Harbor Bay Landscaping
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Posts posted by Harbor Bay Landscaping
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Many homeowners in the metro Atlanta area didn’t know they had water drainage problems until the heavy rains last fall. Don’t wait until there’s a problem! Find out how well your yard is draining water now. Here’s an easy way:
- Dig a hole about 1 foot deep.
- Fill the hole with water and let it drain.
- As soon as the water drains, fill the hole with water again. Check to see how long it takes for the water to completely drain the second time.
Results:
Less than 1 hour: Excellent Drainage
Less than 4 hours: Good Drainage
Up to 12 hours: Adequate Drainage
More than 12 hours: Insufficient Drainage
If your yard isn’t draining water properly, Metro Atlanta Landscape can help. Installing a french drain system can alleviate standing water that serves as a breeding ground for mosquitoes and muddy areas that ruin your lawn.
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If you are thinking about creating a new bed in your yard, get out your garden hose!
Your garden hose is a great tool for marking out where you want your new bed--especially if you are planning a round or curved shape. Once you have designed a shape with the hose, use spray paint to mark the area on the ground.
Plus, if you are going to use any type of border (like a small decorative fence), it's much easier to mark the area with the garden hose, then straighten the hose and use a measuring tape to find out how many linear feet or yards of the border you'll need.
The garden hose can help you plan other landscaping elements including walkways, ponds, streams, brick paver patios and retaining walls.
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It may be sweltering hot outside right now, but fall is coming soon! This is the perfect time of year to install a backyard fire pit so that it will be ready for you to enjoy when the temperature starts dropping a little.
If you are thinking of making a fire pit yourself, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Choose a place in your yard that is clear of overhanging trees and branches.
- Dig a hole a minimum of three feet across and 10-14 inches deep, depending on whether you will be using wood or running gas to the fire pit.
- Dig a trench six inches below the bottom of the hole and install a four inch corrugated pipe. Dig the trench away from the hole to drain water out of the bottom of the fire pit.
- Make sure the bottom of your hole is perfectly level around the edges, or you may end up with a crooked fire pit.
- Lay out the landscaping blocks, bricks or stones along the bottom of the hole. Landscaping blocks can be cut with a chisel and hammer or you may want to rent a cement saw.
- Fill the hole half full with lava rock. Most fire pits will need between 10-15 bags (40lbs each) of rock.
- Check the local codes to make sure your fire pit is up to standards if you are installing a gas line or using LP.
Too busy or don’t want to tackle the project on your own? We’d be happy to install your fire pit for you! We also build paver patios for the ultimate outdoor living space. You’ll be roasting marshmallows and enjoying s’mores in no time!
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Here’s an easy way to kill weeds in beds before you plant fall annuals or ground cover:
Cut the weeds close to the ground with a weed-eater or mower. Then, cover the area with clear plastic. Put rocks, soil, bricks, etc. around the edges to hold the plastic in place. The clear plastic will act like a magnifying glass and use sunlight to kill the weeds.
When all of the weeds have died, remove the plastic and the bed will be ready for planting!
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I've actually found that leaves, especially a lot of them can actually keep water from getting to the ground. Yeah, they get wet, but it takes years for them to rot and degrade.
I've always removed the leaves from my yard and around my bushes and trees and flowers. Then mulch.
Just my thoughts on it.
Very true.
One thing leaves are good for is your compost pile. The other elements you mix into it help break down the leaves and turn the whole mixture into rich soil for planting. -
I just saw a few of the wedding pictures on your website...they look GREAT! Good job!
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The summer’s heat can be extremely detrimental to newly planted vegetation. If you are planting or moving plants, try to wait until the fall. If you really need to plant now, try to do so on a cloudy day or on a day when there is a light rain. Remember to give the plants a significant amount of water before and after planting. Also, make sure to water heavily at least once a day for a few weeks until the plant is established and looks healthy.
Don’t neglect your existing plants and trees in this heat, either! Make sure they get more water than usual to combat the high temperatures.
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John is a great instructor and I highly recommend this course for women and teenage girls. Guys, get your wives and daughters to it!
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Do you need to use pine straw next to the house or is mulch ok? In reference to termites. TIA
After 16+ years of landscaping, I've never found termites to be a problem with mulch. As long as your termite treatment is current, it's certainly not a problem. Plus, termites like bigger pieces of wood to eat. Little scraps of mulch don't make much of a snack for them.
