Landscaping From the Couch—A Winter Guide for Garden Owners

/in , , ,

Winter can be a frustrating time for yard enthusiasts who have a hard time waiting for spring to return. Winter is an ideal time to imagine all your yard can be and to map out a plan. While you can’t actually get your hands dirty in December, you can do so virtually.

There are a number of landscape design apps for homeowners that let you create a digital layout of your landscape so you can see what a new flowerbed might look like, fencing, pathways, and more. And even if you plan to hire a professional to help you do the work, the designs you create will help any pro better understand what you want to accomplish. Use the winter months to book a landscape design consultation with Ronnie Augustine to get his expert advice.

Landscape Design Apps for Homeowners

PRO Landscape Home

PRO Landscape HOme

With a very high App Store rating, this tool allows you to redesign your entire landscape. You start with a photo of your yard, then add plants, trees, and man-made features like paths and patios. You can search for plants by climate zone and even add furniture. Once your design is complete, you can share it on social media and get feedback from friends. The app is free, but there is an extensive image library that is an add-on for $14.99 that gives you nearly infinite choices.

Garden Designer

This app is better for simpler designs. It allows you to place the plan you create directly onto your photos of the space. It has an extensive library, allows you to drag and drop items, and also lets you resize things like fences and paving.

iscape

Iscape also has a free and paid for version. And, you can test out the full version before you buy it. This tool has a texture tool that lets you see a more realistic rendition of grass, mulch, pavers and stones. They have an elite version that is targeted to professional landscapers.

So don’t fret those gray skies and chilly temperatures. Light a fire in your fireplace and let these apps inspire your spring spruce-up projects now.

Sod: Here Today, Lawn Tomorrow

/in , , ,

For those who may not know exactly what sod is, It’s mature lawn that has been professionally grown, cultivated, and cut into rolls including underlying soil and roots. You’re basically buying lawn that someone has nurtured for you for about 18 months – a careful mix of several grasses that are chosen for optimal color, texture, and heartiness. For homeowners who dream of a lush lawn to luxuriate in, sod is well worth the investment.

You’re also buying convenience – none of that watching the lawn grow.

Fall is Sod Season

Fall is a great time to do many lawn projects and laying sod is no exception. Cooler temperatures, occasional rain, and practically no competition from weeds makes early fall ideal. It’s at this time that the sod can continue to grow and take hold without the harsh summer sun. You just have to lay it in enough time (6 weeks) for it to develop a strong root system before the ground freezes.

Benefits of Sod vs. Seed

  • Sod takes less time and care to establish
  • Provides an instantly healthy and lush lawn without patches
  • Seeding requires families to stay off the lawn – hard when you have kids and pets
  • Sod is a great choice for sloped lawns or erosion-prone areas where seed would wash away

The only cons to laying sod is its expense and the prep work required to make your soil sod-ready. And Augustine can help with both the prep work and laying the sod. If you don’t want to sit and watch the grass grow, give us a call to learn more about sod. What you lay this fall will truly pay off in a beautiful lawn to enjoy this coming spring and summer.

Fall: The Best Time to Fix Drainage Problems

/in , , , ,

The Hudson Valley had a particularly wet spring. If you had water collecting in your yard, fall is the best time to act. Aside from the aesthetics of standing water in your yard and the inability to utilize your yard the way you’d like, drainage issues can lead to some serious and costly problems. 

Here are some signs that you have drainage problems:

  • Cracks in your foundation can be caused by water that collects right around your house. 
  • Water that has exposed roots, gutted out areas of your lawn, or created swampy sections. This erosion washes away many of the nutrients that your lawn and plantings need to thrive.
  • Water leaking into your basement or garage means water is pooling up around your foundation.
  • A constantly running sump pump means that water from poor drainage is consistently entering your home.
  • Plants and shrubs that have fungus or mold in wetter areas of your yard.

poor drainage conditions

Poor Drainage Conditions

Causes of Poor Drainage

  • Poor Yard pitch or slope either toward or away from your home will result in water running to the downslope.
  • A depression in your landscape will cause rainwater to collect, causing puddles or soggy areas that take forever to dry up. 
  • Impacted soil makes it difficult for rain or snow to be absorbed, so it just sits on top.
  • Pathways around your house and yard can act like a dam, retaining water. 
  • Lack of or improperly installed downspouts make it hard to divert rainwater away from your house.

