It is time to spruce up your lawn equipment for spring. At Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping, we spend a lot of time in the winter and all year maintaining our equipment, so it is ready when we build your landscape or maintain it.
Home Maintenance Recommendations
Here is some of the lawn equipment you might have and how to maintain it.
Hedge trimmers
If you have gas-operated hedge trimmers, remove any fuel left over from the fall. Check your spark plug and replace it if the plug is fouled. Be sure to put the correct fuel in your hedge trimmers. They typically use a 50 to 1 ratio of gasoline to oil mix. You buy the mix for the size gas can you have and pour it in. Fill up the can with gasoline and mix the two substances well. Put this into your fuel tank. Using just gasoline will ruin the engine.
Fortunately, a lot of newer hedge trimmers are self-sharpening, so you don’t have to worry about dull blades. However, oil the blades before each use with a spray lubricant to keep the sap from the shrubs from gumming things up. Use your hedge trimmers to trim hedges, not for trimming anything else. Electric hedge trimmers are becoming more widely used and do not require much maintenance. Keep the batteries charged and you may want a spare if you use it often. Then spray down the hedge trimmer blades with lubricant, and you are ready to go.
Leaf Blowers
Gasoline-powered leaf blowers need much the same maintenance as hedge trimmers. They use the same fuel mix, too. Make sure you store your leaf blowers in dry conditions. The wiring around the starter and the choke can corrode in wet conditions. Check spark plugs and air filters before the season starts, and you should be good to go.
Mowers
We at Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping don’t do mowing. However, your push mowers need annual maintenance. If there is any gasoline or oil in the mower, drain it out and dispose of it responsibly at an oil change place or mechanics. Power wash off any grass or other plant material stuck to the mower. Once the mower is clean, replace the mower blade and spark plug. Many lawn and garden departments sell kits with a new blade and spark plug for each make of mower. Finally, refill the oil and gas tanks. Now your mower is ready to run this spring.
Our Equipment Maintenance Routine
Our equipment maintenance routine is a little more complicated. We take care of our equipment, so it doesn’t break down and delay your construction project or maintenance of your landscape.
We have trucks, bobcats, excavators, trenchers, and hydraulic dump trailers that we keep in top condition. Each month, we check the oil, grease, electrical systems, oil blades, and change the oil if needed. We keep machines greased at least every 8 hours of use.
Before the equipment leaves the shop, we make sure it works, is greased, and has all the oil and hydraulic fluid it requires. We also fill the fuel tank. We also check trucks and trailers for safety to make sure all lights, trailer breaks, wheels, and tires are safe for the road as well as double-checking that our load is secured.
Less Delay, Faster Projects
We at Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping keep our machines in tip-top condition to make them last longer. We also keep them well maintained so they do not break and delay our projects. While no amount of maintenance can prevent all breakdowns, we minimize them with our regular maintenance program. Better maintenance allows us to build hardscapes and landscapes faster with less waiting. If you want a superior product with less delay, schedule a consultation with us today. Our spring schedule is filling up, so don’t delay.
At Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping, we are getting our customer’s plants and landscape beds ready for spring. We want our plants to be ready to grow when the weather warms up and our landscape beds to look sharp. Here are the steps we take this time of year.
Ornamental Grasses
Ornamental grasses need to be trimmed each year in late winter or early spring. Cut your grass back to six to eight inches tall. If the center of the grass is dying out, you need to divide the grass clump. Dig the grass up and clean the dirt off the roots. Divide the grass into sections with some roots and grass attached to each section. Discard the dead center. Plant each section or give a few sections away to friends. Trading these sections with other plant lovers is a good way to get new plants for your garden!
Perennials
Perennials also need to be cut back to stimulate new growth. Our team will cut back spent herbaceous perennials to the ground to prepare them for the new spring growth to come. These types of plants have typically died back from the cold winter frost already, and we are simply removing the old growth to make room for the new growth to appear.
Removing Leaves
Leaves have a tendency to accumulate over the fall and winter. They do not look very good and can be overwintering sites for pests and diseases. To keep your landscape beds looking sharp, we remove all these leaves. Doing so while it is still cold allows you to destroy any pests hiding in them before the pests wake up and start eating your plants.
Removing Weeds
Weeds steal sunlight, water, and nutrients from your plants. Some weeds serve as reservoirs for pests and diseases that can negatively affect your plants. Remove any weeds now to prevent them from causing problems in the future. We also like to use a pre-emergent to help prevent new weeds from sprouting.
