Author: Galena Lawn Care

The Earth Day comes only once every year. It brings with it opportunities and reasons to give back to the planet something in return for its bounty that sustains us through the year. If you have some things planned out this year to celebrate the Earth’s Day, make sure greening your garden is among them. If doing it alone seems to be a daunting task then you can contact our landscaping experts to assist you in getting the right solution. Galena Lawn Care emphasizes on quality lawn care and its team of professionals is always at your service.

While small lifestyle changes go a long way in protecting the environment, growing a sustainable garden in your backyard is the best way to start your journey towards going green.

If you are enticed, but also overwhelmed by the idea of going green and don’t know where to start, here are some simple but assuring ways to green your garden on Earth Day 2020.

Plant New Trees

If you have been planning to plant new trees in your garden this year, this Earth Day is a great occasion for that. If you have immediate plans, no need to hold it off for three months, but if you are raking ideas to do on that day, then planting a new tree or more is a good way to support the initiative. More plants in your backyard means purer air for your family and neighbors.

Use Organic Seeds

When planting new trees, try using organic seeds this time. There are plenty of nurseries that carry organic seeds these days. You can also order them online or even buy them at the garden section of the supermarket. Planting organic seeds is a great way to be on a planet-friendly footing.

Make Your Yard Bird-Friendly

Birds can be a nuisance for backyards, but not if you make it a friendly place for them to hang out. Put up a birdbath and a bird feeder to encourage the little twittering friends to come over and enjoy some nice time in your garden. On the upside, the chirping of the birds creates a perfect natural ambience just outside the window. The cleanups are only a very small way to thank them for it.

Start a Compost Pit

If you have been throwing away all your food wastes so far, it’s time to put them to use. Start a compost pit. Set aside all your organic kitchen waste in a separate trash and empty them in the pit at the end of the day. Keep the pit covered to expedite the decomposition, and in just a few days you will have the best fertilizer for your plants ever. It takes very little work and nearly no expense.

Collect Rainwater in a Barrel

Harvesting rainwater is a good way to reduce your carbon footprints. Set a wooden barrel out in the garden to collect rainwater every time it pours. Use this water to keep your garden fresh and green year long.

Hire an Eco-Friendly Landscaper Company

Be wise in your choice of landscape contractor. One of the most easily overlooked Earth Day tips for going green is to choose an eco-friendly landscaper. There may not be many of them yet, but the idea is to go with the one near you that offers the most eco-friendly service.

Reduce Grassy Areas in Your Backyard

Grass is great, but flowers are better. Plus, they are less work and less resource. So, next time you have the lawn guys over for grounds maintenance, get them to plant more flowerbeds for ground cover that are easy to care for and do not always need professional touch.

Switch to Natural and Organic Products

This Earth Day, discard all chemical-based gardening product and switch to the natural and organic varieties. This may cost you a little extra, but it will be money rightly invested.

A beautiful home deserves to have a beautiful lawn. Although pretty to look at, a perfect lawn demands a lot of cumbersome chores, as anybody who has ever owned a house would know. Lawn maintenance is a perpetual pain that leaves little room for slacking or relaxing. The only way to get away is to hand over the task to professionals. But even in hiring a lawn care company, there are things to consider and judgement to make.

In the passages below, we have broken down for you the prospect of hiring a grounds maintenance company in Ohio into three Q and A sections.

How to Choose a Lawn Care Company?

Out of so many lawn care companies, singling one out can be quite a challenge. So, to cut it short, you need to follow some points of consideration. Here are the things to focus on when choosing a landscaping contractor.

• Reputation:There are many providers in the market today, some better than the others. Your mission should be to pick one that has a good reputation among clients. For that, you can look online for the kind of reviews a business gets or ask your neighbors to find out what kind of reputation it keeps.
• License: Only the licensed lawn care guys are professionally trained and certified to do the job.
• Insurance: The company you want working on your turf should be insured so that you are not the one held responsible for injuries or damages at work.
• Customer Service: Try investing in a company that has a decent customer service.
• Price: The most reliable companies often have the most reasonable pricing. Keep that in mind.