DRY CREEK and OTHER FIXES

Dry creek landscaping

The good news is that these are problems Augustine Nursery can fix by:

  • Grading the soil incrementally away from your house, patios, walkways, and driveway
  • Installing a dry creek that is both beautiful and functional to redirect water
  • Building French drains – an underground drainage system – to move water to a designated area
  • Permeable pavers for pathways can alleviate water build up in walkways.
  • Add a water feature to give your yard a place for excess water to collect.

Dry creek landscaping

Dry Creek Landscaping

French Drain

French Drain

Right now, before the winter snow accumulation and the spring thaw, is the perfect time to put your drainage problems to bed. Just remember, the Grand Canyon was created by a small flow of water, so don’t underestimate its power of erosion. Ask Augustine how to channel your drainage problems away. 

The Flowers of July

/in , ,

Summertime brings with it much sunshine and heat. It also brings an array of show-stopping summer flowers that thrive in heat. They come in every color of the rainbow and many are care-free. Here are a baker’s dozen of favorite July blooms.

Black Eyed Susans
This sunflower-like plant prefers full sun, can grow over 3 feet tall, attracting birds and butterflies. Native to North America and one of the most popular wildflowers grown, they tend to blanket open fields, often surprising the passerby with their golden-yellow beauty.

Blanket Flowers
Gaillardia looks like a miniature sunset, fading between yellow, orange, red, and sometimes burgundy. They are a short-lived perennial with richly colored, daisy-like flowers that slowly spread to blanket an area.

Cleome
Cleome, also called spider flower, grows to be about 3 to 5 feet in rose, pink, purple, and white. Cleomes are sometimes overlooked at the nursery as they look weedy as seedlings. But once the flower clusters emerge, they will become a easy-to-care-for favorite in your yard.

Coneflowers

Coneflowers
This is a favorite flower of birds, butterflies and humans. A native American plant indigenous to the central plains, it is virtually indestructible. These large daisy-like, rosy purple petals surrounding a copper-colored, dome-shaped central seed head are a perfect cutting flower.

 

Cosmos
Cosmos are annuals with colorful daisy-like flowers that sit atop long slender stems. Blooming throughout the summer months, they attract birds, bees, and butterflies to your garden. This full-sun perennial grows to 2 to 5 feet high with blooms in crimson, pink, and white.

Dahlias
Spanish Hidalgos observed dahlias growing in Mexico as early as the 16th century, where they were cultivated and eaten by the Aztecs.  These colorful, spiky flowers bloom from midsummer right through first frost, when many other plants are past their best. Plant bulbs in the springtime if you want to add Wow to your garden.

Daisies
Always cheerful, these perennials grow in mounds of tall stems bloom for months on end, and almost never fail to reappear next spring. They will bloom all summer long.

 

 

Delphinium
Delphinium, also called Larkspur are the birth flower for the month of July.  It blooms from late spring to late summer, and are said to symbolize ‘an open heart’. They are perennials grown for their showy spikes of colorful flowers in shades of blue, pink, white, and purple. They are popular in cottage-style gardens and cutting gardens.

Hydrangeas 
The name for these summer-flowering plants comes from the Greek “hydor.” Unlike many July flowers, hydrangeas need plenty of water and bloom from early spring to late autumn. The color of the hydrangea flower depends on the pH of the soil in which they are grown and can be white, blue, red, pink, light purple, or dark purple.

Lilies
Lilies have large, showy blooms, adding striking elegance to your yard from early to midsummer. Grown from bulbs, lilies are perennial flowers that will return year after year and require minimal care.

Peonies
Peonies signal the beginning of summer each year. Some bushes can thrive for half a century or more! One of the most magnificent mainstays of any garden, peonies are virtually pest-free; deer and rabbits don’t like its bitter taste.

Sunflowers 
Sunflowers grow best with full sun in fertile, moist soil, and are readily available throughout the late summer. They are sure to brighten up even the gloomiest of days, whether planted in a long row along a fence or massed in a sunny border.

Zinnias
A traditional plant for pollinator gardens, zinnias are easy to grow and require full sun. Great in borders and container gardens, the flowers are great for cutting. They can grow anywhere from 4 inches to 4 feet high and comes in almost every color except for blue.

New Trends in Eco-Friendly Yards

/in , , ,

Keeping your yard green at the same time you’re trying to be green can be a challenge. Most homeowners want to have the perfect yard filled with shrubs and trees arranged in an aesthetically pleasing array. Unfortunately, many of the tenets of home landscaping are no longer based on what’s good for the environment.

