Category: Landscaping

Kentucky Landscaping adds aesthetic value, raises property value, and creates functional outdoor spaces. It also contributes to environmental and social well-being through habitat creation, soil stabilization, and reduction of energy costs by shading homes and reducing wind speeds.

Homeowner preferences for their landscapes vary greatly. Some prioritize aesthetic features, while others are more interested in the psychological benefits their landscape provides.

There are many ways to enhance your garden, but few add more elegance than a water feature. From fountains to ponds, water features can transform any outdoor space into a tranquil oasis. And with dozens of options available, there’s sure to be a perfect fit for your home and budget.

The sound of running water is both soothing and calming, acting as natural white noise that masks distracting sounds and creates a peaceful environment for relaxation and meditation. In addition, the calming effects of water have been shown to reduce cortisol levels, lower heart rate and blood pressure, and ease anxiety and depression. Water features are also a great choice for homeowners looking to boost property value and curb appeal. Whether a small fountain or a larger pond, a water feature can be an instant draw for potential buyers and elevate your garden’s aesthetic.

Water Features are an integral part of any landscape, enhancing the overall design and creating a peaceful ambiance. They can be as simple or elaborate as you desire, with a wide range of styles and materials to choose from. However, it’s important to remember that water features require regular maintenance to ensure that they are functioning properly and to maintain their pristine appearance. This includes cleaning, testing and treating the water to ensure it’s healthy for fish and aquatic plants, and removing debris from the surface.

In addition, water features help to improve environmental health by increasing oxygenation in the surrounding area. The movement and agitation of the water, along with the photosynthesis of aquatic plants, promotes aeration and enhances dissolved oxygen levels in the water. This in turn leads to healthier soil, air, and aquatic ecosystems.

The addition of a water feature can transform your garden into an idyllic paradise that will be the envy of your friends and neighbors. And with the right landscaping company by your side, you can be confident that your new water feature will be an attractive investment for your Bergen County home. So don’t hesitate to get in touch with the experts at NV Landscapes and let us help you bring your water feature ideas to life.

Outdoor Lighting

Landscape lighting is a fascinating way to show off your beautiful home and property after the sun goes down. The right lighting can add beauty, purpose and safety to your garden.

Once the overall light plan is determined, your designer can recommend what types of fixtures to use and where to place them. This process is crucial to achieving a harmonious, effective lighting scheme. The fixture style, size and brightness should compliment your design theme while achieving the desired effect.

Path lighting is one of the most popular choices in landscape lighting, illuminating pathways and walkways with soft, decorative light. Well lights are another popular option, providing uplighting to accentuate plant structures and other focal points in your garden. Downlights and wall wash lights are also commonly used in landscape lighting to illuminate the texture of your home and accentuate its architecture.

Aside from the aesthetic impact of landscape lighting, it can also increase safety by illuminating walkways, steps and potential hazards to help prevent trips and falls after dark. It can also extend the usability of your outdoor spaces by enabling family dinners and leisure activities well into the night.

Many of today’s landscape lighting options are SMART, meaning they can be controlled from your smartphone or device. This makes it easy to turn on and off your lights, change colors, adjust the duration of their runtime, and more. Plus, it can be connected to your Rachio irrigation system, so the lights turn on and off when you water, minimizing your energy usage.

Softscapes

Softscapes refer to all living elements of your landscape, including plants, flowers, grass, trees, and shrubs. They can create a calming natural setting and complement the hardscape features you’ve already installed in your yard. Unlike the rigid appearance of hardscape fixtures, softscapes have a more organic, inviting aesthetic.

When designing your softscape, there are two important categories to consider: base layers and accents. The base layers include the plants that make up the bulk of your landscaping. These can be simple lawn grasses or rows of low-lying shrubs. Then, the accents are the more prominent features that stand out from the base layer and give your yard its unique personality. These can be colorful seasonal flowers or uniquely shaped bushes.

To maintain your softscape’s health and beauty, it is essential to have a proper maintenance plan in place. This should include regular watering, weed control, and fertilization. It’s also a good idea to use drought-tolerant and native plant species. In addition, smart landscaping technology can be used to optimize irrigation and enhance maintenance efficiency.

Another aspect of softscapes that should be considered is the soil and mulch. Healthy soil and mulch promote growth, prevent erosion, and help the plants retain water. Additionally, using an organic mulch is a great way to stop weeds and prevent frost heaving in the winter.

