Landscaping may sound rather serious but it can actually be anything
from simple border arrangements to a complete garden re- design. Whether
you have a small garden or a large estate, landscaping it properly is a
great way to make better use of space. In fact, landscaping can prove
to be more useful for those with smaller areas to work with. If you use
the appropriate flowers, trees and shrubs this will give you a beautiful
outside area for your home and can even enhance its value if done
properly and professionally.

Landscape Maintenance: What Do You Need?

You
may have just started considering your options and if that is the case,
you may be a little overwhelmed. It can be confusing and complex to
decide on the right options for your home or business but rest assured,
we are here to help you. You need to work with what you have but you
also need to consider options of expansion or more importantly how best
to use the space in a practical way.

If you are a keen gardener
then you may want to opt for more borders and shrubs but if you aren’t
so keen on the green finger hobby then you might prefer a more patio
based area with various types of gravel, flagstones or at least easy to
manage lawns.

Thinking about what you need is the first step,
then you need to consider what you want; after all, what is the point in
employing a landscaper in if you are not going to appreciate the work
done?

What about commercial landscaping?

Commercial
landscaping is more suitable to businesses that have an outside area
they want to look attractive for arriving clients or employees. First
impressions are important and if your business office is located in
beautiful surroundings that are well maintained, it does make a
difference.

When it comes to commercial landscaping, you should
consider clean lines, simplicity and a modern approach. This will ensure
that it does not eat into your budget for maintenance but offers an
attractive enough approach to your business premises. To get an idea of
what you want you can look at landscaping pictures online or give us a
call for some free advice.

If you are not ready to embark on a
landscaping project then you could consider a simple lawn service, which
would improve the look of your garden or grounds without all the
expense of landscaping. Lawn care is important and lawn maintenance can
be very affordable with the current equipment and procedures. If this
option is not that attractive you could consider artificial turf that
has come on leaps and bounds in recent years.

For more information about landscaping about lawn maintenance, head over to and check out our landscaping services or call us.

Spring is coming. As snow begins to melt, the effects of winter will start to become more clear. You will find gravel in the landscape, leftover leaves in the gardening beds and salt residue everywhere. Commercial spring clean-up will get clear the area and prepare it for healthy growth in the spring and summer.

The plants, grass and trees in your commercial Calgary landscaping are in the first stages of growth in the early months of spring. Taking care of them at this point will result in a healthy landscape well into autumn. A healthy landscape is critical to the appearance of your company’s property.

What is involved with cleaning up in spring?

Power raking clears the winter debris. You likely had the fall leaves removed before the snow set in. However, a few more may have dropped during the winter. Plus, the lawn may have a layer of thatch built-up. Thatch can act as a barrier to water and fertilizers reaching the roots of grass and landscaping plants. A good power raking will take up the underlying thatch and capture the winter leaf drop.

Lawn aeration brings oxygen down to the roots of plants. Oxygen at the root level is critical for plants to survive and thrive. Compacted soils or those topped by a thick layer of thatch do not allow sufficient oxygen to reach plants’ roots. Commercial services use a couple of ways to bring oxygen down into the soil: using aeration equipment to poke holes in the soil or breaking up the soil manually.

Fertilization prepares your Calgary landscaping for new plants in the planting beds. It also brings critical nutrients to existing plants so they can grow and thrive during the spring and summer. A bonus to proper fertilization is the fact that healthy plants can better fend off pests and diseases than unhealthy ones. That can save money on pest control, disease prevention, and even plant replacement.

Commercial spring clean-up services include power-raking all lawn areas to remove thatch and leaves, removal of gravel from the lawn and planting beds, application of fertilizers, edging the lawn, raking up tree wells and gardens, removal of lawn litter, and removal of lawn clippings from entrances and walkways.

Before spring arrives, it is a good time to line up a Calgary landscaping service to handle your spring clean-up needs. Give us a call at mirage landscaping. We offer a spring lawn care and maintenance program that will fit your needs.

If you plan on selling your home any time soon, it is fair to say
that first impressions count for a lot when it comes to impressing
potential buyers. When you consider that the first thing buyers will see
when they roll up at your home is the front yard, it makes sense that a
spot of landscaping in that area could pay huge dividends in making
your home appear more desirable.

Planning the best landscaping approach for your front
yard requires that you get into the minds of buyers. Ideally, you want a
front yard that looks attractive and welcoming, which will plant in
buyers’ minds the idea that this could be their future home. On the
other hand, a landscaped front yard that is too elaborate might have a
negative effect by making some buyers fearful of the amount of work
required to maintain it.

By the same token, if the purpose of a
landscaping project is merely to sell your home, there can surely be
little point in expending a lot of time, effort, and expense on an
over-complicated front yard. The strategy, rather, should be minimum
effort and expense for maximum gain.

One great way of making
your front yard appear more attractive without doing any major work is
to tidy up your lawn borders. If you pay attention to trimming back
areas where your lawn has started to grow into the flower beds, you can
do a lot to make your front yard appear considerably more orderly to the
casual eye. Remember that it is all about first impressions, and your
buyers will soon be moving on to viewing the interior of your home. The
trick is to convey the impression of tidiness and order, and lawn edge
trimming is certainly vital in this regard.

Once you have tidied
up your lawn borders, it pays to keep them looking that way, and the
easy way to achieve this is to sprinkle a layer of wood chips along the
edges of the lawn, which will be an effective deterrent to the growth of
weeds.

When considering ways to maximize the impression of order and tidiness
in your front yard, another good tactic is to prune back shrubs that
have become too large and messy in appearance. However, you should
resist the urge to go at shrubs too eagerly, especially if you have
buyers scheduled to visit in the near future. Shrubs that have been
pruned over-zealously will make it much too obvious that gardening work
has been conducted recently in a sly bid to make a good impression.

In such cases where you have plants and shrubs growing near your house,
especially near windows, you should be at pains to carry out pruning.
This is particularly important where plant growth may be restricting
light from reaching the interior of the house. Few house buyers are
likely to be enamored of homes where rooms seem dark and dank.

There are lots of ways to improve the look of your front yard. For some
people, it may be a simple case of tidying, but other home owners may
need to carry out more drastic works if their yards are currently in a
poor state. Although landscaping work can be expensive, the ultimate
goal of selling your home may in some cases dictate that you bite the
bullet and engage the services of a professional landscape designer in
order to effect major improvements to your front yard.