Obvious culprits include many of the chemicals used to help lawns grow or keep weeds under control. But, other things to take into consideration include the conservation of water and the gas used in our equipment. The good news is that there are eco-friendly ways to create and maintain the yard of your dreams.

Large Trees Save Energy & Reduce your Carbon Footprint

Many people don’t realize that strategically placed large trees can shade your home in summer and protect it from the northern winds of winter. This can significantly lower your energy use.

Trees and shrubs make their own food from carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, water, sunlight, and a small amount of soil elements. In the process, they release oxygen (O2) for us to breathe.

According to the Energy Information Administration, a red mulberry or laurel oak, two trees classified as speedy growers, will sequester an average of 69.5 pounds of carbon per year.

Augustine maintains its own tree farm and can help you choose a tree of the right kind and size for your location.

Watering

Did you know that about half of the typical residential water use goes towards landscaping? Cutting back on watering will help conservation. For instance, annuals require more water than perennials. Tall ornamental grasses are also good water-saving plants. And, use mulch generously. It helps retain moisture in your flower and shrub beds.

Lawns

Lawns not only require watering to stay green during the hottest summer months, they also require mowing – most often by a gas-powered mower.

  • Save water by leaving your grass 3” tall in summer. The ground will retain a bit more moisture. Higher grass also blocks weeds from getting the sunlight they need to thrive.
  • Consider replacing gas equipment with battery-powered lawn and yard equipment.
  • Replace parts of your lawn with ground cover and or a patio.

Augustine Nursery can help you plan and plant a landscape that is beautiful, easy to maintain, and eco-friendly. We’re here to answer all of your landscaping questions.

 

 

March is the Time to Plan Your Landscaping

/in , ,

The best way to pass this last leg of winter is begin planning for the spring and summer outdoor living that lies ahead. We know there is snow and ice outside, but the geese are starting to fly north again and soon we move our clocks ahead. So now is the best time to put together your wish list and price it out.

What’s on your Wish List?

Does your front yard need a large tree? Would a retaining wall and walkway add to your curb appeal? Is your back patio too small for entertaining? Every project starts with a vision of how your landscape will add to the enjoyment you derive from your home – much of which will also add monetary value.

Large Trees

When you need a shade tree or a large tree to add curb appeal to your landscape, you don’t want to wait a decade for that tree to grow into its role. Planting a large tree is a bit more costly, but the benefits of having it to enjoy right away far outweigh the cost. We grow our own, we deliver, and we plant it for you. All you do is enjoy.

Outdoor Cooking

You may not need an entire outdoor kitchen on your patio, buy enclosing your grill with stonework and adding a simple prep space can give you tremendous functionality and beauty. If you love to entertain, this added feature will not only make you look like a pro, but will allow you to spend more time with your guests, especially if you tack on a patio bar. Or, how about a stone pizza oven?

Lighting

As the days get longer, the idea of adding lighting to your patio can extend the amount of time you get to enjoy the outdoors. In addition to adding style, good lighting always adds a layer of safety and security. Lighting also sets a wonderful mood as evening approaches.

Planning Early

Planning early means you can start enjoying sooner in the season. And, if you need the advice and physical labor of Augustine, contacting us now will get you on our work schedule early too. Give us a call or come on in and share your vision with us. We’re just the guys to help make your vision reality.

 

 

 

Brilliant Outdoor Lighting

/in ,

As the days grow shorter, outdoor lighting that adds not only beauty but a safe path to your door is essential. This is true whether we’re talking about your home or business. The goal of outdoor lighting is for welcoming, safety. And, when the seasons turn warm again, your outdoor lighting can greatly extend the use of your patios, decks and pool areas for family use and entertaining.

If you’ve been researching outdoor lighting you’ve probably come across terms like up-lighting, down-lighting, silhouetting, highlighting, and wall-washing, to name a few. Not all outdoor lighting fixtures are created equal. Some are quite bright, others don’t give enough output, and many are not built to last for years in our harsh weather. Outdoor lighting is complex and more worthy of consideration than simply going to your local hardware or lumber store and sticking in a few solar lights alongside your drive. Understanding the differences in lights and lighting techniques, and knowing how to use each one to your property’s best advantage is one of the best reasons to hire a landscaping company like Augustine Nursery.

