When planning your landscaping most people include things like trees, bushes and grass but that can sometimes result in a very green landscape.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but many people want to spice it up a little bit with some color. The most common way people do this is by adding flowers to different areas of their landscape, but this comes with some concerns.

Many flowers only bloom for a few weeks or months per year which can put you back right where you started.

Adding Flowers for Color

Of course flowers are an excellent addition to most landscaping jobs, but it is important to do it right to ensure they bloom evenly throughout the year. In most areas of the country there are hundreds of different species of flowers to choose from that will thrive.

You can choose a variety of different species of flowers which bloom at different times of the year. This will not only provide you with color throughout the year but will also give your landscaping a constantly changing look and feel.

Using Trees for Color

There are some trees which have leaves which are red, purple and other colors which can add an excellent splash of color to your landscaping. Many people love the fact that they not only give you additional coloring, but also that the color is up off of the ground which can give your garden a look of additional depth.

You can even get flowering trees which will have a normal green leaf through much of the year but at particular times they will bloom with brilliant flowers. This may be something to consider when planning out your design.

Don’t Forget About the Non-Living Items

Something many people forget as an option to give your landscape additional color are those non-living items such as chairs, walkways or other things. When properly placed you can create distinctive focal points in your garden and help add flair to the entire area. Some popular ideas for this include things like:

• bird feeders
• bird baths
• brick walking paths
• tree swings
• patio furniture

There are, of course, many other options to choose from as well. When looking at your options, don’t be afraid of getting creative with what you use for your garden design.

Remember that when planning the design of your yard that the most important thing is that you’re happy with the end result. Even though landscaping as a whole can be expensive, most of the individual items used aren’t typically going to cost you too much so you can give them a try, and if you don’t like the way they look you can just remove and replace them with something new.

Landscaping should never be something that is done once and forgotten.

Continuous updates and improvements are part of the joy of landscaping and it will also keep your home and your yard looking new and exciting year after year.

The contrast between some things which last for many years like the trees and other items that might be changed based on the season give landscaping the sense of excitement that most people love.

It may be hard to believe while we’re currently stuck in the throes of winter, but spring is just around the corner and that means a good amount of work getting our lawns and gardens back to their full beauty and strength of seasons past.

For months during winter your lawn, trees, bushes and gardens are covered, stressed, and pressed by snow and ice and can be damaged by deicers like rock salt.

When the snow clears and life finally begins to return, your lawn can appear patchy and many plants seemingly unhealthy, but their all most resilient than we often give them credit for.

While the amount of work needed will vary on the yard and on the severity of the winter, there is a short checklist of lawn care tips for spring that can help anyone kickstart their lawn and garden and prepare it for the rest of the year.

Take a Walk

Before you get down to work in a specific area, make sure you know the whole picture.

Take a walk around the property to get a clear idea of any damage that may have occurred and the work ahead of you. This is also a great time to do some basic clearing of dead or broken materials to clear the way for you later.

Clear Your Gardens

If you have gardens or flower beds, getting these cleaned out and planted can do a lot to improve the overall look of your yard almost immediately. Marigolds and pansies are two cold-resistant flowers that are very common and can be found at any nursery, perfect for spring planting.

Trim and clear any damaged or overgrown foliage to improve the look of the beds and make room for new, healthy growth. When pruning trees, make sure to cut no closer to the trunk than the branch collar, the raised ring where the trunk and the branch join.

The area around the branch collar is naturally capable of healing itself when a branch is shed, but improper pruning can damage the trees ability to cover the wound exposing the entire tree to the risk of decay.

Along with any waste you create, make sure to clear old mulch, dead leaves, and branches from the flower beds. While these materials can be composted and help improve soil conditions, those operations need to be kept separate. If left unattended, all of this material can build up in the flower beds and smother your plants.

Mow the Lawn

Unless your lawn suffered extreme damage in the winter months, spring fertilization isn’t essential. (For much of the country, application of fertilizer in the fall is most effective.) You lawn will undoubtedly appear patchy and flattened, but it won’t take long to fix that.

Using a plastic leaf rake, you can quickly get the grass upright, and a pass of the mower will improve the look by evening out the grass. While raking make sure not to apply any pressure – rely only on the weight of the rake itself.

Using a metal rake or applying too much pressure can pull up the grass and do major damage to your lawn. Most people have manageable lawns, but if you lack the time or have a giant lawn consider hiring a landscape company to do the basics to free up your time to focus on your garden.

Don’t Over-Water

For many of us, the simple joy of finally being outside can cause a sort of ‘spring-fever’ and actually lead to over-care for our lawns. One such common mistake comes when the water finally gets turned on. Depending on the climate and rainfall, your sprinklers may not even be necessary until much nearer to summer, but often times that spring fever (and the sad look of a post-winter lawn) can lead to an excessive amount of watering.

Check with your local lawn care for watering tips in your area. Grass is a hearty organism, and a good thirst is actually extremely healthy and advantageous in the long run. When grass is thirsty it encourages deep growth in the root system, seeking out more water.

Constant watering in the spring negates the need for such strong roots and will leave your lawn ill-prepared for the summer heat that lies ahead. Nevertheless your sprinklers will need to be turned on, consult your local sprinkler expert for your sprinkler start up.

