Ground Cover Garden Features and Landscape Advantages to New York Yards

In a city where time is very important, some yard and garden owners have almost no time to spare for maintaining their garden or even their lawn. New York Plantings Garden Designers and Landscape Contractors have a way to serve the busy city with their efficient garden design and plant expertise, featuring- Ground Covers.

photo courtesy of: flamingpetal.co.nz

Ground covers are small sized plants that grow over an area of land almost independently, are very beneficial and are the latest must-have for garden designs and landscape purposes as it poses dozens of functions and delightful aesthetic effects at the same time. They could serve as shields to soil bed, such as hills and slopes, from being exposed to direct sunlight, avoiding fast evaporation of water, thus preventing erosion. Ground covers densely envelop the surrounding earth in your yard which could eradicate weed growth and add color to difficult cultivating areas, such as soils in the sunny areas. These could also serve as protector for beneficial insects and earthworms from predating birds and could serve as shelter for desirable species in your yard, such as butterflies and bees.

Todd Nappi, President of New York Plantings Garden Designers and Landscape Contractors, professional horticulturist, explicates that ground covers create a beneficial environment on the ground around root system that closely resembles of that of a natural setting. He also added that ground covers have the ability to provide trees and shrubs non-compacted soil surface that enables water to reach roots quickly. Ground covers prevent soil from washing away around and under the trees as well as open spaces thus providing sufficient water supply to other plants.

photo courtesy of: haablandscaping.com

What sets ground cover more convenient than lawn is the less landscape care and maintenance, meaning less lawn cutting. Many landscape and garden design have utilized low maintenance ground cover plantings to blanket areas which are traditionally covered by high-maintenance lawns. Ground covers, such as ivy and juniper, can save you time, effort and money on maintenance and create texture and color options that cannot be achieved by common turfs. Other ground cover highly recommended by garden professionals are Pachysandra Cotonester, Drift Roses and evergreens like the Japanese Skimmia that could provide a year round interest with its appearance of tiny white flowers in Spring, followed by bright red berries in Fall, and staying green all year round; this plant also requires no maintenance or pruning at all. There are other varieties of ground covers which suit different hardiness zones.

photo courtesy of: beautifulwildlifegarden.com

You may be wondering about the irrigation system suitable for ground covers, New York Plantings Irrigation Division recommends Drip Irrigation which is becoming one of the most common irrigation system recognized by garden experts and environmentalist as an effective way to conserve water and establish cultivation of ground covers. The system could foster quick plant establishment as well as maintaining ground covers’ health while actually saving a lot of money for maintenance. Indeed, ground covers are beneficial not just to gardens but also to budget.

So if you’re planning to grow ground covers into your yard, don’t hesitate  to call New York Plantings Garden Designers and Landscape Contractors at 347 558 7051. They specialize Asian Garden Design and also offer other beneficial services to your garden, such as custom planter boxes, fire pit installation, outdoor kitchen building, green roof installation and many more. New York Plantings Irrigation and Lighting Division offers services, like outdoor lighting, low voltage lighting, automatic drip irrigation installation and other irrigation maintenance. For more information about New York Plantings services, visit www.newyorkplantings.com.

Crucial Steps We Take Before Starting Your Garden and Landscape Design Project

New York Plantings Garden Designers and Landscape Contractors offers a wide range of services – not just for ground work but for rooftops, penthouses, terraces and any other place you may need garden designs. However, you may be wondering how we do our work.

After the general consultation, rooftop garden designers and specialists do not just rush right away to work on the project. There is a tedious but very important procedure that has to be done before everything else is commenced.

Photos and Hand Measurements

Before starting everything else, the garden and landscape designers will visit your area and look at the place. Hand measurements of the area will be taken as well as photos to ensure that everything is taken into consideration.

This part is very crucial because the dimensions and overall look of the area should be considered before finally rendering the design, which will be followed during the construction.

This is to make sure that all installations will fit the area – avoiding problems when working.

3D Garden Design Rendering

After the dimensions and photographs are taken, our rooftop garden designers will consult with different members of the team, including an Ipe specialist and member of the irrigation and landscape lighting division in order to create the perfect plan for your penthouse, rooftop garden or terrace. The design of course will also be based on your preference and instructions. The plan will be detailed and will include the placements for trees, plants, flowers, custom planters, landscape lighting, water features and of course – drip irrigation.

3D Rendering for a landscape design project.

Once the plan is in order, they will create a 3D rendering of the plan, which will help depict the overall look of the area. Doing this helps achieve realistic appearance of the architecture, allowing you to see the physical conditions of your penthouse, rooftop or terrace beautification project even before it is built.

Rendering also allows workers to easily visualize the goal of the project in order to minimize problems and mistakes in outdoor carpentry and installation, so you can be sure to expect the results that you want.

New York Plantings specializing in Asian Garden design takes these initial steps very seriously to make sure that each project is well planned and well executed. While they specialize in custom rooftop and outdoor garden, they also feature other services like construction of decks, pergolas, trellises, gazebos, fences, custom planter boxes, Ipe deck refinishing and other indoor and outdoor work. They also offer the latest irrigation system services. They also have other services that are not available from most companies like deck cleansing and tree care.

If you have any questions you can pay New York Plantings Garden Designers and Landscape Contractors a visit at 432 East 14th Street New York, NY 10009 United States‎, or call them at 347-558-7051.

Keeping Turf Healthy Through Fall and into Spring

The fall is here, and the temperature is beginning to drop. This means to start breaking out the sweatshirts and jackets, and more importantly it means you need to start getting ready for the dormant feeding of your lawns! Many people don’t realize how important the fall fertilization is for turf. The reason is it’s actually how the grass gets its first dose of nutrients in the spring. Confused?

Let me explain. As you may know, when the weather cools down your lawns grow slower and slower. This is because when the ground temperature cools down below 55 degrees the microorganisms (microbs) in the soil are also slowing down. The microorganisms are what make the nutrients readily available for the turf. Therefore when they slow down, the growth slows down, and after the first frost of the year the plant basically shuts down because the microorganisms have just about stopped all together.

So why would you put fertilizer down on turf in late fall if the plant cant take it up?

The reason a fertilizer should be put down before the first frost is so that the microorganisms can start breaking the nutrients down, but not fully. That way when the weather warms up in the spring and the soil temps go up, the microbs have something to start feeding your lawn with. You might ask why not just put a fertilizer down in the spring. Well, you could put it down in the spring, but the chances of you putting it down before the plant needs them are very slim. Especially if there is snow covering the ground, because as the snow melts it quickly warms the soils and the microbs can actually start as the snow is melting.

Slow-release Fertilizer

Now you can't just put any fertilizer down either. It must be a slow release fertilizer. A fertilizer that is coated with a poly material would work well, or even a clay coated fertilizer. If a quick release fertilizer is used there is a good chance you will have dead turf in the spring. With quick release fertilizers the plant will take up a lot of Nitrogen and the plant cells walls would swell up. Once the plant is subject to a frost the ‘swelled’ cell walls would burst and basically kill the majority of the lawn. The fertilizer analysis is very important and would be based on the recent history of fertilizer put down in the past year.

As you can see a lot goes into picking the right fertilizers and knowing when to put them down. This can be very tricky, costly, and possibly damaging if not done correctly. New York Plantings Garden Design and Landscaping, specializing in Asian garden design, now has a lawn specialist who can help make these challenging decisions for you, and complete these tasks.

For more information on anything about turf, ask for Julian at New York Plantings Garden Designers and Landscape Contractors.