Once summer hits and you’ve finished all of the work you had planned for spring, it can be tempting to spend your free time enjoying the sun and letting your yard do its own thing. While your yard doesn’t need as much upkeep in the summer, you do need to handle some maintenance tasks that will help maintain it for the season.
Here are a few tasks for your yard this summer to keep up that healthy springtime glow until the fall:
When looking to achieve a balanced, peaceful yard, remember that hardscaping is just as important as natural features. These man-made components, such as walkways, patios, and divider walls, are an important part of the perfect outdoor living space. Hardscape elements can add a great complement to your organic space, but creating them comes with a whole different set of concerns than building a vegetable garden or flower bed.
Here are the top four elements to consider before you commit to a hardscaping project:
Soil, seeds, and sunlight may be the foundation for a healthy and fruitful garden, but without proper care and attention, you won’t be able to grow the beautiful shrubs and flowers you want. With the right tools for taking care of your garden, you’ll be much more likely to find success with landscaping.
But just because tools for your garden are important doesn’t mean choosing them needs to be a complex matter. Picking the right type of supplies from the right vendor will not only give you a healthier yard, it will make your own gardening efforts much easier.
Here’s what you need to know about selecting and taking care of gardening tools:
Everyone loves the family pet, a companion that kids and adults appreciate having around. But as homeowners with dogs and cats know, there are some parts of your residence that you can’t share with your furry bundle of joy, and outdoor areas aren’t always the exception.
It’s great to have an outside space for your pet to run or play in. But if you plan on growing food, creating a peaceful garden for meditation, or simply want to keep your dog or cat safe outside, you have to consider the elements that could cause them harm.
Here’s what you should know when it comes to making sure your pet is safe while enjoying time in the yard:
Landscapes that have been properly and professionally designed, installed, and maintained have a pleasing and consistent appearance. Of course the visual will change with the seasons, but it will always be inviting, regardless of the season.
Eastern Massachusetts homeowners that have invested in organic, sustainable landscapes with native plants appropriate to the area do well to employ professionals to take care of their landscape maintenance so as to protect their investment. However it is still important for the homeowner to be engaged with what is going on. Let's take a look at some top landscape maintenance tips:
Healing gardens are not new, although they have garnered a lot of recent attention. While most notably found in hospital settings, home gardens are also gaining in popularity. They come in a multitude of shapes and sizes, generally catering to their owner's specific needs.
Unlike a typical garden, healing gardens are places of refuge which are specifically designed to promote better mental and physical health. They typically include space for walking, sitting, and features are added with a calming effect in mind. These gardens have been proven to have multiple benefits, including the following:
Say the word “bees” around most people and the first thing that comes to mind is a black-and-yellow menace that terrorizes children and summer get-togethers.
But that’s an unfair and incomplete picture of the importance of honeybees to the world around us. Bees pollinate more than 400 different types of agricultural products, including many common fruits and vegetables. In 2010, honeybees helped produce $19 billion worth of crops - and that’s in the U.S. alone! They also produce one of the most common and delightful treats consumed by people today in many forms: honey.
Like every other state, honey bees are common in Massachusetts, both in nature and in beekeeping colonies. Whether you are a honey bee enthusiast thinking about starting a colony, want to attract them to pollinate your garden, or are looking to protect your property from bees, here’s what you need to know.
Growing your own food is healthy, reduces your environmental footprint, and can even reduce stress and improve your mood. But before you jump into buying supplies for a vegetable garden, you’ll want to do some planning. Not only will you have to decide what you want to grow, you’ll need to plot your garden, acquire the right tools and supplies, and protect your seedlings.
Here’s a quick primer to help you start planning your garden for the warm growing season:
The timing of your garden is much more complex than simply thinking about planting, growing, and harvesting seasons. You must also think about the lifecycle of the plants in your yard. With a bit of planning and foresight, you can create spaces in your yard that are welcoming, relaxing, and colorful all year.
One of the best things about the outdoors is its ability to rejuvenate the human spirit. After a tough day at work or a difficult experience with a friend or family member, it’s nice to be able to get home to a tranquil yard to let nature sooth you.
If you’re building a space in your yard for this purpose, you need the right flowers, shrubs, and trees. Here are five of our favorites for a meditation garden in Massachusetts:
The arrival of March means we are just weeks away from consistently warm weather here in the Massachusetts area. While we’ll certainly see some colder days, it’s also time to start preparing for the spring season. Beginning in mid to late April, homeowners in the region can get back into a consistent routine for gardening and landscaping.
Below are four tips you should follow to ensure that you transition smoothly into the warmer season and set up your garden and yard for a fruitful growing season.
Growing your own food has many benefits. Not only does it help you establish a more organic space in your yard, it allows you and your family to eat nutritious foods that are natural and healthy.
