5 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR CURB APPEAL

Want to improve your curb appeal? We have put together a list of 5 quick ways to improve your curb appeal. You can do these things yourself or request an estimate and we can help you with them.

1. Landscape Clean-Up

This is often one of the least expensive yet most significant things you can do to improve the look of your home. Simply picking up the front yard, putting away unused items (such as lawn furniture) and pressure cleaning the driveway can make a world of difference. 

2. Add Color

Free standing flowering plants are the fastest way to add color and texture to your landscaping. Choose flower type based on your sunlight, shade and water restrictions. Container Gardens add a welcoming feel and colorful appeal quickly and affordably. You can buy ready-made containers from garden centers or create your own with your favorite plants. Window Boxes are another way to bring color and charm to your home exterior. Choose boxes made from copper or iron for a traditional look, or painted wood for a cottage feel. Mix and match flowers and plants to suit your lighting conditions and color scheme.

3. Landscape Shaded Areas

Many people tend to leave shaded areas bare and boring. Take your landscape to all new levels by putting shade-tolerant plants in the areas under trees where other plants won't grow. This will leave your lawn looking full and appealing.

4. Add New Mulch to Your Beds

Get landscape beds into shape by pruning growth, pulling weeds, and adding new mulch to restore color that was taken away by sunlight and harsh weather. Mulch holds in moisture and prevents weed growth, and makes beds easier to maintain. There are different looks that come with mulch. Wood mulch comes in different sizes and types of wood, it also comes dyed for a eye popping look.

5. Raise Tree Canopies

The tree canopy, if too low, can block sun from getting to your lawn grass and cause it to decline.It also can block the veiw of the home and make it look uncared for. By removing the lower branches, you can raise the canopy of your tree. Just follow a left – to-center, and center-to-right arc. Raising your tree canopy will allow more sun to get to your grass, you can walk under it without getting hit in the head and the tree will look much better from the street.

Landscaping in the Shade in North Florida

Different parts of a garden may possess entirely different conditions, shade landscaping takes advantage of those areas which have light restricted in some way. The sunlight in a garden may be restricted by artificial barriers such as the wall of a house or garden wall, or natural obstacles such as trees and foliage; light barriers may have been put up with the express purpose of creating shade or else a shaded are may be the outcome of an entirely different need. In all cases there are plants which thrive or suffer from these conditions and the wise gardener will research the plant choices available before planning, designing and purchasing.

There is not just one kind of shade, nor one kind of shaded area. There is the area which is shaded during the morning, but catches the sun in the afternoon; and there is the area which sees the morning sun but not the afternoon. Then there is the shade created by overhead foliage which might keep an area without direct sun or perhaps under a perpetual mottled light; the favoured situation for fuchsias, for example. The shade areas are often categorized as: deep shade, part shade and filtered sunlight areas. 

In all 3 cases there are plants available to choose from, selections to be made. In gardens where no shade or little shade is available the planting of trees, shrubs and the erecting of well placed barriers can create these spots to allow a variety of plant to thrive in your garden. 

Shade areas are relatively easy to maintain parts of your garden too. Typically, plants that enjoy shade do not require a lot of water and do not grow very fast either. They tend to be un-invasive as well.

The most important thing is understanding the requirements of each plant to have it thrive. Those plants which enjoy strong sunlight are least likely to endure shade; similarly, those plants which enjoy deep shade will not endure much direct sunlight. Shade landscaping adds a greater variety to your landscape and will break up the monotony of sun-loving Florida plants.