Edging Landscape Beds
After trimming ornamental grasses and perennials and removing leaves and weeds from a landscape bed, we like to redefine the edges of the bed with a natural spaded edge. Although this can be labor intensive, this natural spaded edge really makes the bed look sharp while keeping the mulch from spilling into the yard.
Mulching
Mulching is the final step of getting your beds ready for spring. With our garden care clients, we will typically begin with the clean-up and prep work the first visit and then return with a larger team to help get the mulch spread efficiently. We may apply another round of pre-emergent at this time to further help prevent weeds. We typically aim to get all of our spring mulching completed by Mother’s Day if possible.
We Can Help
Taking care of your landscape beds can be a lot of work. Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping can help with that. We will come to trim your ornamental grasses and perennials, remove the weeds and leaves from your landscape beds, and redefine the edges of them, so they look sharp for the coming season. If you are interested in having us do the late winter maintenance for your landscape, schedule a consultation with us today. Our list fills up, so don’t delay.
If you are having pavers installed, you will need something to fill the spaces where the pavers meet. We will educate you on the options and expectations for filling and maintaining the joints of your patio pavers.
Flexible Pavement System
First of all, it is important to understand that concrete pavers, in general, are designed to be installed as a flexible pavement system that will move with the ground as it moves. Most movement of the ground will come through freeze and thaw cycles where the ground can expand and contract depending on many variables such as moisture content, temperature, wind, and sun exposure. Most concrete paver systems are designed to be installed in a flexible way to allow for this movement of the ground in areas of extremely high and low temperatures.
Types of Fills for Between Pavers
There are two major types of fillers used between pavers.
Definitely Not Grout
Grout is not one of the two choices. Our clients often refer to the joint filler as grout, and this is inaccurate. Grout is typically designed to be used indoors between tiles, and it is always part of a rigid pavement system. Gout is NOT designed to be flexible, and if it moves, it will crack because of its rigidity. In some cases, an exterior grout can be used if the base is constructed in a rigid technique with footings below the frost line to prevent movement. This is not the typical standard of residential paver installation today, mainly due to being cost-prohibitive in most cases.
Sand
Regular builder’s sand or brick sand was often used for filling pavers up until the turn of the century. The problem with regular builders’ sand is that it quickly blows or is washed out from between the pavers. While this is an esthetic problem, it can and does look bad, and no one wants their nice paver patio to have gaps between the stones. If sand is used as a bedding layer, it can also become a structural problem if the bedding layer begins to wash away.
Polymeric Sand
In 1999 Techniseal introduced Polymeric sand to the market. This is sand that is mixed with a polymer that binds the sand particles together. This makes it last longer. It is not permanent, however. Over time, the polymer will break down, and the sand can wash or blow out, so it does require some maintenance. It typically will last at least three to five years before that is necessary to touch up or re-sand any areas.
Applying Polymeric sand
When applying polymeric sand, it is important to wear a dust mask as it can be harmful if inhaled. First, pour Polymeric sand onto the pavers and sweep it into the joints. Compact the pavers to settle the sand with a rolling plate compactor or a hand tamper. Then fill and tamp again until the sand is 1/8th inch from the paver level and doesn’t consolidate any further.
Prepare for Watering
Blow sand residue from the top of the pavers. It is important to get all the sand off the top of the pavers, or you will have a haze on them. Use a leaf blower set on low and held about waist high to help.
Watering
You want to add enough water to activate the polymer but not so much that you float the polymer right out of the sand. Use a water nozzle turned to the shower setting. Water the joint until the sand just stops absorbing water. Pause and let the water soak in. Water again until no more water soaks in, but you do not see a milky white substance on top of the joint. Do 10 feet by 10 feet sections at a time. Once the polymer sets, you won’t be able to add more water.
Curing
The polymer will cure in 24-72 hours, depending on the temperature and dryness of the area. Polymeric sand in shade can be a bit more spongy than Polymeric sand in the sun, even after it cures. Do not let the sand get rained on hard until it is set. You may need to cover the sand with a tarp to protect it from rain. You should avoid excess foot traffic for 24 hours and any vehicle traffic for 72 hours.
Common Mistakes When Using Polymeric Sand
We see these mistakes over and over when clients use Polymeric sand.
Damp Pavers or Joints
If the joints and pavers are wet, the polymer will start to set up prematurely. This causes a haze on the pavers and leads to poor joints. The pavers and joints must be bone dry before you start. The sand will also stick to the top of the pavers and become a difficult mess to clean up.
Over or Under Watering
If you do not water the Polymeric sand enough, it does not activate the polymer. When this happens, a crust forms on the surface but the sand below this crust is not bound together. The unbound sand moves out from under the crust, which then collapses.