But creating a thriving garden for fruits and vegetables requires more than just putting seeds in your soil and waiting for them to mature. In fact, much of the work involved in growing your own food happens upfront. For best results, you should have a plan to follow before planting a single seed.
Here’s what you need to know before you can create a healthy, fruitful garden:
Think you can’t garden just because it’s cold outside? Think again! While you may not be able to put in the long, peaceful afternoons in the yard like you can in the summer, there are still plenty of things to be done to prepare yourself and your garden for the coming warmth.
Here are four steps to help you get ready for spring before it gets here:
Soil is the foundation for a great yard. Without the right soil, you’ll never be able to create a thriving outdoor environment that gives you relaxation, attracts beautiful wildlife, and supports the local habitat. Yet too many people neglect the process of evaluating their soil before looking to create or modify their plan for an organic garden.
Here’s what you need to know to ensure your soil is ready for an organic garden, and a few steps you can take to help it get that way if necessary:
Pollinators are the fundamental backbone of not just gardens, but agriculture as a whole. Did you know that 75% of the world’s flowering plants depend on pollinators to continue as a species? It’s safe to say that without these helpful animals, the world would be a very different place.
Here in New England, there are three main types of pollinators, plus a few others that are less common. While planning your landscape design, it’s important to be aware of the kinds of plants and flowers that pollinators like to feed on so that you can create a space that not only looks great, but attracts animals that spread enough seeds and nectar to keep your yard healthy.
If you’re in the process of creating a new landscaping plan and want a garden that is not only beautiful but good for the environment, you may be thinking about organic methods. There’s an entire movement focused on these principles, known as ecological gardening. This type of landscaping is based on organic methods and designed to not just avoid harming the ecosystem but actually improve it. This guide will help you understand the differences between organic and ecological gardening, the advantages of the latter, and how to get started.
Water conservation is important: it helps preserve limited natural resources, conserves energy, and saves you money. A properly engineered drip irrigation system can give your plants the exact amount of water that they need to thrive. With a lot of products available on the market, purchasing a new system can feel daunting. These four tips will help you know where to start.
Pollinators are animals that are a critical part of the ecosystem. They include bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, and many types of birds and bats; any creature that helps plants by moving pollen from one flower to another. This transfer of pollen causes germination to occur, allowing the plants to grow fruits and seeds. They do everything from promoting biodiversity to germinating plants. In fact, the population and diversity of pollinators is a good indicator of the health of an ecosystem.
Unfortunately, urbanization has hurt pollinator biodiversity because it disturbs their natural habitats. You can help reverse this trend by creating a garden that attracts them. This guide will help you understand what plants you need, how to arrange them, and other steps to create a beautiful garden to attract birds, bees, and butterflies.
Perhaps you just bought a new house and want to be sure you maintain your yard sustainably, or you want to transition to organic landscaping to reduce your environmental footprint. Before you start, read this guide to learn what steps you should take. It doesn't need to be an overwhelming process, but you should have a good plan.
Organic landscaping may sound overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be - all you need is a good plan and the ability to stick to it. Once you’ve decided to start an organic landscaping project, these are the first five steps that you’ll want to take:
Organic lawn care is not only better for your yard, it improves the environment and human health. But what are the differences between chemical and organic lawn care products? Is there ever a time to use chemical products?
It depends. There are certain times when chemical products can be effective, but generally speaking, these only give you a short-term solution. Organic fertilizers and care products can be more expensive up front but will help you create healthy, long-lasting landscapes that require less water in the long run.
Are you looking for the best possible fertilizer for your lawn and unsure what to pick? Wondering if investing in organic fertilizers are even worth it? Organic supplements and fertilizers are not only better for the environment, they create long-lasting, healthy, and vibrant lawns. Check out these five reasons why organic fertilizers are the right choice for your yard:
We all know how important it is to take care of the planet, but you may be wondering what you can do to improve your practices. One easy step is to use organic landscaping methods.
Adopting these habits is much simpler than it may sound. The foundation of organic gardening is learning about your property, the kind of soil that you have, growing conditions, and what your yard needs to flourish. These six tips will help you easily use organic landscaping tactics for a healthy yard with minimal environmental impact.
Pollinators such as birds, bees, and butterflies are not only fun and beautiful to look at, they are an essential part of the ecosystem. Using plants that naturally attract these desirable creatures and complementing them with feeders will bring many pollinators to your yard. Here are five ways that will help you create a beautiful garden that welcomes these critical creatures.
Stones are a beautiful addition to any garden - they evoke a feeling of permanence and strength. By uniquely arranging rocks and boulders in your landscaping you can enjoy not only the aesthetic benefits but also the healing, grounding nature of rock’s mountain-like properties.
Here are some interesting ways to incorporate stone hardscapes into your property:
