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Do I Need A Gardener Or Landscaper?

This is a question that’s often asked by most homeowners across the globe. While it’s true that both gardener and landscaper can make your garden a lot more beautiful and pleasing to the eye, it’s also crucial to know the significant difference between the two professions.

So who is a landscaper? We have two types of landscapers: the landscape architect whose job is to design a landscape and a landscape builder whose job is to do the physical requirements of creating a landscape. Both types are very interrelated such that landscape architects can also be landscape builders or have one or more of the other type in same team (as most landscaping building projects will be supervised by a landscape architect).

Now the main difference between a landscaper and a gardener is the type or scope of work they’re qualified to undertake. Generally, landscapers require just one or more types of trade licences to work, meanwhile a gardener may or may not need a trade licence. So who is a gardener?

It’s the job of a gardener to come in and maintain the landscape garden once the landscape has successfully built the outdoor area. In other words, it’s part of a gardener’s services to prune plants, mow the lawns, do the weeding, fertilize your soil and much more. It’s not their job to construct a large retaining wall or a gazebo. And you can also be sure they won’t appear with a backhoe ready to sculpt your landscape.

Overall, deciding who to choose between a gardener and a landscape depends on the type or scope of work that’s required. With the aforementioned differences, you should be able to easily determine who to call when in need of a landscaping or gardening service.

How To Draw A Garden Landscaping Plan

Are you thinking about constructing a new garden landscape? Do you have an existing one but forgot where you planted those tulip bulbs the previous autumn? Or perhaps you’re just trying to identify the exact spot where you cut back that clump of wilted foxglove, without mistakenly digging it up. For everything to be much easier when it comes to a garden landscape, it’s always a wise decision to draw a garden landscaping plan.

To get started, let’s take a look at the materials you’ll need to acquire. These includes a piece of white paper on which the existing elements on your garden will be plotted, a piece of tracing paper and tape to give options for planned additions, a pencil, an eraser as well as a measuring tape.

For more accuracy while drawing your plan, you’ll need to measure the garden’s distances, perimeter, the existing garden beds size as well as the trees’ and shrubs’ shape and size.

• Write down the measurements taken on the scrap paper.

• Assuming it’s a medium sized backyard garden that’s 18 feet wide, we allocated a scale of 3 feet to equal an inch.

• Using a piece of white paper (could be graph if you wish) and a pencil, carefully outline the perimeter of the space. Once done, you can then sketch in the existing plants as well as other special features on the space (features that are of a permanent nature like trees, fences and paths).

• Hold a piece of tracing paper and tape in on top. Then you can sketch out the plants you wish to add to fill in the spaces in the garden on the tracing paper.

How To Repair Sunken Concrete Driveway

If you have concrete driveway that’s cracked, uneven and mostly especially sunken, you’d know how distasteful it can be just viewing it on your property. A sunken concrete driveway is most likely caused by rainwater erosion removing the soil under it or a big root under it which as rotted over time. Another possible cause of the sunken concrete is an improperly prepared base which implies that the soil beneath wasn’t fully compact when the concrete was poured on it. Later on the soil beneath will eventually settle and shift below the concrete driveway which weakens the integrity of the entire driveway, making it more vulnerable to cracks, unevenness and sunken.

Two ways in which you can fix this problem includes either demolishing the whole driveway, re-compact the soil underneath and fill with new concrete or repair the entire driveway using an easy process called slabjacking. In this article, we’re going to look at the slabjacking repair process as it’s significantly less expensive than the demolishing approach and will also cause minimal disruption to your lifestyle.

Also referred to as mudjacking or concrete lifting, slabjacking is simply a process used to float your existing concrete back to its original position. If you are not a competent DIYer or lack confidence to pull this off, we’d recommend reach out to a professional for help. If otherwise, then you can practice the slabjacking process given below.

✓ Drill holes through the slab.

✓ Pump grout mixture through the holes. This mixture will spread out beneath he driveway and raise it up.

✓ Lastly, fill the holes and level the concrete driveway surface.in such a way to hide the signs of the repair made.

This is a process that works to efficiently get your driveway back in a top condition relatively quickly.

If there’s a fence dividing yours and your neighbour’s properties that needs maintaining or replacing, you’ll want to know who owns it. Start by checking your deeds to see if there’s an existing boundary agreement. If there isn’t, have a chat with them to see if you can come to an arrangement yourselves.

Laying artificial grass is a popular project – it’s a great way to create a smart, low-maintenance garden. There are plenty of professionals around who are experts at installing artificial grass, but it’s possible to DIY too if you’re feeling confident.

Lots of homeowners choose to replace their existing turf with artificial grass, so lay it on soil. To do this, start by clearing the area of any greenery or turf. Then remove any extra soil to a depth of about 40mm. You might want to leave the centre of your area slightly higher than the edges for a more natural look.