If you apply too much water, the polymer floats out of the sand and drains away. It can leave a haze behind on the pavers as it runs across them. You are left with sand between the pavers and a haze on them.
Leaving Excess Sand Behind
Sand that is left on the pavers will bind to the pavers and leave a haze on them, detracting from the beauty of the pavers.
Poor Drainage
The drainage under the pavers and joints must be good, or the water will back up and not filter through the Polymeric sand, allowing the sand grains to bind to each other. A very slight slope will aid drainage and help prevent problems. We have also shifted from a sand bedding layer to an open aggregate base that helps with drainage below the pavers, especially in dark and damp Northern exposures.
Overfilling the Joints
Too much sand can cause problems. It is important to keep the level of the sand in the joint 1/8th inch below the surface of the paver. If the sand is level with the paver, the water will back up over the paver, and the polymer will cause the paver to be hazy.
Too Narrow or Too Wide Joints
Joints should be at least 1/8th inch and no more than four inches. The joint depth should be at least one inch. If the joints are too narrow, the water cannot flow down and properly activate the polymer. If the joints are too wide, the sand will wash out before the polymer sets up.
Polymeric Sand Maintenance
As mentioned, polymeric sand does require some maintenance. Regular cleaning with a blower and/or a hose will help keep the pavers and joints in good condition. You can power wash your paver patio if you are careful not to blow out the sand. Keep the power washer moving and never aimed directly at the joints. Periodically, you will need to chemically clean and re-seal the pavers and joints. You may then need to sweep new Polymeric sand into the joints to fill any low spots. Just make sure it is completely dry first.
Customer Expectations
When it comes to paver joints, polymeric sand is often seen as the gold standard. And it is the best solution we have for filling joints in a flexible pavement system, and it does a great job. However, like any construction material, it is far from perfect and is definitely not maintenance-free. The ground will move and over time the sand will move, crack, wash or settle and will need some maintenance. It is critically important that consumers understand the history, design, and intent of this product to ultimately have a successful paver project for both the client and the contractor.
Our Paver Maintenance Program
Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping has a paver maintenance program. We have options that include Spring clean-ups, as well as regular cleanings (blowing, power washing, and chemical cleaning), along with regular re-sealing of pavers to enhance the color and sheen. To sign up for our paver maintenance program, schedule a consultation now before the spring rush hits.
We use 3D design whenever possible to design outdoor living spaces. Here are some reasons why designing with 3D design models provides much more value compared to simple 2D plan drawings. Figure 1 – 3D Deck & Patio Layout
Elevation Changes and Heights of Plant Material
We do all of our designing to scale with your property. When we do the drawings, we can make sure that each element of the design will fit precisely into the space you have. This helps prevent getting a plant that is too big for the space or missing areas where retaining walls may be necessary for the design.
Figure 2 – Plan View Design Drawing
Designs Are Clearer
In larger-scale hardscape projects, there are often a lot of details that can not be easily communicated in a plan view drawing. Line drawings may be hard for our clients to understand and visualize how the finished product will look. With a 3D design, you can see exactly what each view of the landscape will look like. Seeing a realistic view of the design helps our design team figure out the details and show our clients how everything will look in much greater detail and help them to see the vision we have for their spaces.
Figure 3 – 3D image of Same Design
Saves Time with Improved Communication
A clear 3D design gives both the clients and the Blue Crew a good idea of how details are intended to look. Our team can see what plants, stones, and pavers will work best in the design, and we can choose the most appropriate materials to fit the project. The installers can see every elevation, paver color, and future plant size, to help make the construction phase much more efficient for the customer. This helps avoid questions and changes mid-stream during the construction process, which can really put a strain on the production process. When installers have to switch materials and re-order, there can be significant delays in the process. There will also be change orders that add to the cost of the project and sometimes even tear out work that has already been completed because the vision was not clarified enough in the design phase.
Keeps Track of Versions
Have you ever made a list, then revised it several times, only to be confused as to which of the revisions is the latest one? 3D designs automatically keep track of which version a particular design is, so that never happens to us. We know which version you have approved and will not accidentally use an older version. In addition, each time the design is updated, the list of materials needed is automatically updated, so we don’t order anything you don’t need or fail to order needed materials. This keeps the installation process running smoothly.
