When you’re hiring a landscaper, you need to see a range of verifiable credentials. We have a 7 point case to explain why licensing and insurance are so important.

Licensing

Landscaping involves a very wide range of different types of work, many of which require licensing. This licensing is only given to those who have bona fide professional qualifications. A landscaper not having a license is a very bad sign.

You don’t need a license to mow lawns, but you may need a license to use weed killers, which can be extremely toxic. Pest fumigants can be equally dangerous, and it’s no coincidence that operators are required to be experts. Many construction tools and equipment also require licenses. This is the law, and the law is the best protection you could wish to have.

When it comes to landscape construction, the right licenses are required by law. The fact is that unlicensed morons building illegal death traps are pretty unpopular with communities, courts, coroners and other interested parties. Some people really couldn’t put two LEGO bricks together, and they all have one thing in common – They don’t have licenses.

Insurers, counties, and police aren’t exactly enthusiastic about the questionable, unverifiable, competence of the unlicensed guys, either. Incompetence can get people seriously hurt or even killed. When you see a license, you’re looking at a guarantee of competence and quality of work.

Insurance in the landscaping industry is designed to provide appropriate cover for a huge spectrum of insurance scenarios. This insurance protects customers as well as landscapers from potentially catastrophic costs.

To explain – If an uninsured person is injured working on your property, you may be first or second in line for any claim made for that injury. This may seem unfair, but the claimant has a very limited range of choices when making a claim. The lack of insurance may mean that the operator can’t or won’t cover claims, or is too cheap to take out proper insurance. Many casual employees of uninsured landscapers find this out the hard way. Either way, the property owner risks becoming part of the compensation scenario.

All the best landscapers have full coverage. It’s a strictly best business practice, bottom line type of basic risk management, no exceptions, and covers any eventuality. Their clients have nothing to worry about.

Licensing and insurance – The professional perspective

Is it credible that anyone in business wouldn’t know if they need a license? Licensing is a legal requirement. Proper insurance is a no-brainer for any business. There’s no good reason why a professional landscaping operator wouldn’t have the right licenses and proper coverage. The level of potential risk to customers from unlicensed or uninsured operators is simply unacceptable.

We’ve been working as landscapers in New York for many years. We’re fully licensed, and fully covered. We ensure that all our legal and statutory obligations are fully met. Our clients don’t have compliance problems or insurance issues.

If you’re looking for licensed and insured landscapers in New York, we’re right here when you need us. Give us a call or an email. We’ll be happy to talk business with you.

Choosing Between Annuals and Perennials? Read This First

Making the choice between annuals and perennials is a significant decision for gardeners. Real gardeners put a lot of thought and effort in to their choices and plantings. The choice,
however, can be quite difficult. In some parts of the country, the local annual flowers are fantastic. In others, the perennials are right at home, and flower generously.

Then there’s the question of personal taste, and that’s where you start making tough choices. The big difference between annuals and perennials is their lifespan. Annuals are one-year flowers. Perennials are classified as plants which grow and flower for three or more years. (There is another sub-category of plants called biennials, which live for two years, and include famous plants like foxgloves.)

The lifespan of flowers also directly relates to the amount of work involved in growing them, which flowers you’re considering, and your seasonal design ideas.

Annuals

Annuals can deliver truly spectacular floral displays, and they really do grow quickly and brilliantly. Typically, annuals are also good for color design purposes. Annuals offer a true designer palette. The annuals cover the full spectrum from deep glorious reds to ultra-blues. If you want to have some real fun in garden design, and make every year an adventure, annuals will do it all for you. They’re great for experimenting, too, and you’ll find yourself scouring the internet and the nurseries for fabulous new plants.

If you’re a garden designer, you’ll also find that annuals produce a truly staggering array of shapes and forms for design. These plants create gorgeous displays, both by themselves and as parts of displays. It’s like having your own personal fireworks show.

The critical thing to remember in planting annuals is that they must have excellent soil preparation, the right light, and a good garden environment. Some places in the garden are great, some not so great. That’s where plant selection for garden design gets truly interesting, finding the right plants for shadier areas, and those which love full sun. Some of the most reliable annuals are also the toughest, like marigolds, begonias and other plants. Some annual plants even fight off garden pests. You’ll never be bored when selecting your annuals. Expect to have a really fascinating experience.

Perennials

Perennials are the long lived tough guys in the garden. Most North American perennials are ultra-hardy in their natural environments, very strong plants which sometimes seem to do the gardening themselves. These plants are also ultra-useful in garden design and usually good fits for areas where annuals aren’t an option.

Perennials are an extremely versatile and variegated range of plants. They can fit in any kind of environment, from rocky hillsides to swamps. They have their own characteristics, and can fit in to niches in garden designs with ease. You can choose color, form, and mix them with your garden design ideas. They’re also good problem solvers for difficult areas where annuals aren’t the best choice.

