Landscaping Tips & Ideas

Spring Tips

To make the most of your spring landscaping and gardening projects, follow some simple tips:

Sharpen your tools. Having finely honed shovels, hoes, and pruning shears will make the tough digging and cutting chores much easier. Consider a new blade for your lawnmower if your current lawnmower blade is old and desperately needs to be sharpened. Rather than spend the money to sharpen an old blade that has seen its better days, you can put the money toward a new blade. Many don’t know that a sharp mower blade is the key to having a beautiful, lush lawn. Dull blades tend to tear the grass blades rather than making a clean cut, and this can allow disease to creep in. Then you’ll have to spend more money in the long run to correct such a problem.

Test the soil. If you are putting in a new lawn or plant bed, or even if you have had previous problems getting things to grow properly, you may want to have some soil testing done. With the results in hand, you’ll know exactly what type of fertilizers and/or soil conditioners are needed to keep your yard in top shape.

Check out the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension at www.extension.unh.edu for more information on soil testing.

Winter Tips

Here at Durgin & Durgin Landscaping LLC the Snow and Ice Management Team are hard at work preparing all the equipment for the upcoming winter snow fall. They even dream of snow, they like it so much. Part of enjoying a winter snowfall however means readiness so here are a few tips for you folks at home.

Make sure your vehicle is ready for snow. Winter tires always make it easier if you don’t have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Have your battery checked … you know it will act up when you need it most. A snowstorm is not the ideal time to deal with that little bugger! Oh yes! The snow scraper, please don’t let me see any of you scraping your windows with a credit card! Windshield wipers are also something we seem to forget about until they break. Get yourself a new pair of winter blades, most just clip on these days. And last but not least have all your fluids changed or checked and keep at least a half a tank of gas in your car in case of emergency. A bag with emergency gear in the trunk is not a bad idea either.

Okay, now let’s think about the house. Do you have your shovels readily available, is your snow blower tuned up? Did you start it to make sure it’s running properly? Did you touch base with your plow guy? How about the generator? If you have one you should take the time to fire it up once and awhile to make sure it will start when you need it most. Some ice melting products are always handy to have around also.

Be prepared. Have a few day of water and some canned food on hand in case of a power outage.

And please DON’T FOGET THE PETS. Don’t leave them outside in the winter. They need warmth, love, food and water.

Durgin & Durgin Landscaping LLC is a commercial plowing service, however if you are a regular client you can call the office during a storm and we will do our best to help you out.

Happy Holidays to all our visitors,

The Durgin & Durgin Landscaping LLC Snow and Ice Management Team

Fall Tips

Now that we have had a couple of good frosts it’s a good time to consider cutting down some of those favorite landscape perennials.

Most folks cut their perennials about 2” from the ground and clean up all the debris. Waiting till spring to do this will be more messy.

Remember to research special plants such as Hydrangeas. Flowers will only bloom next year on old wood. So if you must shape them you want to keep this in mind. A good way of protecting this plant is stuffing them with leaves and wrapping with burlap.

This is also a good time to shape your Rose of Sharon. Don’t be afraid to keep it the size you really want. They can get rather large.

Don’t forget the lawn, clean up all the leaves, give a nice short final cut and apply a winter fertilizer and your good to go.

Now that all the yard work is done you can start thinking about that great Thanksgiving Feast and the family gathering.

Before you know it you will be seeing your spring bulbs and perennials return.

Have a great winter and let it snow!

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