Figure 4 – 3D Curb Appeal Design
Easy Add-Ons & Outdoor Lighting
Once we have a 3D model of your landscape, we can easily go back to that model and add on new projects. We have a record of the exact stones, cement, pavers, and other materials used, so it is easy to match materials in new additions. There is no guessing about matches or problems with the older components not matching the newer ones. The most common add-on to our designs is outdoor lighting. If we invest in the time to build the 3D Model, then we can quickly add lights into the plan to help both the client and installers see the intent of the project. This is a very powerful tool to portray the vision, as it virtually impossible to show what the lights will look like at night without actually installing a demo which can be costly and time-consuming.
Figure 5 – 3D Curb Appeal with Lights
Permitting and HOA Reviews
Often times we work in neighborhoods that will have a design review committee that must approve your design before work can begin. There are also certain types of projects that will require a city permit for building as well as inspections during the project. When 3D images are included with the plan, these committees can easily see exactly what is planned for the project. This can eliminate a lot of back-and-forth questions as well as speed up the approval process.
Figure 6 – Swimming Pool Memorial Design
Let Us Help You Visualize your Space with a 3D Design
Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping can create a 3D design of your landscape. Right now, we are busy designing landscapes and scheduling installations for this spring. We are beginning to fill up our Spring install calendar. Schedule a consultation with us today to get your landscape design in the queue and begin the process of envisioning a space for your family to spend time together outdoors.
Composting is the process of using microbes to break down organic matter into a rich, fertile, humus. This composted material, referred to as compost can then be used to enrich your landscape and encourage your plants to grow.
Organic Matter
Compost adds organic matter to the soil. This organic matter becomes fertilizer for the plants around it. In addition, mixing compost into the soil makes room for water to trickle in and soak the soil instead of running off. Adding organic matter to the soil each spring keeps it fertile and loose.
Aeration
Compost also helps aerate the soil. The irregularly shaped particles make space for air and keep the soil from compacting. Roots need oxygen to grow, and adding organic matter makes sure there is enough oxygen in the soil for the roots. Compacted soil, on the other hand, doesn’t have many spaces for air to penetrate.
pH
The pH of finished compost is usually between 6-8. The “finished” is important. Compost that is unfinished can adversely affect your plants. How do you tell if compost is finished? Grab a handful of it. There should be a uniform brown color and no lumps. It should smell like good earth. If you can see a leaf fragment or piece of manure, the compost is not finished. If the compost has an unpleasant smell, it is not finished.
How to Use Compost
Compost can be used in two ways. When first developing a landscape bed, you should till the soil to a depth of twelve inches. Layer three inches of compost on top of the soil. Mix the compost throughout the tilled soil. Now you have rich, aerated soil full of organic matter.
If your landscape bed is older, with plants already in it, you can top-dress the soil with compost. Layer about an inch of compost over the soil in the landscape bed in the early spring. Cover this with three inches of mulch. The compost acts like a slow-release nitrogen fertilizer. You can top-dress turf grass with an inch of compost if you then rake the grass with a leaf rake to make the compost fall to the ground.
How To Make Your Own Compost
Making compost is not hard. You are essentially farming microbes that will turn your food and yard waste into rich organic matter. The best way to make compost involves a three-bin system. Make three bins with the front open. In the first bin goes the raw food and yard waste. Once a month, you turn the contents of the second bin into the third bin. You then turn the contents of the first bin into the second bin. The third bin should contain the finished compost after three months. Each compost pile should be between three and five cubic feet. Smaller piles do not have the mass to stay warm and larger piles do not have enough air for the microbes.
Recipe for Compost
The best compost piles come from a simple recipe. You want browns and greens plus moisture. Browns (carbon sources) are dry leaves, wood chips, straw, hay, newspaper, and sawdust. Greens (nitrogen sources) are grass clippings, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable waste, fresh hay, manure, and seaweed. Do not compost meats, oils, and bones, as they will attract rodents and other vermin to your pile.
Pile 3-4 inches of hedge trimmings and branches that are roughly chopped to allow air to circulate around the base of the pile.
Pile 6-8 inches of mixed browns and greens.
Pile one inch of dirt to inoculate the pile with microorganisms.
Add 2-3 inches of manure or one pound of urea fertilizer per yard of the pile.
Repeat steps one through four until the pile is big enough to compost.
We Can Help
Making a compost bin and composting your waste can take time. Turning and spreading the compost can also be labor intensive. Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping can help. We develop landscape beds and mix in compost, so you do not have to. We even provide the compost, made where it gets hot enough to sterilize any weed seeds or pathogens in the pile. Our Garden Care Team will also come out in the spring and top dress your landscape with compost, then mulch, to keep your plants growing well and your landscape looking sharp. Contact us today to schedule our services.