Lawn care, specifically spring lawn care, can be a lot of work, but it’s extremely satisfying to enjoy a healthy lawn throughout the year, and a healthy lawn, trees and plants can help raise property value – all it takes is dedication, knowledge and some simple landscape tips.

If it seems like too much to handle, though, there are always lawn care professionals who are happy to help you get your yard ready for spring and keep it looking great all year round.

We don’t really need to go to the movies or walk into dark alleys at night in order to live moments of horror and agony: a garden can perfectly well make our weekend an unforgettable experience – which is not always pleasant…

Just remember how many times you have seen or heard of a child presenting serious allergy symptoms after rolling on a lawn and coming in touch with recently applied chemical fertilizers, pesticides or insecticides…

This, of course, does not mean that we can’t enjoy a lush, green garden when we have small children roaming around our yard. Turning to a more eco-friendly gardening model will protect the health of our beloved ones, while helping our garden to be and to look healthier.

Gardens, even in their primitive wild condition, were present on Earth long before humans made their first steps on the planet.

After billions of years of evolution, the flora of a place, in combination with the fauna living in it (birds, insects, worms, snails, etc), can form a complete local ecosystem.

Much like a human or animal body, this ecosystem has its own particular workings going on, and a sensitive balance that needs to be maintained, so that it remains healthy and robust.

A garden is an islet of life, a unique orchestration of natural elements (ground, weather) and of the living creatures (fauna, humans) thriving in those very specific conditions.

Nature has its own ways of preventing and of curing diseases, of keeping away harmful species and of expelling anything unfit to live in a given environment – whether you wish to have it embellishing your garden, like that jasmine you like so much (alas! in those chilly Minnesota nights), or you would love to see it vanish from your garden, like that horrid aphid which dries the sap out of your beauties.

Naturally Balanced Landscape Design

The ground contains, naturally, an array of nutritional substances.

Besides being indispensable to the plants themselves, a landscape design which has an exchange of substances, liquids and saps from and within the environment of an ecosystem, such as your garden, is a vital process for the fauna of the area as well. And we all know how insects, earthworms and other useful species perform many necessary functions (pollination, praying upon harmful species, airing and enriching of the ground, etc).

It is important that plants receive the substances appropriate to their own specific nutritional needs and that they avoid soils and adjacency with plants that are not beneficial to them.

If you ever grew a vegetable garden, you must have noticed how green peas hate the company of tomatoes; on the other hand, they are nitrogen-generating plants: your Brussels sprouts, or your ornamental leafy vegetables will be grateful for being planted on a spot previously occupied by green peas. This information can be very useful in the practice of crop rotation.

Even during the life cycle of an individual plant, its nutritional needs may vary according to its reproductive stage: as a general rule, nitrogen helps increase the sprouting of shoots and leaves, while phosphorus assists blooming and fruit-bearing.

The lack of or, on the contrary, the overexposure to a certain nutrient may cause chain reactions, harmful to your plants. For example, the imbalances in calcium supply (an absolutely necessary substance for the delivery of nutrients and for regulating the soil’s acidity (pH), leads to lack of phosphorus – which, as we already saw, assists fruit-bearing.

This will result in a poor crop; additionally, the leaves will take on an auburn hue.

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Tip: Do not place plants with similar nutritional needs together, as they will be constantly rivaling each other.

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Besides absorbing substances from the ground and from their leaves, plants also secrete them. Plants contain essential oils, resins and other kinds of liquids – even in minimal amounts – that may attract or repel animals and other plants. Some examples:

• basil, ocimum basilicum, repels flies and cucumber mildew;
• wormwood, artemisia absinthium, repels worms, greenflies, ants, cabbage butterfly, and more;
• elderberry, sampucus nigra, whose flowers attract bees and fruits attract several bird species;
• stinging nettle, urtica dioica and urtica urens, that should be in every garden, as it is needed for the reproductive cycle of more than a hundred different kinds of useful mites, and also boosts production for neighboring plants, while increasing the production of essential oils of the herbs growing next to it;
• garlic, allium sativum, a potent anti-fungal which can be planted near or around fruit-bearing trees, rose bushes, and vegetables (except beans, cauliflowers, cabbages, broccoli); it also assists the growth of strawberry plants.

It is important to have a combination of plants mutually profitable for each other: your garden will be much healthier, more balanced, and your plants will grow showing off all the splendor of their natural beauty.

Beneficial Insects

Pest control can rely heavily on the beneficial insects living in your garden: if you care to provide them with appropriate living conditions (the plants from which they harvest pollen and nectar, poison-free environment, a hiding place, such a little pond, a loose stone wall, or a tuft of wild grass) they will multiply unimpeded and they will start their campaign against the larvae and the adult insects that usually attack plants.

Beneficial insects are real predatory warriors that go hunting or ambush a variety of common gardener’s headaches. The best way to attract them to your garden is to designate a space (about 5-10 per cent of the total area) in which you will grow wild and domesticated plants and herbs that beneficials love to visit.

Applied in a larger scale (e.g. a farm) the concept is called farmscaping and it is a scientific method of biological control that will allow nature to regulate itself without the use of detrimental chemical agents.

Ladybugs, praying mantises, and lacewings larvae are some of your best allies in keeping pests under control, and they are really easy to find:

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Images courtesy of: Touching the Tulip, Sunflower, Lavender & Ladybug