Reasons to choose a professional solution:

Security & Safety

Knowledge of the latest technologies including solar and low voltage
Design skills to integrate lighting with your architecture and landscaping
Enhancing the resale value of your home

Let your guests see your home in a whole new light. We know how to integrate a variety of lighting types for the very best effect. By combining overall lighting to illuminate your general landscape, task lighting for performance, and accent lighting to emphasize specific features, we can create a lighting design that is aesthetically pleasing and functional.

Use a variety of lighting types for the best effect. Through a combination of overall lighting that illuminates your general landscape, task lighting that helps perform a job, and accent lighting which emphasizes features, you can create a lighting design layout that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional!

An Evergreen Winter

/in , , ,

In our northern climate, evergreens play such an important role in our home landscapes. As the leaves turn yellow and orange and drop from our deciduous trees, integrating evergreens into our yards help keep the winter from turning quite as bleak.

If you don’t have an array of evergreens to round out your plantings and add cheer to your winter months, you may have to wait six months before seeing an emerging leaf. In addition to adding color, evergreens provide excellent privacy, screen out unwanted views, add structure to your landscape, and add shelter for birds.

There are basically two types of evergreens – conifers and broadleafs. Most people picture conifers when imagining an evergreen.

boxwood and snow plantBroadleaf Evergreens

  • Andromeda
  • Boxwood
  • Rhododendron
  • Holly
  • Inkberry

 

 

yew branch with berryConifer Evergreen Shrubs

  • Juniper
  • Cypress
  • Yew
  • Arborvitae

 

 

cedar branchConifer Evergreen Trees

  • Cedar
  • Hemlock
  • Pine
  • Spruce

 

 

The best gardens use an imaginative mix of tree and shrub species, and evergreens have a place in that mix. The best time to plant evergreens is in the fall. The threat of drought or getting scorched by the sun is past and the cooler temperature helps encourage new root growth.

evergreen trees in tree nurseryDon’t accept the monotony of a typical winter landscape. Augustine Nursery carries an impressive array of evergreens in all shapes and sizes for homeowners and landscapers. Ask us how you can best add evergreens to your yard. We can even plant them for you. No winter landscape is complete without that touch of snow on green.

And don’t forget to consider how paths, walls, and even weather-proof garden art such as obelisks and potter further add to the beauty and walkability of your yard. Without all the color of spring and summer, these elements become more important than ever.

Foundation Plantings

/in ,

Simply put, foundation plantings are those closest to your home. They have an important job – they make your home more welcoming, soften your architecture’s hard edges, and ties together your house to the surrounding landscape of your yard. Unfortunately, many homes underestimate the impact of foundation plantings and leave the job to a few scraggly shrubs or undersized and underwhelming annuals. These poorly chosen foundation plantings just can’t pull off the job.

The place where your house meets the yard begs to be softened by greenery. As a homeowner, your goal should be a pleasing mix of evergreens, shrubs, flowers, and perhaps even grasses.

  • Boxwood is a foundation staple. Boxwood can work as both an accent and a hedge. Easy to trim, it can remain compact and low growing. And they will keep your landscaping fresh even in winter when there are no flowers.
  • Rhododendron is another favorite foundation plant. An evergreen, they have large clusters of flowers in spring, grow well in the partial shade of a bed near a home, and have attractive leaves. And, rhododendrons are native to the Eastern U.S. woodlands.
  • Hydrangea flowers will pick up the slack when your rhododendron blooms are done. They can bloom from the beginning of summer until fall.
  • Dwarf Trees such as a weeping Japanese maple or dwarf eastern white pine off to one side where you don’t block your windows add a bit of height to your foundation.
  • Perennial flowers such as catnip, lavender, or sunset hyssop are hardy plants and they appeal to butterflies and hummingbirds.

Here’s a good rule of green thumb when choosing foundation plants: aim for 50% evergreens, 25% flowering shrubs, and 25% perennials so your plantings look good all year round. And make sure to slope your beds so the drainage moves water away from your home.

Need a little help? Augustine Nursery is ready to help you pick out your foundation plantings, and even design and plant the beds for you. Since foundation plantings stay in place for years to come, advice on plant proportions, layering, and drainage is important information we’re happy to be a part of. By industry standards, a well landscaped front yard can increase the value of your home by a national average of 11%, so it pays to invest in getting it right.

rhododendron

 

The Beauty of Hydrangeas

/in ,

Hydrangeas are classic. Their appeal is clear – it’s all about the delicate flowers and how they cluster to form big showy globes. Native to southern and eastern Asia, there are about 75 different species. Their colors range from snowball white, purplish blue, to pink and even green. And, one of their most interesting characteristics is that certain hydrangeas can vary their color according to the make-up of the soil in which it’s planted. Soils containing more iron will produce blue hydrangea, while soils with a higher ph will produce pinker flowers. Alter the soil and you can change the color of hydrangeas.