If you’re thinking about your choices and want some help with selection of your annuals and perennials in New York, talk to us. We’re always happy to talk to fellow gardeners about design, so give us a call.

“Maintaining” a lawn can be a true descent in to extremely hard, seemingly endless, and thankless, work. Some lawns seem to have a grudge against their owners. Others look like they’re trying to escape. Some seem to need counseling every time they grow a new blade of grass. A few lawns will condescend to grow some new green outshoots when they feel like it, usually after they’ve done their Summer-long imitation of a wannabe desert in your front yard.

No, you’re not imagining these things. Lawns are complex things, and in some environments, they can be almost unbelievably difficult to maintain. Lawn owners aren’t always responsible, either. There are some basic issues in lawn maintenance which you actually do need formal qualifications to understand.

Lawn basics

The common lawn acts like a single organism in many ways. Grasses naturally grow together, and any kind of disruption affects them all.

There are a lot of possible causes of disruption:

• Bare patches are contagious. They dry out surrounding shallow roots, and the problem naturally spreads. Mowing too much or too low makes the problems even more widespread.
• Drainage affects lawns. A wet patch can turn in to a dead patch pretty easily. Plants need water, but they don’t go swimming much.
• Some soils are antagonistic to grasses. Clays, sandy soils and rocky soils create drainage gaps, therefore gaps in the lawn. Impacted soils prevent root growth.
• Soil biology can be very tricky indeed. Anyone with a PhD in biology will tell you that a combination of poor soil, basic biological processes, and a hot day or super cold day can, and will, devastate your lawn. This is because the soil microorganisms don’t stick around to fry or freeze. They hibernate or leave. If they go, the soil chemistry stops, and the lawns can’t access their nutrients. Rebooting the soil chemistry takes knowledge and the sort of patience most lawn owners can be forgiven for not having in abundance.
• Surrounding vegetation is another issue. Some native plants are great ground covers. They grow on the hint of a few drops of rain, and can compete with lawns for nutrients. They can also overgrow lawns, and are very hard to control.
• Lawns age. Best practice is to recognize the signs of a tired, exhausted lawn and returf or reseed, but that, obviously, has to be done properly.
• Combinations of the above situations are the norm.

Getting professional help

If you’ve somehow got the impression from the above information that lawn maintenance has a cutoff point for lawn owners when it comes to returns on investment of time and effort, it does. Lawn maintenance work really cannot be all DIY. It’s best to stop suffering and get someone else to identify the problems and do the hard work.

We do a lot of lawn maintenance work. If you’ve decided that you’d rather have a life than be an unpaid employee of your lawn, talk to us. We’ll be happy to help.

If you’re thinking of landscaping options for your property, you can realistically consider almost any type of landscaping these days. Modern landscaping is based on high aesthetic values and very effective, cost-efficient, designs.

Landscaping is an art form, and its history goes back to ancient palaces and the fabulous Chinese gardens of classical times. Modern landscaping combines innovation with traditional design values. You can create a true European formal garden or a Hollywood-style rancho, with all the modern amenities built in.

Modern hardscaping allows a lot of creativity, too. It’s possible to create a true stately home in the English manner, or a German castle. You can have beautiful cottage gardens, fantastic rose gardens, or as many people do, reinstate the natural local environment in all its glory.

There are no real limits to design. CAD landscape design isn’t just “more technology selling a service”. It’s an extremely good way of exploring design choices. You can literally customize your landscape the way you want.

Landscape design as a practical land management choice

Landscape design is best known for its beautiful imagery and luxurious lifestyle connotations. Most people forget that landscape design is very often as practical as it is beautiful. Landscape design can be used to fix site issues, as well as create beauty. Best practice, in fact, is to combine the site’s needs with the landscape design.

If you’re in a complex landscape environment, you may experience issues like difficult site access, problems with elevated areas, drainage, or similar situations. These things are real issues that need solutions. Drainage can create destructive risks to buildings. Elevated areas, hills, and slopes can be difficult terrain for living and for access. Some natural landscapes are prone to land slips, erosion, and other types of deterioration.

Design theory and practice

Good landscape designs manage problems as well as creating beautiful living spaces.

For example:

• Terraced gardens look fantastic, and act as built-in land stabilizers.
• Walkways can be used as the surfaces of foundation bases for managing soils, particularly clay or unstable sandy soils. These walkways also act as excellent exterior presentation for some of America’s most beautiful homes in a vast range of environments.
• A fabulous garden can be made out of a low lying wet area, using water-loving plants and trees like willows, which are water gluttons, to manage drainage naturally.
• Native North American trees are often used to produce their legendary blazes of color, provide shade and shelter, and restore the natural environment. The natural environment self manages, resulting in a landscape design which delivers a low maintenance personal paradise.
• A beautiful formal garden, full of magnificent roses and other blooms, also acts as a perfect mechanism for managing site terrain. These very highly structured gardens are tough, hardy parts of a living landscape, designed to look fabulous and add amenities.