Why Hire a Lawn Care Service?

For some DIY lawn maintenance is not an option. Even for DIYers, it’s an ambitious project that demands not only time and a knack, but also tools. Here are some reasons why you want to hire lawn care service instead of doing it yourself.

1. The biggest reason is that it will save you a lot of time. If your lawn is not in its best shape, it can take several weekends to restore, weekends that you can spend with your family or just kick back and relax.
2. Like most things, there is a knack to gardening too. Most people new to it find themselves hitting a wall within the first hour of the job. Without skills, there is a good chance for the entire thing to go wrong. So, you want to leave it to the professionals who have both training and a knack for it.
3. The cost of professional lawn care is very little compared to the amount of work that goes into it. By trying to do it yourself, you will end up spending the service cost many times over just in accumulating the right tools and supplies. So, there is not much use to it if saving money is the motivation.
4. One last reason for hiring professional help is to dodge the liability. Lawn contractors are insured against damages and injuries during work. You as a homeowner do not have that coverage. So, on event of an accident, it is wholly your responsibility.

How to Find a Lawn Care Service

There are many ways of finding a lawn care service near you. You can do a quick Google search to find a full list of companies operating within a certain radius from your location. You can also ask your neighbors or your coworkers for recommendations. You can check the traders’ directory or look on Craigslist for names and numbers of the local landscapers.

Up north, Ohio receives a good amount of snow and rain whereas down south, the weather is moderate with occasional rain and snow. That makes caring for lawns a seasonal job for most homeowners. Since snow is common in winter in all parts of the state, lawn maintenance is more of a thing of spring and summer in Ohio. If you have a lawn that you like to keep lush and handsome in the warm months, then cutting the grass timely is the way to do it. But, oftentimes, having great lawn guys does not prove sufficient when you are not sure how often should you cut your grass. While trusting the landscapers with the maintenance is a wise thing to do, it’s always better to know things yourself.

Here are some tips that can help you calculate the exact time when your lawn grass will need cutting again.

Know the Cutting Height

The reason you want to rely on professional lawn mower to do the cutting and trimming is because industrial equipment deliver infinitely better results than domestic mowers and shears. Those equipment are better adapted to the conditions of different grasses. So the question here is how high should you cut your grass?

On an average, 2 to 3 inches is a good cutting height, but it also depends on the type of grass you have in your lawn. Perennial Ryegrass and Kentucky Bluegrass look best when cut at 2 to 2.5 inches. With tall fescues, you can go slightly higher at 2.5 to 3 inches. The said height is good for spring through autumn when the weather is warm and occasionally wet.

Galena Lawn Care has experts onboard who have specialized knowledge about different grass types and training in mowing them perfectly.

The Right Mowing Schedule

There is no such thing as a one perfect schedule that works for all lawns. Even inside Ohio, the soil varies in fertility and composition. That makes it more a question of the right mowing schedule for individual lawns as opposed to the one mowing schedule that works for all lawns.

You will know that it’s time to mow out your lawn when it starts to look willowy and a bit out of shape. Some people make the mistake of cutting the grass too short to keep the grass from growing back too soon. So, in order to have a decent interval in between cuttings, how tall should you cut your grass?

The problem with cutting the grass too short is that the whole lawn will look dried out and yellow till the blades grow an inch back. So, the ideal time is between one and two weeks. Wait anywhere between seven to fourteen days to mow the lawn, and when you do,make sure to keep the blade setting at the middle to give the grass a medium length.

When It Rains

Rain is common in all parts of Ohio. In winter, the days it does not snow, it rains. In summer too, it rains now and then. While precipitation is good for vegetation, it puts the house owners in a bit of a fix. Everybody who owns a lawn knows that it’s not the best thing to mow the grass after a rain. So, what’s the ideal thing to do when it rains every other day?

