Don't Kill Your Trees!

Well I am home again today with this nasty cold thing. When I lay down I feel better, but my back is beginning to feel the effects of stationary positions over a three day period. Not good.

One of the good things about being home was having a Landscape Designer come over last night to talk about the yard and what we could do to improve the look and flow of it. We love curb appeal and thought we were doing some pretty good things, and on the most part we were, but I wanted to share with you all some helpful hints that we learned last night in the 30 minutes of her time.

1. Don't raise a bed around trees and fill it with dirt or other material. It chokes them! I never knew this and now we have 2 trees in our front yard that may not live much longer because we raised a flower bed around them for planting flowers, not knowing it would eventually suffocate the tree. Trees need to be at ground level and not built up around.

2. If you mulch around trees, 3-4 inches will do, but again remove from around trees so you don't choke them as well. You want it to look like a well around the tree.

3. If you think landscaping fabric is the answer it isn't. Grass will grow anyway as it is an 'airborne' seed. Meaning the seeds go airborne and where ever they land they will grow even on top of the landscape fabric.

4. If you must use landscape fabric make sure again it is not around the trunk of trees as the water does NOT seep through and the tree does not get the nutrients they need.

5. Cherry Trees need full sun so plant in the sunniest part of your yard.

6. There are different flowers for different areas and types of yard. If you have a wet spot in your yard there are plants to plant there, full sun has other ones...okay, I knew this, but now I really now this.

7. Finally use curves to break up the squareness of your yard. Boxes in boxes are not as appealing as curves.

So now you know. Don't kill your trees, pick out the right kind of plants for the yard and consulting an expert results in amazing understanding!