June 2022 – Shade Landscapes

Welcome to our June edition. I trust the year is going well, I know it’s going fast, as it always does. Now with school out, we have the concern of keeping our underaged kids busy. This can be a challenge. I have put our granddaughter in several classes offered by the City of Roseville, and Breakaway Classes offered by all the Bayside Church campuses. Other churches have similar programs as well. It is a good, and safe alternative.

It is not often that we come across an all-shade opportunity to landscape. Normally it’s morning shade and afternoon sun, or vice versa, but this job truly has filtered shade all day. The sun passes through the canopy here and there, as it moves over the top of the Red Oak. It is a very nice and large specimen tree. The leaves will be time consuming to pick up in the fall, but that is only for a couple months. A small price to pay for some nice shade.

Prior to us landscaping, this area was lawn. This always concerns me because trees in lawns tend to be shallow rooted and are typically the trees that go down in the winter, unless they tap into deeper water sources. I believe this is what has occurred with this tree, as well as others in the neighborhood. The levee is right behind the home, so judging by its size, as well as the size of the other trees, I do believe they have tapped into the underground water table. Nonetheless, since we are changing the means of receiving a percentage of its water, we created a separate irrigation valve/station just for the three trees in the yard. A bubbler system will run about 3 hours every 8 to 15 days, depending upon the season. Aside from the deep watering, the trees will also pick up water from the drip irrigation. This is probably similar to what they received from the lawn.

Prior to adding the bubbler system for the tree, which occurred after planting the plants, we began our normal process of amending the soil with our special blend. We seek to add about 3 inches to the top of the earth and then till it in, amending the first 6 inches. Since 5/gal. and 15/gal. plants go deeper, we amend the rest as we plant the plants. From here, we continue to follow our pattern of creating mounds, and sometimes create a dry stream bed. The stream beds tend to “class up” the landscape when done correctly but does just the opposite when done incorrectly. Next, we add the boulders (we work with three types). This is our signature and it’s how we prepare the canvas of the earth for the “ALL STARS” – the plants. Because of my years in growing plants, my knowledge of plants is pretty good, and we are able to use a nice variety of appropriate plants, which is also part of our signature. Because of what I just shared, we tend to be a bit more pricey. However, there are times I am surprised at the price people pay for what I would consider a homeowner’s landscape and not a supposed “professional landscaper.” This was the case for this particular project.

We were not the first landscape contractor hired for this project. Our client Tom had hired another company prior to hiring us. This other “landscaper” took 3 months to remove the lawn, lay a paver patio and build a wall, which we corrected and then completed. I witnessed the same thing these last months when we went to visit our daughter and son-in-law to go to their church each Sunday. It must have taken that landscaper about 3 months as well to do a yard about half the size of Tom’s, and when completed, it didn’t look like much. What they presented as their work for that time we could have completed in 4 to 5 days and done a far better job.

I asked Tom why he didn’t call us first, and he said we sounded expensive. Although we never spoke, I guess our name, Executive Care, must have made him think we are more expensive. However, he regrets now not calling. We finished his landscape and corrected the wall in 2 weeks, and both he and his wife love it. In his neighborhood, many people walk, and he has received numerous compliments on the landscape, which will only become more attractive as it matures.

It’s not often that I share what I just shared, (I do not like to talk about us because I prefer our clients and our work to do that) but having experienced and seen several landscapes completed poorly, I wanted to share a word of caution with you. Our waits are long, but it is better than getting a landscape that you are not pleased with, or one in which you must hassle the landscaper to get it done. If you absolutely can’t wait, call me first, and then depending upon your circumstances (you have a wedding, or a graduation coming etc.) I’ll see what I can do.

Choosing plants for Tom was fun. I love shade landscapes as I mentioned. You can mix so many cool plants. The only problem is that they cannot handle the afternoon sun. (coastal would be okay) I recently saw another shade landscape that we completed about five years ago, with our clients Bob and Regina. An appointment I had recently was just up the street from them, so afterwards I went to go see it. I featured it about 5 years ago when we had just completed it. The comparison between new and mature is striking. It is so attractive that I wanted to share it. Tom’s landscape will be similar to this in about 3 years, but this allows you to get a feel for a mature all- shade landscape.

Gardeners, your summer crops should be planted by now and growing. I have raised gardens for myself and the men, and we have an assortment of vegetables. They are all too young to produce yet, but the squash is just beginning to produce, and I have been harvesting the lettuce for couple of months now. It will soon start to get tough and bitter as we get warmer, so if you have any, harvest it soon. As always THANK YOU for reading, and until next time – good gardening, but leave the landscaping to us please. Thank you.