After the second week of November through December, we will perform a complete fall clean-up. During this visit, Live Oak Landscape Maintenance will again remove leaves from the grass and hard surfaces as well as remove leaves from all planting beds and tree rings, gardens, patios and decks, sidewalks and driveways. We will provide touch-up planting bed and tree ring edging. Additionally, all plants which require spot pruning will be addressed as well as perennial cutbacks.
Because some leaves in the area continue to fall or blow from adjacent properties well past the Holiday Season, we will provide one additional clean-up in January.
Aeration improves soil drainage and encourages worms, microfauna and microflora which require oxygen .Lawn aeration constitutes two things, controlling lawn thatch and reducing soil compaction. Lawn thatch is a layer of dead organic tissue that deprives the lawn of much-needed oxygen. Soil compaction makes it difficult for grass to root and it disturbs natural rainwater irrigation.
It is purported that scientific evidence exists that aeration makes measurable difference in the long-term health or quality of a lawn. Live Oak Landscape Maintenance will be happy to discuss this important part of lawn maintenance. Please call Amanda at 732-752-8030 to speak to our specialists.
For those who want that immaculate look each time we care for your yard during leaf season (third week of October through the second week of November) Live Oak Landscape Maintenance, offers our Premium Leaf Clean-up service. This service is in addition to our regular weekly clean-up through the second week of November. As well as cleaning the hard surfaces and grass areas, our crew will spend the extra time necessary to remove leaves which have accumulated in beds and shrubs.
The Hydrangea Annabelle, ‘Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, is a wonderful hydrangea that produces white flowers up to 12 inches across. Annabelle blooms every year even after severe pruning or intensely cold winters. The huge, white blooms appear in profusion every year without fail in early to late summer. It is perhaps the most popular old-fashioned shrub grown in American gardens today. The flower size increases as the season continues, so that the final flush is an extraordinary show! Use Annabelle in borders, hedges, foundation, or accent plantings.
Annabelle hydrangeas do not require extensive pruning, and in fact, the branches may support the large blooms better if they are not pruned back every year. This gives the stems a chance to grow a little thicker making them better able to support the blooms. If you want massive blooms, then prune them back to within a few inches of the ground in the fall.
Live Oak Landscape Maintenance will be happy to plant this beautiful plant for you and help care for it.
Pruning is one of the most abused gardening activities. We have been pruning for decades when popular plants were evergreen for a manicured, formal look. Around mid to late summer we whip out shears, clippers, chain saws and electric hedgers and go about pruning our shrubs into balls, boxes, points and light bulbs! Pruning for the sake of pruning does not address specific needs and almost always does more harm than good. This is another reason to contact Live Oak Landscape Maintenance-–we are professional and meticulous in our work.
Because there are many branches to the Hydrangea family, each has a unique makeup, acts differently, and commands its own handling for proper growth and bloom. Whenever there is a flowering problem, it’s almost always because of improper siting or miss-timed pruning. It’s not complicated: it is just a matter of matching up the type with its treatment routine.
In following blogs, we will talk about the most popular hydrangeas and give you a guideline for proper pruning techniques. Live Oak Landscape Maintenance crews will always give you the best in hydrangea maintenance.
Live Oak Landscape Maintenance crews are asked often about pruning roses. So we would like to share these techniques with you.
Whether hybrid teas, grandifloras, floribundas, or climbers, all roses need extensive pruning to promote the best flowering.
Roses may be pruned lightly or cut almost to the ground every year. The usual practice is to remove about one third of the previous season’s growth. For hybrid bush types, remove all deadwood and cut back old canes to develop an attractive open framework; this encourages new growth, which flowers the same season. Remove at the base canes that produce only weak growth. Make cuts at a 45 degree angle about 1/4 inch above a leaf bud. Be sure the center of the cut canes is creamy-white or light green; brown- centered canes are injured and should be cut further into healthy wood.
Climbing roses should not be heavily pruned for several years; remove dead or weak canes and spent flowers. The pruning goal after climbers are established to is promote lateral stems that produce flowers. Remove older and less productive canes each year. On the remaining canes, cut all the side branches that flowered during the previous season to two to three buds.
Ramblers are climbing roses that bloom prolifically in early summer on one-year-old wood. After flowering many new canes grow from the base of the plant. When blooming has finished, remove the canes that flowered and train the new ones to a trellis or fence.
When to prune- late dormant season for most types of roses: after flowering for ramblers. Live Oak Landscape Maintenance professionals are expertly trained for all phases of pruning. If pruning is a mystery to you, call us at 732-752-8030
This video was taken in early May by Live Oak Maintenance. Mike Sidlowski interviewed Fernando on the correct way to prune these serpentine hedges with electric hedge trimmers. As you can see, this property is quite extensive and our professional staff have worked hard to make this a beautiful landscape for the homeowners. We will visit this property again during the summer to show the back yard landscape. Stay tuned!!!
Annuals are easy to grow, produce instant color, and most important, they bloom for most of the growing season. Live Oak Maintenance provides Seasonal Flower Installation twice a year which is done once at the end of the spring season and once in the fall and will add to the beauty and enjoyment of your landscape.
Annuals offer you a chance to experiment with color, height, texture and form. Annuals add splashes of bold color and many bloom from several months, even up to the first frost. Our landscape services involves removing existing seasonal plants at the end of their season, tilling the soil mechanically, and then installing the new selected plant material. This process provides ideal soil and nutrient conditions for the healthy plants.
Live Oak Maintenance also provides installation of fall bulb planting.
