that thrive on sunlight tucked away in the shadiest part of your yard.
Don’t plant a tree in an area where it can’t grow to its full capacity.
The time taken to plan correctly will mean less time fixing mistakes
later. Landscaping encompasses a whole lot more than just planting
trees. To add distinctive beauty with texture, try using different
woods, cement or even wrought iron pieces. Interesting buildings and
structures such as archways, bird baths, gazebos and Pergolas are nice
additions. These things come in various price ranges that can fit
anyone’s budget.
Make the most of your yard look beautiful all
year by growing a garden suitable for many seasons. Select a wide
variety of plants, autumn, according to the region in which you live.
Knowing how to time your purchases at the right time can save you a lot
of money. The best time to buy lumber is during the winter. Buy organic
materials, like shrubs and mulch during the later part of the season.
When new plants become available, wait several years before purchasing
them so that the price is not so high. Landscaping isn’t limited to
experts anymore. Any do-it-yourself homeowner can easily make their yard
look fantastic with some work along with some inexpensive landscaping ideas to improve your yard
front and back. When you are all finished, your neighbors will indeed
be jealous of your new found skills. And isn’t that the result you are
after?
If you plan on selling your home any time soon, it is fair to say
that first impressions count for a lot when it comes to impressing
potential buyers. When you consider that the first thing buyers will see
when they roll up at your home is the front yard, it makes sense that a
spot of landscaping in that area could pay huge dividends in making
your home appear more desirable.
Planning the best landscaping approach for your front
yard requires that you get into the minds of buyers. Ideally, you want a
front yard that looks attractive and welcoming, which will plant in
buyers’ minds the idea that this could be their future home. On the
other hand, a landscaped front yard that is too elaborate might have a
negative effect by making some buyers fearful of the amount of work
required to maintain it.
By the same token, if the purpose of a
landscaping project is merely to sell your home, there can surely be
little point in expending a lot of time, effort, and expense on an
over-complicated front yard. The strategy, rather, should be minimum
effort and expense for maximum gain.
One great way of making
your front yard appear more attractive without doing any major work is
to tidy up your lawn borders. If you pay attention to trimming back
areas where your lawn has started to grow into the flower beds, you can
do a lot to make your front yard appear considerably more orderly to the
casual eye. Remember that it is all about first impressions, and your
buyers will soon be moving on to viewing the interior of your home. The
trick is to convey the impression of tidiness and order, and lawn edge
trimming is certainly vital in this regard.
Once you have tidied
up your lawn borders, it pays to keep them looking that way, and the
easy way to achieve this is to sprinkle a layer of wood chips along the
edges of the lawn, which will be an effective deterrent to the growth of
weeds.
When considering ways to maximize the impression of order and tidiness
in your front yard, another good tactic is to prune back shrubs that
have become too large and messy in appearance. However, you should
resist the urge to go at shrubs too eagerly, especially if you have
buyers scheduled to visit in the near future. Shrubs that have been
pruned over-zealously will make it much too obvious that gardening work
has been conducted recently in a sly bid to make a good impression.
In such cases where you have plants and shrubs growing near your house,
especially near windows, you should be at pains to carry out pruning.
This is particularly important where plant growth may be restricting
light from reaching the interior of the house. Few house buyers are
likely to be enamored of homes where rooms seem dark and dank.
There are lots of ways to improve the look of your front yard. For some
people, it may be a simple case of tidying, but other home owners may
need to carry out more drastic works if their yards are currently in a
poor state. Although landscaping work can be expensive, the ultimate
goal of selling your home may in some cases dictate that you bite the
bullet and engage the services of a professional landscape designer in
order to effect major improvements to your front yard.