Hydrangeas have much to tout. They are:

  • An affordable addition to your plantings,
  • They make wonderful cut flowers and even dry nicely,
  • They are hardy and resistant to disease,
  • Some varieties bloom from spring to early fall, &
  • They are pretty easy to care for.

Planting time is spring. Choose from varieties such as Elite Shocking Blue, Edgy Hearts, Everlasting Green Cloud, and Little Lime. They do best with morning sun and afternoon shade in soil with good drainage. Fertilize to give it a strong start. Keep them moist, but not wet. They require minimal care, except for pruning. It’s important to know what type of hydrangeas you have because pruning times vary. All hydrangeas though, benefit from the annual removal of dead stems and spent blooms.

Hydrangeas can be used in a variety of ways in your landscape – as a specimen plant, as a border or hedge, as a vine or even in pots. There are so many reasons to love hydrangeas. Stop by Augustine Nursery to add one or two to your yard.

 

The Beauty of a Tree-Lined Drive

/in

A tree-lined driveway is a wonderful way to call attention to the entryway to your property. It says so much about what lies ahead. There’s an actual term for this landscape design – an allée. An allée is any path that is lined with trees of the same species. Its beauty lies in that the driver’s eye is extended toward and thus emphasizes something in the distance – your lovely home.

Nothing adds year-round drama to your front yard like an allée and your choice of tree is key. Your best choices are trees that are upright as opposed to full and ones that don’t grow surface roots or have roots that spread too broad.

A flowering tree such as a pear, crabapple or dogwood will provide beautiful blooms in spring, majestic greenery in summer and striking color in the fall.

Most people shy away from creating an allée simply because of the idea of waiting a decade for their trees to grow and take shape, but this is not at all necessary. We grow over 20,000 trees at our tree farm on the Esopus in Kingston and specialize in planting large trees for our customers.

If you think an allée is too big a step for you, we can plant one tree on either side of your driveway entrance. Like an allée, it is a welcoming and dramatic feature. And, just imagine how those trees will look with a few uplights to brighten your drive at night. As they age, they might even form a beautiful canopy over your driveway, giving your home tremendous curb appeal.

Spring and fall are the best seasons to plant large trees and anyone at Augustine can help you choose the trees that are best for your drive.

Fall is the New Spring

/in , ,

Let’s make this the year we redefine the boundaries of the growing season by annexing fall to our planting season! There is so much to love about fall as a gardening season. For one, we can tend to our yards without the blazing heat, not to mention the beauty of the colors as they change around us.

No, fall will no longer simply be the season of the things we have to do to survive winter like raking leaves or cleaning gutters. This fall, let’s do the things we want to do because we want to make our yards and gardens more beautiful than ever when spring awakens once more.

Plant a Large Tree

Fall is a perfect time to think big! Does your yard need a focal point to increase curb appeal? Do you need some shade or perhaps something to help stave off erosion? The root system of a large tree will grow stronger when planted in the fall as the cooler temperatures allow for greater growth without the competition of new top growth. The result is a stronger, better established root system for next spring’s growth.

Get Bulbs in the Ground

It’s easy to pop bulbs in the ground. And you’ll be handsomely rewarded in early spring as they begin to show their beauty. Iris, daffodils, and tulips are just a few varieties that are easy to care for while rewarding you year after year with color.

Fall Vegetable Favorites

Instead of bidding farewell to your vegetable garden for the year, dig in to some of the following fall favorites.

If you love garlic, there’s good reason to grow your own – the spicy flavor of homegrown garlic just can’t be beat and you can use the stalk like scallions. Plant in fall and by June you’ll have an incredible harvest of garlic.Asparagus is a perennial vegetable and doesn’t need anything special to thrive for years to come. All you need is patience because you shouldn’t harvest year one asparagus. Allow them to grow into dill-like brush. When the brush turns brown, cut it back and wait another season.
Onion are another fall vegetable that will yield a harvest by early summer. Bought in sets, they are easy to plant.

Augustine Nursery can help you with all your fall gardening and yard needs. Did you know we even have our own tree farm? Augustine Tree Farm trees are already established for our climate, and we’ll deliver and plant it for you! No need to wait a generation to enjoy the majesty or shade of a beautiful large tree.