A successful softscape design requires careful consideration of color, texture, and balance. The color of the plants can create focal points or evoke emotions, while the texture of the foliage adds depth to the overall design. The balanced layout of the elements can be achieved through symmetry or asymmetry, depending on your preferences.

In addition to adding beauty to your home, a well-designed softscape can reduce noise pollution and increase the property value of your home. It can also improve air quality by reducing carbon dioxide levels and contribute to biodiversity improvement through habitat creation. Plus, the ability to change your softscapes over time makes them a flexible alternative to hardscapes. You can experiment with different looks for your yard and try out different plant species from year to year.

Plants

While hardscape elements create structure and form the basis of any landscaping plan, it’s the plants that bring life to your commercial outdoor spaces. Professional landscapers work with you to select shrubs, trees, flowers and grasses that will thrive in your climate, create seasonal interest, add color and texture, and minimize maintenance. They can also incorporate sustainable planting practices like xeriscaping, which is an environmentally responsible and cost-efficient alternative to traditional water-intensive gardening methods.

With water resources becoming increasingly scarce, smart backyard landscaping companies are creating beautiful gardens that sip rather than gulp water. These low-water and drought-tolerant plants are the key to a lush garden that requires less upkeep than a typical backyard landscape, saving you money on irrigation costs. These native plants can even help you meet local water-use restrictions by reducing runoff.

Landscaping projects aren’t complete without a healthy soil that supports the health of your plants and your property. This includes proper soil preparation and the use of organic materials to build a rich, healthy foundation for your landscape.

A healthy soil is also a habitat for the wildlife that calls your yard home. Incorporating natural features, such as a pond or waterfall, into your landscape can attract birds and other critters that will help keep your property free of pests.

Choosing the right landscape plants is essential to any project, but especially when creating a sustainable one. Landscapers can help you select the best options for your climate and site, including indigenous species that can better withstand local conditions, such as the Winter Gem boxwood. This low-maintenance shrub has densely arranged, ovate leaves that are a vibrant yellow in the summer and fade to a copper hue in the fall.

A well-maintained commercial landscape can boost your business’s curb appeal, attract more customers and clients, and set your company apart as a green and eco-friendly organization. Working with a professional commercial landscaping company that uses sustainable landscape design techniques is the best way to ensure that your landscape will be beautiful, functional and healthy for years to come.

Greensboro Landscaping is the creative design and maintenance of outdoor spaces. It increases property value, improves functionality, and offers environmental benefits.

Begin with a small project that doesn’t break the bank, such as mulching, planting a flower bed or adding a simple path. Focus on creating a flow and scale for your landscape.

Planting beds are an important part of any garden. When they are properly prepared and mulched, they make the perfect place for vegetables to grow strong and healthy. Vegetables planted in poorly prepared soil will not produce as well and may be more susceptible to insect infestation and disease. In addition to adding nutrients, a good layer of mulch helps suppress weed growth and keeps soil temperatures lower. It is recommended to use organic mulches, such as hay or wood chips, as synthetic and inorganic materials are more likely to acidify the soil.

Before digging in a planting bed, it is highly recommended to check for any buried utility lines. Most areas have a number that you can call to determine the location of any lines. It is also a good idea to lay down soaker hoses or drip irrigation in each bed so that you can water plants at their roots rather than splashing water on foliage, which can lead to the spread of diseases.

A brand new bed can be prepped by simply putting down 2-3 inches of compost and turning it into the soil. This will also help kill existing weeds and promote healthier, more vigorous plants. In beds that already contain perennials, bulbs or shrubs, it is a bit trickier as the existing vegetation must be carefully worked around to prevent harming their roots. However, adding a layer of organic material is still beneficial for all types of soils.

The best time to work in the garden is when the soil is moist, but not wet. This way you can easily dig and work without damaging the fragile soil structure.

Lawns

In our culture, perfectly manicured lawns are a status symbol. They adorn public buildings like courts, museums and administrative centers, as well as the front yards of residential houses. When a homeowner has a beautiful green lawn, it says to everyone that they are wealthy and successful in business, as well as keeping up with the latest trends in fashion, architecture and design.

The truth is, lawns are not just a status symbol; they serve a lot of different purposes, both social and ecological. Often, people are unaware of the positive impact that a healthy, eco-friendly lawn can have on their home and community. Let’s explore a few common misconceptions about lawns, and then address some ways to improve your lawn and reduce your carbon footprint.