The fact is that landscape designs create both beauty and practical values. Custom landscape design is fun and exciting. We and our clients enjoy the journey as much as the result. Talk to us about your design needs, and find out why we love our work so much.

You’ll see a lot of expert commentary online about how and when to fertilize your lawn. If you’re feeling a little confused that so many people have different views on the same subject, that’s quite understandable. The fact is that lawn fertilization is part of a growth cycle, and this fertilization is really an ongoing support for the lawn’s health.

Lawn health basics

All lawns have their own specific needs. Lawn health is based on a combination of factors. Even lawns in the same neighborhood can look quite different, for various reasons. The “other man’s grass” will certainly be greener if it’s on better soil and better tended. If it gets more fertilizer at the right times, it’ll be a lot greener.

There are a few basic issues to consider with lawn health:

• Soil quality plays a major role in the quality of lawn nutrition. Good soil chemistry and drainage makes a lawn look terrific.
• Seasonal demands for fertilizer mean lawns need fertilization to manage both growth and seasonal stress. Lawns have to do more than just grow, they have to survive.
• Using the right fertilizer is critically important. Some fertilizers can actually damage lawns.
• Fertilizing a lawn is an important part of overall lawn maintenance. It’s advisable to coordinate fertilizing with your overall maintenance.
• The primary ingredients in lawn fertilizer are nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, or NPK. Nitrogen promotes growth. Phosphorous is an all-round growth stimulating nutrient, particularly for root growth. Potassium is a critical element for plant functions, including nitrogen usage. You’ll see various NPK mixes with different proportions of each in the shops.
• These three elements are present in most soils, but runoff, plant growth and soil quality may lower their levels. Fertilizers are used to ensure that enough nutrients are present.
• Lawns also gain small trace amounts other nutrients from the soil, mainly metals like iron, copper, boron and manganese. You may see these listed on fertilizer packets.

Best practice lawn fertilization

Best practice is to monitor the lawn’s condition, and fertilize regularly on a schedule. Bear in mind that lawns may suffer from climate variations and excessive heat or cold, which affect their growth and need for nutrients.

• The four times for fertilizing are in Spring and Autumn:
• May: Late Spring fertilizing ensures that a supply of food is available to cope with the Summer growth season.
• June: Early Summer fertilization adds some insurance against nutritional deficiencies. You’ll see the benefits of this second round of fertilization in hot summers.
• August: Late Summer fertilizing replenishes the food supply for the lawn and helps it look good for Autumn.
• October: A second booster for Autumn is used to help the plants store foods for Spring.

Please note:

Recommended levels of fertilizers are a good guide, but local conditions may vary. If the lawn doesn’t respond to fertilizer and looks “iffy” or you notice areas of deterioration, you may need some expert help. If you’re in New York around Westchester, Dutchess or Putnam counties, call us. We’re happy to help.

Choosing a landscaping designer involves asking a few questions of yourself, as well of the designers. What’s your vision for your landscape? What do you really want? Do you want a fabulous formal garden and lots of features, or do you want a wonderful natural vista, with lots of native trees? How about a beautiful cottage garden or your own personal Monet landscape? How about both?

The good news for landowners is that modern landscaping can do practically any type of design you want. Advanced design techniques and technology allow a lot of creativity and flexibility of design. You can participate, and you can also get good practical advice about managing site issues like drainage and terrain issues.

Better still, you can also get cost-effective landscaping, excellent quality designs which deliver lasting value and low-maintenance landscaping features. You can even make money with your landscaping. Good landscaping can be a real value-adding asset to your property, as well as providing amenities and beautiful surrounds.

That said –

• You’ll need to talk to designers and discuss design issues, explaining what you want.
• You’ll need to see what the designers can do, from their previous work and current portfolios.
• You’ll need to check out what services they can provide and get a clear picture of costs.
• Above all, you’ll need to be sure that the designs are appropriate for your location. Local landscaping experience does matter. Local landscapers know the environment, know the drainage problems, know the soil issues and how to manage local trees, for example.

The questions

These questions which will tell you everything you need to know about a landscaping design company:

• What sort of work have you done in this area?
  This simple question tells you whether the designers are experienced in local site landscaping and on what sort of scale. These designs are verifiable quality controls when you’re shopping for a landscape designer. You can also go and see them for yourself in your area, check out quality standards and workmanship.
• Do you do hardscaping designs?
  Hardscaping is construction of landscaping features like retaining walls, drainage, and similar exterior features. Hardscape designers are experts in construction, and technically very competent.
• Can you show me a model of a design for my property?
  The best designers are right up to date with the latest software, and can walk you through a model of the design.  These models are also the artist’s palette for landscape designs.
• Can you give me an itemized quote for the design and the landscaping work?
  The only acceptable answer to this question is “Yes”. Experts never need to guess about their own prices.

