Posted on Jun 16, 2015

HOME SWEET HOME LANDSCAPING

Spread the word! Home Sweet Home Landscaping now services the Vail Valley. Give us a call today to learn more about our crew and get an instant quote.

Native Plants for the Rocky Mountains

Dotted Blazing Star (Liatris punctata)

Dotted blazing star is an attractive, drought-tolerant perennial with lavender spikes that usually grows in clusters in sandy soils.  It can also be grown successfully in container gardens.  It will grow in full to partial shade.  Bees and butterflies are attracted to the flowers, which appear in late summer, while birds will eat the seeds that appear later in the growing year.

Did you know?  Dotted blazing star can be cut and dried for dried flower arrangements, so grow enough for yourself and the pollinators!

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Posted on Jun 1, 2015

HOME SWEET HOME LANDSCAPING

Summit County/Vail Valley Colorado Landscaping

General Landscaping, Lawn Care Maintenance,

Landscape Maintenance And Snow Removal.

 

Rocky Mountain Maple (Acer glabrum)

The Rocky Mountain maple is a shrub or small tree. It prefers moist soils, especially along canyons and mountain slopes in coniferous forests. The northernmost maple in the New World, it extends through southeastern Alaska.

Did you know? Deer, elk, cattle, and sheep browse the foliage. The Latin species name, meaning "hairless," refers to the leaves.

Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum)

The Rocky Mountain juniper is a graceful ornamental, often with a narrow crown of drooping foliage. It does well in rocky soils, especially on limestone and lava outcrops, in open woodlands at the lower border of trees to the north, and in foothills with pinyons to the south. Its cones are berrylike, bright blue with a whitish coat. Wildlife eat these "berries."

Did you know? The aromatic wood is especially suited for cedar chests and is also used for lumber, fence posts and fuel.

 

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Posted on May 19, 2015

HOME SWEET HOME LANDSCAPING

General Landscaping, Lawn Care Maintenance,

Landscape Maintenance And Snow Removal.

Spread the word! Home Sweet Home Landscaping now services the Vail Valley. Give us a call today to learn more about our crew and get an instant quote.

Some interesting facts on landscaping include:

Money Magazine wrote that landscaping can bring a recovery value of 100 to 200 percent at selling time. By comparison, kitchen remodeling brings a 75 to 125 percent recovery rate, bathroom remodeling a 20 to 120 percent recovery rate, and the addition of a swimming pool a 20 to 50 percent recovery rate.

According to a Clemson University study, homes with "excellent" landscaping can generate a sale price about six to seven percent higher than equivalent houses with "good" landscaping, while improving a landscape from "average" to "good" can result in a four-to-five percent increase.

Trees are the longest living organisms on Earth.

The "knock on wood" tradition comes from a time when primitive pagans used to tap or knock on trees to summon the protective spirits that resided in them.

 

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Posted on May 7, 2015

Spread the word! Home Sweet Home Landscaping now services the Vail Valley. Give us a call today to learn more about our crew and get an instant quote.

Posted on May 4, 2015

HOME SWEET HOME LANDSCAPING

Summit County. Co. Landscaping/Snow Removal

General Landscaping, Lawn Care Maintenance, Landscape Maintenance And Snow Removal

If your neighbor told you she had a plant that was beautiful, long blooming, drought-tolerant, deer-resistant and spreads very quickly, you might respond that it sounds too good to be true.

In fact, it is too good to be true.

Colorado has a problem with non-native invasive ornamental plants that displace native plants, reduce biological diversity and alter ecosystem processes. Many of these are on the State Noxious Weed List, making them illegal to sell or plant. The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens estimates that there are 300 dangerously invasive weeds growing in the continental U.S. and Canada and of these, half were introduced as ornamentals. They were brought to this country intentionally and allowed to gain a foothold before their harmful effects were known.

When they arrived in this country, none of the mechanisms that keep plants in check, such as insects, disease and competition came with them. So when they are unmanaged in native areas, they take over and disrupt the ecosystem, affecting bird, insect, fish and mammal populations that depend upon native plants for food, shelter and protection from predators. And it's not really possible to plant invasive ornamentals responsibly. Seeds can be eaten by birds, carried by cars, dogs or the wind and then may be planted in new locations. Some of the worst ornamental invaders in Colorado include purple loosestrife, ox-eye daisy, Russian olive, tamarisk, Bouncing Bet, Dame's/sweet rocket, perennial sweet pea, Dalmatian toadflax, yellow toadflax, Mediterranean sage, common tansy, scentless chamomile, and myrtle spurge.

 

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Posted on Apr 20, 2015

HOME SWEET HOME LANDSCAPING

General Landscaping, Lawn Care Maintenance, Landscape Maintenance And Snow Removal

Last Spring Frosts

Gardeners need to be aware of the last average spring frost date for their particular area.  Cold temperatures will kill frost-sensitive plants.  If you want to plant early, try pansies.  They can take the cold and frost.

People in the Denver metropolitan area normally use Mother’s Day as a guide for when to plant.  However, Denver had its last spring freeze on April 5 in 1977 and on June 8 in 2007.  The average over the last ten years is May 5.

Last Frost Dates

Check your local forecast before planting frost-sensitive annuals and vegetables. If the forecast looks good for the next ten days starting the end of April or first of May, you should be safe to plant. There will be no guarantees but that is a place to start.

 

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Posted on Apr 7, 2015

HOME SWEET HOME LANDSCAPING

Cottonwood Cotton

Cottonwood trees are dioecious, meaning they have male and female flowers on separate trees. Cotton shed by female trees in June is often so abundant that it turns nearby lawns white. Heavy snows in winter promote plentiful new growth. This in turn fuels abundant flowering of both male ("cotton less") and female (cotton-bearing) cottonwoods in the spring. Flowers on female trees, after being pollinated by wind-borne pollen from male trees in April, develop small green capsules that split open in June to shed small seeds carried by wind-borne "cotton".

It takes cottonwood seedlings several years of growth to become sexually mature and flower. This explains the observation for a female tree that "it never had cotton for years after the seedling came up. Now it has cotton every year".

Some municipalities have ordinances against female cottonwood trees, as the wind-blown cotton is deemed a nuisance. A few municipalities enact ordinances against male ("cotton less") cottonwoods, because the April pollen causes problems for allergy sufferers. Although cotton can be a nuisance, it has no allergenic properties. People with allergy symptoms during June cotton distribution are probably suffering from other wind-borne pollen - from grasses, weeds or other trees.

A few cases of nursery-sold "cotton less" cottonwoods later developing cotton are usually due to mislabeling or to a misunderstanding. Some hybrid cottonwoods sold in the nursery trade are listed as "sterile female hybrids". These are not "cottonless" because they are not male. "Sterile" in this case refers to the fact that they bear inviable seed, incapable of germinating but still produce much cotton to distribute that inviable seed.

Ethephon, sold as FlorelT, is labeled to prevent cotton development in female trees and needs to be applied during flower development.

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