You don’t want to mow a wet lawn for two reasons, tall and wet grass can overwork the mowers causing it to overheat. Especially if the grass is tall and very wet, you want to wait out till its dry again. Second, mowing a wet lawn can cause the grass to clump the mower deck. The mower can also make the soft soil muddy after a rain. So, the best thing to do is to wait until the grass is reasonable dry. Take a quick walk and check your shoes. If your shoes come out dry, it’s good to mow.

Lawns love trees. Unlike dwarf specimens that only contribute to chromatic enhancements, large trees add color, design and texture to a landscape. But trees alone won’t do. The tall trunk, the heavy branches, the dense canopy too need a little dressing up. Luckily, there are some easy ways of doing that, and you don’t need to have the skills of a prodigal landscaper for it. Anyone can do it, and once finished, your garden will be the envy of the neighborhood. If you feel its too much work then you can seek help from a professional.

Below are some easy to implement ideas of dressing up the tall trees in your landscape.

Bricks and Rocks

Want to keep it really simple? There’s a way to dress up trees without going through too much trouble. That involves bricks and rocks. It’d be great to have a yard cart at hand for the moving, but a couple of extra hands would do too. Make a border around the trees using large rocks or bricks, whichever you prefer. For a commercial edging finish, keep the rocks small to medium. A round border looks good but feel free to get creative. As long as there is a distance of 10 inches between the border and the trunk, any style could work.

Ground-cover Monoculture

Here is another very simple trick of dressing up trees in yards. Pick a variety of flowering groundcover and make a flowerbed around the trunk. Vinca vine, periwinkle, Bugleweed, Canadian Anemone, creeping thyme, there are so many options to choose from. Once the flowerbed is installed, the plants start blooming soon after. Easy-care and heavy-duty, these low-growing plants fill up the grounds they cover with glossy green foliage and vibrant pastel blooms. They make quite a sight.

A Mix of Colors

To take ground cover idea to the next level, go for mixed flowerbeds. You do not have to pick different species of plants for this because that would complicate the care routine. Instead, pick one plant, but to keep the variety going, mix up the flower colors. So, if your choice of plant is begonia, pick white, red and pink ones for one tree or a mass of periwinkles for another. The similarity of habit, height and foliage texture will give the bed a more cohesive look. The color scheme will keep it visually interesting and exciting.

Ferns for Multi-stems

There is a large mass of people out there who love ferns. If you are one of them, then there is a very easy way to stage up the trees in your lawn with your favorite undergrowth. A quick tip is to favor multi-stem trees for this dressing. Ferns look heavenly with them. There are few things so overwhelmingly refreshing than the sight of fresh fern growths around a multi-stem tree. Its instant color and texture. In fall, they turn color and ramp up the visuals even further.

A Simple Mulch Bed

A very smart way to dress up your trees while caring for them is mulching. Mulch supplies garden vegetation with essential nutrients. So, they make an indispensable part of the care routine. But mulch can also double as landscape enhancement if done the right way. Pick your favorite kind of mulch and it could be anything from wood chips to pine straws and cover the ground around the trees with it. This will tidy up the surroundings while keeping the trees well-nourished. You can top it up by arbitrarily placing some rocks or sporadically planting some low-growing plants on the mulch bed if you like.

There are few pleasures in life that compare to the joy of gardening. So right on and let your creativity take over.

The New Year is just around the corner and everybody is busy wrapping Christmas presents and making plans for the holidays. With the celebration on, we must all take a minute to think of some resolutions to make in the New Year. If gardening is at the top of your list, then your resolution for 2020 should be to try and tick off as many gardening to-dos as you can in the New Year. By the time spring arrives, you should have a clean landscape ready to embrace the life and spirit of the season.

New Year’s Gardening Resolution Ideas 2020

Those of you still working on their gardening resolutions for 2020, here are some ideas. Aim to pick at least 5 of these as your gardening goals in 2020.