How do we know these are the right questions? We get asked these questions all the time. We’ve done a lot of local landscaping work of all kinds in our region of New York. We do our own hardscaping design and construction. We use top quality software to help our clients bring their ideas to life and explore their landscaping choices. We give our upfront quotes based on best market rates.

Our advice – The right landscapers give you the right answers.

Spring cleaning your yard can be very hard work. Winter tends to leave a lot of souvenirs of the cold days, including an unbelievable amount of thawing debris of all kinds. If you have a large yard, with a lot of space, you really do need to plan before doing any work.

Spring cleanup basic issues

The “journey of discovery” regarding all the stuff you need to remove can include a few hard work-causing surprises. Winter is the time when Nature decides to do some editing of her own, and a large volume of leaf debris, fallen branches, and organic waste really accumulates under the snow. That’s not all that happens in winter, though.

Some of the problems aren’t quite so obvious and can be quite tricky. A garden can be transformed into a lot of new issues. Freezing soil and severe cold snaps can do a very good job of creating garden issues. If you have larger grounds, the surrounding forest and other areas may be littered with large debris, hard to move, and in some cases very hard work to manage.

Some work is DIY-doable, provided you’re well organized and have the time available to do it properly. The things you need to really think about are:

• Not cleaning up or rectifying problems can cause major accumulated problems later including accumulated costs.
• Gardens need to be cleaned up and problems solved ASAP, or you may find yourself with a serious collection of things to do to fix them.
• The debris and other leftovers of winter create actual physical hazards on your property.
• The junk lying around can turn into a fire hazard or a risk for those working and living on the property.
• You may also be required by the county to manage those hazards, or get a fine.
• Neighbors may have their own views on materials next to their boundaries.
• Heavy and difficult to manage materials on site need to be treated with respect and safely handled. Some jobs really aren’t DIY propositions.
• You need to be able to identify possible problems and know how to manage seasonal damage.
• Damaged drains, eroded walkways, compromised landscape features and other important site amenities don’t fix themselves. They can turn into real trouble.

What’s the best quick fix for Spring clean-ups?

There is a quick fix for Spring clean-ups. It’s no coincidence that many large property owners simply set up a regular Spring cleanup service. Having a few experts checking for site damage and risks as well as doing the clean-ups is a good all-round management option.

This is the sort of work Landwork Contractors Inc. does on a regular basis in the Westchester, Dutchess, and Putnam counties region in New York. We take care of the grounds maintenance, and we keep an eye on the risk factors. We do remedial work to make sure small problems never turn in to big problems.  If you’re looking for better options for your Spring clean-up, contact us.

Spring has Sprung!

Get Ready With These 3 Easy Spring Prep Landscaping Tips

Step 1.
Remove debris and possible hazardous objects. Remove debris and materials. Take your time, use a wheelbarrow, or hand truck. Don’t try to manage heavy loads on your own, particularly if there’s a late cold snap and more snow.Carefully remove broken branches. Please note that heavy branches should be tied and preferably handled by expert arborist services, because they can be very dangerous. Cordon off any spaces where winter damage to landscaped areas has created unsafe areas.

Step 2.
Preparing your garden and lawn. OK, now you know exactly what’s going on in your garden, and you’ve done nearly all the hard work already. This stage is a mix of common sense and planning:

• Lawn areas which have deteriorated
• Landscape soil
• Lawn bed preparation

Step 3
Have fun planning! That’s it! You have done the hard work, now you can enjoy brainstorming for your spring planting ideas!

Be sure to check out our Facebook page – one more way to stay in touch with Landwork Contractors and even take a glimpse at some of our work.

In Westchester NY spring is just arriving,

and if you’re thinking about what you want to do with your garden this year, now’s the time

to start planning. If you’ve got a large area to manage, it’s a good idea to be well prepared for the thaw.

Under all that snow is your garden, but it’s been subjected to a lot of stress and temperature

effects. When the snow melts, even the soil bacteria are barely active. The garden isn’t quite

awake yet. Now’s the time to do some quick, simple preparation. If you’re organized, you

can get everything done easily with no fuss.

First, systematically check the grounds and landscaping for any debris from winter, and look

for any cracking in materials in the garden. Check the condition of the soil, lawn, and plants.

Look for:

•  Deteriorated soil, garden, and lawn areas.
• Trees with cracks or branches coming down.
•  Check the condition of garden soil, because it will need some preparation work after winter.