Pruning is an horticultural practice involving the selective removal of parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. Selective pruning takes into account the natural shape and size of the tree or shrub and does not turn plants into lollipops, table tops or exclamation points. Sometimes the improvement produced is immediately apparent as in the removal of a competing leading shoot from a young tree. In other cases we prune with a more distant end in view, for example when pruning wisteria in early summer to stimulate the production of flowers the following spring.
In order to maintain plant health and shape, hedging and pruning should take place regularly and this is where Live Oak Maintenance steps in. If most plants are left to grow on their own, they will eventually outgrow their space and begin to look unnatural in the confines of your yard. By caring for your plants properly, their life in your yard will be extended and your landscape will look as it was originally intended.
Live Oak Landscape Maintenance Spring Service occurs after shrubs have completed their blooming and spring growth cycle. Hedgerows and bushes are shaped and all the shrubs are looked over for needed pruning. Plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons and andromeda are pruned carefully by hand to maintain a natural and full look.
Our Fall Service generally includes care for slower growing plants and trimming of more aggressive shrubs and trees with leaders that have grown out of place.
Pruning can be intimidating so let our professionals at Live Oak Maintenance take the worry out of pruning!
In agriculture and gardening, mulch is a protective cover placed over the soil, to retain moisture, reduce erosion, suppress weed growth and seed germination, and provide nutrients as they decay. Mulching in gardens and landscapes mimics leaf cover on forest floors. Live Oak Landscape Contractors have the right people on staff to make sure that your landscape mulching is done correctly because mulch…..
Helps maintain soil moisture. Evaporation is reduced, and the need for watering can be minimized.
Helps control weeds. A 2- to 4-inch layer of mulch will reduce the germination and growth of weeds.
Mulch serves as nature’s insulating blanket. Mulch keeps soils warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
Many types of mulch can improve soil aeration, structure (aggregation of soil particles), and drainage over time.
Some mulches can improve soil fertility.
A layer of mulch can inhibit certain plant diseases.
Mulching around trees helps facilitate maintenance and can reduce the likelihood of damage from “weed whackers” or the dreaded “lawn mower blight.”
Mulch can give planting beds a uniform, well-cared-for look.
Organic mulches include wood chips, pine needles, hardwood and softwood bark, cocoa hulls, leaves, compost mixes, and a variety of other products usually derived from plants. Organic mulches decompose in the landscape at different rates depending on the material and climate. Those that decompose faster must be replenished more often. Because the decomposition process improves soil quality and fertility, Live Oak Landscape Maintenance consider that characteristic a positive one, despite the added maintenance.
After the second week of November through December, we will perform a complete fall clean-up. During this visit, Live Oak Landscape Maintenance will again remove leaves from the grass and hard surfaces as well as remove leaves from all planting beds and tree rings, gardens, patios and decks, sidewalks and driveways. We will provide touch-up planting bed and tree ring edging. Additionally, all plants which require spot pruning will be addressed as well as perennial cutbacks.
Aeration
For those who want that immaculate look each time we care for your yard during leaf season (third week of October through the second week of November) Live Oak Landscape Maintenance, offers our Premium Leaf Clean-up service. This service is in addition to our regular weekly clean-up through the second week of November. As well as cleaning the hard surfaces and grass areas, our crew will spend the extra time necessary to remove leaves which have accumulated in beds and shrubs.
The Hydrangea Annabelle, ‘Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, is a wonderful hydrangea that produces white flowers up to 12 inches across. Annabelle blooms every year even after severe pruning or intensely cold winters. The huge, white blooms appear in profusion every year without fail in early to late summer. It is perhaps the most popular old-fashioned shrub grown in American gardens today. The flower size increases as the season continues, so that the final flush is an extraordinary show! Use Annabelle in borders, hedges, foundation, or accent plantings.
Pruning is one of the most abused gardening activities. We have been pruning for decades when popular plants were evergreen for a manicured, formal look. Around mid to late summer we whip out shears, clippers, chain saws and electric hedgers and go about pruning our shrubs into balls, boxes, points and light bulbs! Pruning for the sake of pruning does not address specific needs and almost always does more harm than good. This is another reason to contact Live Oak Landscape Maintenance-–we are professional and meticulous in our work.
Because there are many branches to the Hydrangea family, each has a unique makeup, acts differently, and commands its own handling for proper growth and bloom. Whenever there is a flowering problem, it’s almost always because of improper siting or miss-timed pruning. It’s not complicated: it is just a matter of matching up the type with its treatment routine.
Live Oak Landscape Maintenance crews are asked often about pruning roses. So we would like to share these techniques with you.
Roses may be pruned lightly or cut almost to the ground every year. The usual practice is to remove about one third of the previous season’s growth. For hybrid bush types, remove all deadwood and cut back old canes to develop an attractive open framework; this encourages new growth, which flowers the same season. Remove at the base canes that produce only weak growth. Make cuts at a 45 degree angle about 1/4 inch above a leaf bud. Be sure the center of the cut canes is creamy-white or light green; brown- centered canes are injured and should be cut further into healthy wood.
Climbing roses should not be heavily pruned for several years; remove dead or weak canes and spent flowers. The pruning goal after climbers are established to is promote lateral stems that produce flowers. Remove older and less productive canes each year. On the remaining canes, cut all the side branches that flowered during the previous season to two to three buds.
Annuals are easy to grow, produce instant color, and most important, they bloom for most of the growing season. Live Oak Maintenance provides Seasonal Flower Installation twice a year which is done once at the end of the spring season and once in the fall and will add to the beauty and enjoyment of your landscape.
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