• If your garden is arid and patchy, you should probably start by building a nice compost bin that you can use all through the year to fertilize the soil.
• If you do not have any garden art worthy of notice, then maybe get a bird feeder or a bird bath this year. A bird feeder can be bought even at a supermarket. Just hang it and refill it with grains every morning. A bird bath on the other hand needs some masonry for which you need to contact a landscaper.
• Sign up for a lawn maintenance service so that like every year, you don’t have to spend your free weekends in the New Year pottering in the backyard.
• Change to organic fertilizers if you haven’t already. With societies everywhere switching to organic foods and products, the New Year is the right time to take the leap yourself.
• Get flowerbeds installed in the garden. This is one of the most procrastinated things on the list. This New Year fix it by calling the lawn care guys to set you up with some nice flowerbeds.
• Install window boxes or flower planters to your balcony, fence or home. Sow the plants of your choice and watch them burst into bloom in spring and overflow the planters with brilliant colors.
• Plant milkweed. Not only are they vibrantly colorful, they also invite pollinators like the monarch butterflies. Together, they make quite a sight.

2020 Trends in Garden Design

In 2020, the garden activities will mostly be focusing on creating more spaces within the existing boundaries and making the most of the current landscape. In other words, the 2020 gardening trends will stress on growing a garden that will do good to plants, to local wildlife and by extension, to the planet.

Composting to Make Your Garden More Sustainable

Your garden may seem sustainable enough in its current state, but it’s not if it does not have a compost bin. The best way to switch to natural methods is by building your own compost bin. What that does is, reduce carbon footprints, improve soil fertility and nourish the plants. The best thing is, composting can be done in both small and large properties.

Change through Repurposing

If you are planning to make some visual changes to your backyard, then repurposing things you already have is an excellent idea. Get clever DIY ideas from gardening tutorials and books.

Water Feeder for the Birds and the Ambience

A water feeder in the garden can do two things, feed the thirsty finches as well as enrich the ambience of the garden with its presence and sound.

Planting Double Duty Flowering Bushes

This year, we are going to see some serious blooms in the backyards. People are spending on heavy-duty flowering plants that bloom generously and through all seasons.

Contact Galena Lawn Care

Galena Lawn Care is a full-service landscaping company in Galena, Westerville, Sunbury, Delaware, Dublin, Lewis Center & all surrounding areas. They provide a wide range of landscaping services to both residential and commercial clients.

What is Mulching and Its Advantages?

Gardens take on many different sizes, shapes, and characteristics. Similarly, there is a wide variety of mulch that can be used to advance the design of your garden including organic mulch and non-organic mulch. Deciding what type of mulch to use in your garden, as well as if you should invest in mulch at all, is ultimately a job for a professional lawn care company.

However, when one is faced with the decision to use mulch for their landscaping needs, they should take into consideration the benefits that mulch can provide. Most people understand that mulching will ensure your home is manicured and that your landscape looks clean and crisp, but they are unaware of the many advantages that mulching can offer your garden.

Throughout this article, Galena Lawn Care, a Galena mulching company, explains 5 major advantages of mulching.

1. Controls Weeds

Did you know that integrating mulch into your landscape is a great way to limit the number of weeds that grow? It’s true, mulch acts as a natural barrier, limiting the amount of sunlight that is able to reach the soil in the places that you don’t want weeds to grow. When sunlight cannot find its way to the weeds, the weeds will not be able to grow and will save you time that is usually spent on weeding.

2. Retains Moisture

 Organic and non-organic mulch assortments both cover the soil and limit evaporation. Mulches absorb water and help to retain moisture that will nurture your plant growth. Especially during the summer, when the weather in Ohio is hot and humid, mulch will help out your water bill by giving your plants water. Thus, reducing the water you physically need to give your gardens.