Lawn Myth #1: Lawns are a monoculture, and don’t support biodiversity

Most modern lawns consist of a single variety of grass. If you look at your yard, it is almost entirely green. If a few weeds or wild flowers manage to creep in, most homeowners will wage war with herbicides and trowels, killing them off and replacing them with more grass. Monocultures are not very sustainable, and can lead to serious environmental problems.

When it rains, healthy grass and weeds act as natural filters to slow the flow of stormwater and keep sediment, chemicals, nutrients and other pollutants from reaching lakes and rivers. Water filtered through grass is also less acidic, reducing the amount of toxins in water bodies.

Grass absorbs neighborhood noise and reduces glare, making it the ideal place for kids and pets to play. Additionally, a soft surface of grass provides cushioning against falls and helps prevent injury. It’s important for people to have access to green spaces, both urban and suburban, to help them feel connected to the natural world, reduce stress levels, and increase Vitamin D exposure.

A lawn is the best option for reducing heat islands, which are caused by excessive use of paved surfaces. In urban areas, where there is an overabundance of concrete and asphalt, a lawn can cool adjacent surfaces by up to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. This helps reduce the energy used to power air conditioning, as well as the environmental impacts associated with cooling these surfaces.

Water Features

A water feature can be a tranquil centerpiece to your garden and provide a place to unwind. They can range from a small container pond on your deck to a constructed waterfall and fountain in a water garden. Creating a water feature in your backyard is not only a beautiful addition to your landscaping but can also help draw beneficial wildlife to your yard. Water features can help mask noise, attract birds and butterflies, create a calming atmosphere, and more.

The Sound of Water

Water features create the soothing sound of flowing water, which helps calm the mind and rejuvenate the spirit. The sounds of water can also mask unwanted noise from nearby traffic, neighbors, or other sources. They can be built in a variety of styles, from natural rock waterfalls that produce a gushing sound to sheetfall waterfalls that are quieter.

Many water features have multiple settings to allow you to control the mood and volume. The flow rate is also important to consider as the speed of the water can influence the mood and atmosphere. A rushing waterfall may be more dramatic, while a bubbling bird bath might be more relaxing.

While a water feature is a great way to create a relaxing outdoor space, you must keep in mind that it requires regular maintenance to keep the water clean and free of debris. For example, it is necessary to regularly clean your pond to ensure that no harmful algae is growing inside and a skimmer can be used to remove leaves and other debris from the surface of the water. Depending on the location of your water feature, you may want to avoid putting it directly underneath trees that drop large amounts of leaves that can clog or tarnish your water feature.

As a general rule, it is best to work with a professional when creating and installing a landscape water feature. This will ensure that your water feature is properly installed, maintained, and cared for. In addition, a professional can help you determine whether or not a particular water feature is right for your home and can make suggestions about how to enhance the appearance of your backyard with additional landscaping.

Lighting

Trees are among the many landscape features that can benefit from proper illumination. Lighting adds depth, dimension and a touch of personalization that can make your trees glow, particularly if you use a low-kelvin light with a dimmer switch to play with brightness levels and colors over the course of the year.

There are two main lighting techniques for this feature: silhouetting and shadowing. Silhouetting emphasizes the shape of a softscaping element at night by washing it with light from behind and highlighting its form. This can be accomplished with a pathway light or an accent fixture that is positioned in the ground at the base of a feature. Alternatively, you can shadow your plants by washing them with light from the front and focusing the illumination on their leafage or trunks. This works best with taller trees, or if the feature has a vertical element to it like a fence or wall.

Residential properties can also reap the benefits of lighting trees, shrubs and other greenery on their property. Unlike commercial landscapes, which must consider brand awareness and attention-grabbing practicality in addition to soft ambiance, the goal for homeowners is largely the same: creating a calming environment at night. A few strategic lights for perimeter bushes, featured trees and ground-level plants (with wall washing) can turn your backyard into a paradise of tranquility when the sun goes down.

As you can see, a successful landscaping plan requires the right balance of hardscaping and softscaping. An experienced designer can help you incorporate both into a design that fits your needs and complements the natural surroundings of your home. To get started, contact us to schedule a free consultation with one of our experts today. Our team is happy to answer your questions and provide more insight into our wide range of landscape services.