wjsmallwood.com Blog

I put down weed fabric, installed my mulch and now I have weeds…

Of course you do! Weed fabric is a great option for a bed that is inundated with weeds. Lay down 2 layers and you have blocked the weeds from growing.

Now the downfall…

Once you put mulch on top of this weed fabric you are giving weed seeds a perfect place to germinate. The small fibrous roots of the weeds can now penetrate through the small holes of the weed fabric and voila! You have a weedy mess on your hands.

If you feel as though you must use the weed fabric for your bed, consider topping with crushed stone. You can get many different shapes, sizes and colors to meet your needs. If you MUST put mulch on top, you will need to use a product like Preen.

Preen is a seed inhibitor. It stops seed growth! Here is the deal…

Give your garden a thorough weeding, apply Preen. Wait two weeks and all the weed seeds that had germinated before your application but were not poking their ugly heads out will have grown up. Pull these weeds again and reapply Preen. You will then have to apply your Preen every 4 to 6 weeks there-after.

Does Preen really work? YES! If you were spending an hour a week weeding you will be down to about 5 minutes a week!

Please spend all your extra time following us on Facebook at WJ Smallwood Landscaping & Lighting!

Thanks for reading and please let us know your tips for a weed free garden!

We have yet to make it to Memorial Day and all ready the news is reporting of water shortages in Salem!  Thanks in part to the building boom of the past 10 – 20 years there has become a huge strain on public water systems.  As local communities grow by the thousands, the water supply is never expanded thus putting more demand on this precious resource.

What can we do as a community to help preserve our water supply?  For starters repairing any dripping faucettes or running toilets will save hundreds of gallons of water per month!   Utilizing native plants in your landscape will reduce the required watering amounts.  If your lawn has shown signs of being stressed in the past, now is a great time to both dethatch and aerate your lawn.  This will loosen the compacted soil and allow the water and nutrients to get deep down to the roots rather than running off your lawn.  It is also recommended you water less frequently with deeper waterings.  This will force the roots of your grass to grow deeper in search of the water.  When your roots stay closer to the surface they are more easily affected in a negative way by the hot sun.  When watering your landscape try and have all your watering done by 9:00 am.  Early morning watering is the best.  The most important action we can take is to put a rain sensor on our automated irrigation systems!  If you are having a new system installed and the contractor isn’t offering this device, ask him/her why.  A rain sensor isn’t the be all answer but it sure is a help.

Until the politicians figure out that they are putting too much demand on our current infrastructure by approving more and more development; we are going to be facing hardships with our water supplies.  Let’s all do our part to conserve where we can.

We are proud to offer to our clients for the first time, landscape lighting!  While many landscapes look spectacular during the day, we found that our clients left early in the morning only to arrive back home late at night.  Our clients never had the opportunity to enjoy their landscaping!

Now, as our clients turn up their drives, they are taken aback with the high-lights of their homes, landscaping and hardscapes lit up!  Using product by Nightscaping, WJ Smallwood Landscaping can customize a lighting display to meet your every need.  From landscape lighting, to path lighting for safe walking to sensors to light up the yard in the middle of the night we will Light Your Nights!

Call today for a free consultation!

First and foremost, I would like to personally thank all of our active service men and women that put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms we hold so dear.  Also, a big thank you to all of the veterans that have served years past!

Rhododendron tips:  most of your rhodi’s are in bloom and will be done blooming soon.  For optimum blooms next year you should go out and snap the dead flowers off once your rhodi has completed its blooming cycle.  This will allow for new flowers to start growing for next season.  If your blooms were a little weak this year, consider fertilizing with a product like super phosphate.  This will put the plants energy into generating flowers.

Lawn tips:  make sure you are cutting with sharp blades.  We sharpen our blades 2 to 3 times per week on average.  Also, if you are noticing a pinkish/reddish tint to your lawn you may have red thread!  Red thread is a fungus generally caused by a lack of nitrogen.  With the heavy rains of this spring we have noticed red thread is starting to rear its ugly head.  Be especially aware if you have a newer lawn as they tend to be more susceptible.  With newer lawns a fungicide may also be required as well as a high nitrogen based fertilizer.  If your lawn is more established a heavy dose of fertilizer should be sufficient.  Apply at a rate of 4 pounds per 1,000 square feet (regular application should be around 2 to 3 pounds per 1000 square feet).

Have you noticed crows digging at your lawn?  Does it appear as though something has been digging in your lawn?  You may have grubs!  Don’t panic, but act swiftly!  First thing is to go out and see if you actually have grubs.  What does a grub look like?  It will be about an inch or so long.  They tend to be curled up, a milkyish white color at a depth of the root system of your grass (grass roots is their food source).  Cut out a 1 square foot area near the damage and see how many grubs you may have.  If you only have 1 or 2 you don’t have a total infestation.  More likely you will find 5 or more if there is active searching from skunks, crows, moles, etc… and you need to act.  Apply a product like dylox.  It will be a good idea to check the lawn again in the fall, a second application at this time may be necessary.  Also be sure to follow the directions carefully for the application of your grub control.

Enjoy your holiday weekend and feel free to send us an email if you have any landscaping questions you would like to see answered here!

It seems that winter is finally upon us now that we are ready to roll with the landscaping.  Over the weekend we had 14.2 inches of snow dumped upon us.  Now it seems we are getting another inch or two tonight!  The good news is is that it will be in the 50′s come the end of the week!!! 

 For those of you that have your driveways plowed, a helpful tip: your lawn area is very soft this time of year…when your plow guy/gal pushes the sod up you can roll it back out.  Try and fit it the pieces the best you can and the sod will usually reroot in the spring.

Keep positive thoughts and you will be seeing the daffodils before too long (I saw my first Robin of the season over the weekend)!

THINK SPRING!

As the last of the snow begins to melt away, the promise of spring and warmer weather is right around the corner!  We are all excited to get outside and survey the effects of another unpredictable New England winter.

 Whether you contract a landscaping company for your landscape maintenance or do it yourself, spring clean-up is a very important aspect of keeping your lawn and planting beds healthy.  Leaves, sticks and other debris should be removed as soon as possible so that plants and grasses don’t remain smothered causing the potential of lost plant and bare spots on your lawn.  The spring is also a great time to dethatch your lawn.  This is the process of pulling all the dead grass laying horizontally across the soil blocking valuable water and nutrients from reaching the root system of your lawn.  This can be achieved with machines or you can do it the “old fashioned way” with a good stiff raking.

 Remember all the ice we had a few weeks back?  Check back next week for pruning tips for your trees and shrubs.

WJ Smallwood Landscaping is proud to present you with our new website as well as this blog.  During the landscaping season we will be posting regular landscaping tips for your lawn and landscape.  Please check in often.

 As far as announcements: WJ Smallwood Landscaping will be starting a new program…Yard of the Month.  If you would like more information please check out our website for the details www.wjsmallwood.com