3. Prevents Soil Erosion

Soil by itself often gets washed away from rainwater but mulch can prevent this from occurring. Mulch protects the soil by breaking the fall of water and minimizing the force when water impacts the ground. Mulch acts as a shield which, helps keep your landscape in place and finally preventing soil erosion.

4. Soil Nutrients

Not only does mulch prevent soil erosion, it also can keep soil nutrients from getting washed away by the forceful rain. On top of retaining the soil nutrients from the blanket of mulch that covers your soil, certain types of mulch decompose on the soil over time that will release added nutrients into the soil.

5. Soil Temperature Control

Mulching will moderate soil temperature fluctuations! This means that in the hot summer season, plant roots will be kept cooler by mulch covering the soil. In the frigid-winter season, mulch protects plant roots from the cold and helps to prevent frost-heaving, where plants are pushed out of the ground by natural expansion and contraction of soil as temperatures consistently cool and heat up.

The 5 advantages of mulching explained above are some, but not all of the advantages that mulching can bring to your garden. Understanding the benefits of mulching can give you a new perspective on the damage that is created when your soil is unprotected.

Do you know you want to mulch? It’s best to seek professional guidance and installation of mulch from a mulching company near you, like Galena Lawn Care. Save money and time by utilizing mulch in your landscape. Contact the expert Galena mulching services provided by Galena Lawn Care today by calling 740-913-1599 or connect with us online to book our mulching services!

A garden with a variety of shrubs and bushes is a really pretty sight. But such a garden is also a high maintenance asset for those who have houses with gardens. Timely pruning and trimming is needed, apart from the regular watering. The easy way out to is to entrust this task to a professional lawn care company and let the experts help you get rid of overgrown shrubs in your garden.

That way you are assured of getting expert service and get your lawn and garden back to its sparkling best in a jiffy. But before you do that, here are some easy pointers for you, in case you wish to do it yourself. As you will see in this short blog, the solution to the query ‘How to get rid of overgrown shrubs in my yard?’ has very simple answers, provided you are disciplined in your efforts and are willing to dirty your hands and bend your back a little. Talking of hands, we will primarily be talking of two ways in which you can get rid of overgrown shrubs in your yard. The first is the time-tested way of working them using your bare hands, while the second involves the use of vehicles.

Removing shrubs by hand

While removing shrubs or any vegetation, try to ensure that you treat them differently from weeds. You should not uproot them completely. A recommended height to which you can leave them is about 20 inches from the soil. Above that height, you should shear away everything. When you see branches that have sprung out from the main trunk, try trimming them or even cutting them off completely. In case your removing the shrubs by hand is just the initial response to How to get rid of overgrown shrubs, and you plan to follow it up by using a vehicle, then you should leave some part of the plant. That helps the vehicle’s chains something to wrap itself around.

When you are trying to work on a particular shrub, you must first dig around the roots instead of working blindly on the roots. This will give you a clear sight of the spread of the roots, and allow you to work it accordingly. For some roots, simply uprooting with strong hands will do, but do keep a saw or axe handy as well, for the more obstinate ones. For roots that are even more difficult, you will need to come back later with a vehicle. While working on shrubs and roots by hand, do keep in mind that the complete story below the soil might be more complicated than it looks like from above. That is because overgrown shrubs usually have an extensive root system as well. So you would need to work patiently.

Removing shrubs by vehicle

Before you start, try to loosen the soil around the main trunk of the shrub with the help of a hoe. Also, watering the soil around the roots before you begin also moistens the roots and makes them easier to work with. While wrapping the chain around a trunk tug a few times to see if it feels secure. If not, then wrap it around more than one trunk to make the fit tighter. If there is a concrete pathway or area in your garden, try to face the truck in that direction so that the truck tires can get better traction.

Contact Galena Lawn Care

For someone who likes getting their hands dirty, the blog so far shouldn’t have made for too difficult reading. But in case you are wary of spending your time and effort but not being able to do a clean job, its best that you call in the experts.