Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Hiring a Pro has its advantages in the landscape




Having a professional landscaper around the yard can help alleviate the headache of maintaining your grounds. Many professional follow industry standards of right times to prune and proper to techniques to care for your gardens. This can be a lot on a homeowner sometimes when you have a busy life. Hiring a professional designer can help you plan on having the landscape of your dreams installed.
            There are a lot of people I see these days either pruning at the wrong time or not using the right equipment for the job. I do understand that this isn`t their line of work but they may not realize that you can hurt or even kill the plant. We follow industry standards and use the monthly garden calendar found on the Missouri Extension office website. The Missouri Botanical Gardens can also be a good reference point for learning how to maintain your gardens. It usually always starts with proper plant selection for the St. Louis area climate. Planting the wrong plant can lead to problems down the road from mother nature. We purchase most of our stock from Garden Heights Nursery in Richmond Heights. They have a good staff with the knowledge to lead anyone in the right direction. They even have a professional designer on staff to help draw out your design.
            Everyone`s got a pretty busy life style these days. From getting the kids to the next soccer game or a night out with friends. You look out your window and see the grass needs to be cut or the Ewe bushes are getting out of control. You say to yourself I`ll get to it, but in Heinz site it doesn`t get down. In worse case you may be cited depending on the municipality you live in. A Professional Landscaper can help alleviate these problems by coming up with a maintenance plan for any size property. Plus, having a nice landscape property can add to the value of your home when the decision comes to put it on the market. We can help with any landscape questions are problems you may have. Feel free to contact us to discuss your options. We will do our best to stair you in the right direction if we don`t have the answer.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Safe ice melt for our family pets.


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With the winter season finally arriving here in St. Louis, a lot of homeowners will be out removing the snow and ice from their walkways and driveways. After that an application of salt or a deicer will probably be spread out on the areas that we just shoveled. Keep your four legged friend in mind when spreading salt as they can cause an animal to get sick. Even the products that claim to be pet friendly can harm a pet if it is ingested. 

Always try to wipe down your dog’s paws with a damp towel after coming in from the snowy weather to remove anything from being tracked in.  Trim the hair between the dog’s paws to help in the prevention of mineral collections from salt, or you can invest in a pair of dog booties for their 4 paws to provide extra protection. 

Consider using a salt free ice melt, such as "Safe Paws" or "Morton Safe-T-Pet" when choosing a product for your home to control the ice. These products still contain a chemical called urea (carbonyl diamide) which is considered to be safe. This chemical can cause vomiting in the animal if it is ingested. Try to pick a deicer with colored pellets or granules to help identify it better in the weather.

Photo Credit:media.mnn.com