Next, you need to add a weed membrane and a sharp sand sub-base. It doesn’t really matter which one of these you do first, but you might find it easier to lay the weed membrane first and then use the sand to weigh it down, to a depth of about 35mm. Use a rake and plank to make the sand level, and compact it with a plank and heavy hammer. It doesn’t need to be completely flat – gentle slopes are fine. The weed membrane should overlap joints by 300mm.

After you’ve done this, you can lay your grass. Roll it out, trim it to size and fasten it in place. Make sure the ends of the grass rolls are staggered so they don’t end in a line. Lay the artificial grass with the pile (the strands) leaning towards the house so it looks nice and full when you’re looking out from the house. If you’ve decided to use edging boards, you can nail the grass into the tops of the boards. Or, if you haven’t, use ground pins to anchor it into the soil. Brush the grass and you’re done!

With summer comes a lot of lawn challenges - from sod webworms, chinch bugs, nutsedge to drought stress, diseases and lots more. A lot of people find it hard to tell what’s happening to their lawn and probably assume it to be as a result of the summer stress and will definitely turn green again once the fall rolls in. This may be right in certain situations, but if you have fungi eating deep into your lawn, the green may not return. So, how exactly do you figure out if your lawn has diseases or pests? In this post, we’re going to provide you with a good insight into this to help you take the necessary treatment steps as soon as possible.

• Fungal structures. Fungi structures are not usually the easiest to spot as they vary in shape, colour and appearance. Fortunately, most fungi that appears on lawns will possess some type of structure which can be spotted when moisture is present. Once the night time dew sets in, you’ll be able to identify these strange growths in your lawn.
• Matted or Collapsed Areas. There is some sort of diseases that will make grass plant to wilt in little time. This, combined with fungi structures will make the grass look to have been matted in some areas.
• Discoloured or oily areas. Some areas are likely to show symptoms more than the others. While the unaffected turf may remain in its normal state, areas that are nearby may vary in colour due to the damage to the leaf tissue.
• Lesions or spots on leaves. Do you notice a certain damage pattern on the leaf blades of the grass plants? If yes, then your lawn is probably infected with a disease. Some of these spots may vary in size and colour.

Scarification is the name given to the process where you remove excess thatch and moss from your lawn to encourage it to grow and look healthy. Although it sounds difficult, it’s actually pretty easy – simply grab a sturdy rake and apply moderate pressure to rake out moss, thatch and dead grass. Then collect it up and add to your compost heap if you have one. You can also use a petrol or electric rake, but you just want to tease out the moss and thatch. Don’t be tempted to go deep into the grass, as this could damage your lawn. So when should you scarify your lawn? The experts say that the best time is in the autumn, when the grass is actively growing and it’s not too hot, cold or dry. Most of summer’s weed seeds will have gone, so you won’t encourage weeds to grow in the raked-up soil. This soil also makes an ideal seed bed for over seeding with new grass seed, so that’s why you don’t want to get weeds in there as well. However, you may also carry out light scarification in the spring – usually around April. Make sure you don’t go too far though – as you will end up with a rather disfigured lawn if you scarify too heavily and the dryness of summer stops the lawn from recovering. It’s also best to scarify your lawn in the spring if the following apply:

• If you couldn’t do it the previous autumn – if you keep putting it off, you might end up with extreme moss and weed growth
• If your lawn is shaded – these areas will thin over winter and start to thicken from spring onwards, so if you scarify in the autumn you’ll make your lawn even thinner.
• If your lawn is under trees – pair the shade from the trees with the fall of leaves in the autumn and your grass won’t be healthy, but in the spring the trees are bare, allowing lots of light onto your lawn to help it grow.

On a hot summer’s day, we often seek our garden lawn as a cooling place to sit and get some relief from the sun. However, since artificial grass is made from plastic, lots of people ask whether it gets hot, or whether it stays like natural grass. The answer is, it’s somewhere in between.

Of course, we all know to stay in the shade in midday sun and this is when your artificial grass will be at its hottest. Unless it is an extremely hot say and your lawn is in direct sunlight, you should still be able to walk on your artificial grass. The best thing to do is test it using the back of your hand before anyone walks over it with bare feet or children go to play on it.

In the shade, artificial grass should always maintain a cool temperature, although it will never have that refreshing feel of cold grass on a hot day. It will also cool down extremely quickly as the day goes on, so if your grass does get too hot it shouldn’t be unusable for too long.

Artificial grass has to meet high safety standards and most are UV stabilised, which means that they can withstand high temperatures without melting or getting extremely hot. It’s worth remembering that hot countries like Dubai use artificial grass, so the occasional hot day in a British summer should be enough for artificial grass to handle!