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We have a lot of trees so leaves completely cover the islands in the fall. We use the leaves as mulch and cover with new pine straw after they fall. Would you suggest using mulch in our situation?
Yes, I would definitely recommend using mulch as opposed to the pine straw on top of the dead leaves. Way to recycle, though!
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To make sure you take the CFL's back to Home Depot or Lowes or wherever they are recycling them. We have to change OUR living and our streams and such.
That's easy enough. I'm there all of the time!
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Don’t Trash It! Compost It!
Here are some great ingredients for composting:
Fruit and Vegetable Scraps
Grass Clippings
Shredded Newspapers
Coffee Grounds
Dried Leaves
Weeds and Yard Waste
Pine Straw
Composting is a great way to recycle! Less goes to the landfill and you get FREE fertilizer!
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Thanks! I just sent you a pm.
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I've always used mulch.
I remember back in the 90's I would take the truck over to the old Cobb County land field, and you could pull up in this huge barn and they would dump mulch in the back of your pickup. Those were the days. It was free.
Now I buy it by the dump truck load from that place on Hwy. 92 in Hiram.
What I CAN NOT understand is when people plant something new, they never water it and then wonder why it died. I can't believe people can be so stupid.
I've watched my neighbor do it for 2 years in a row, and I tell him you have to water them, but he doesn't have the time.
I just hate to see anything die.
You would be surprised at how many people don't quite grasp this concept! I guess most don't realize that new plants need A LOT of water until they get established.
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Summer maintenance keeps your flowering bulbs coming back beautifully every year!
- Remove dead flowers and yellow/brown leaves, but leave healthy leaves intact
- Fertilize after flowering
- Treat for disease and insect pests
- Divide large plants to maintain healthy growth
- Water deeply, as needed
- Steak large plants for support
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I'm thinking about adding some skylights in my living room. I'm just trying to figure out how many, what sizes and what type to get.
Any suggestions?
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I Love my mulch!!!! It is so much better than pinestraw. I had pinestraw for 1 yr and had to change. It looked very sloppy when compared to mulch. I have the mulch made out of recycled tires. Now I can say I'm being GREEN!!!!
Good for you! And I agree that the mulch gives the yard a nicer appearance.
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If you have small pinhole leaks in your hose, don’t throw it away! It’s really easy to repair.
First, insert a wooden toothpick into the leak, just about as deep as the wall of the hose. Then, break the toothpick so that it is even with the outside surface of the hose. Next, use electrical tape to cover the toothpick. Wrap the tape around the hose, but make sure the ends don’t overlap. Make the tape tight over the repaired leak, but loose around the hose. This gives the hose room to bend and expand.
Once you’ve made this repair, use your hose as you normally do. The water will make the toothpick swell so that it completely blocks the leak
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I am so excited about my cruise through Cruise Planners of Paulding! We're going to Mexico this fall and it's only costing us about $375 per person for 4 days...INCLUDING GRATUITIES!
Thank you, Cruise Planners!
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Very funny!
Helpful humor--that's what we're going for. Funny, but useful. Glad you liked it.
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Harsh chemicals may kill bugs quickly, but they may be worse for your yard in the long run. This is because they also kill the beneficial insects that naturally control the harmful ones. A yard without ‘good’ insects is an invitation for the ‘bad’ ones to invade and destroy at will.
So, here are some environmentally friendly suggestions to try before resorting to chemical pesticides.
- Plant flowers and herbs that attract ‘good’ bugs. These include fennel, marigold, cilantro and alyssum.
- Sprinkle Diatomaceous Earth around plants. Diatomaceous Earth is composed of sharp, tiny sea shells that prevent slugs and other soft-skinned creatures from reaching your plants and flowers.
- Dust sulfur on and around plants to kill fungus and mites.
- Slugs and snails can’t cross copper strips, so they can be used to keep these insects away from plants and trees. Special landscaping copper strips are available for this purpose.
- If leaf-eating caterpillars and mosquitoes are a problem, there is a bacteria called Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) that acts as a stomach poison.
- If poison is needed, try Neem. This is a natural pesticide made from an East Indian tree.
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I've taken this class and highly recommend it!
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I saw some senior pictures on your website and they look really good. It's great that you're offering parents and their seniors an option besides the standard (boring) pictures that look the same as everyone else's at the school.
FREE Chiropractic Care from Dr. George Tomes in Dallas, GA
in Business NEWS
Posted
Thanks for the adjustment last week, Dr. George. I really appreciate your patient appreciation day and will be there this month, too.