Falling in Love with Fire Features

Construcción del paisaje

Fall is arguably the most beautiful time of year in northern New England, and so it makes sense that many of us want to extend our time outside and enjoy the great weather, beautiful foliage, and cool nights that this season brings.

One way to add to the enjoyment of staying outdoors as the temperatures dip is to add a heating element to your outdoor spaces. You can add a decorative touch as well as a heating option by choosing a fireplace or fire pit. Both are wonderful additions to your outdoor areas and put out about the same amount of heat but have different things you should consider.

A Heated Focal Point

When you install a fireplace or fire pit on your property, it becomes a focal point of your landscape and a natural gathering spot that’s perfect for entertaining and socializing with family and friends. It’s a casual place to hang out and chat or unwind after a long day. It’s easy to sit around a fire and sip cocktails or roast marshmallows to make s’mores (or both!).

A fire element adds warm tones of light to your landscape and provides a good “wall” at the end of a patio or seating area, especially if you install a fireplace. A fire pit can help you create a new seating or conversation area if you want to break up a large expanse of lawn or use a previously unused/underused corner more efficiently. A more permanent fire element, like built-in fireplaces or fire pits, can increase your property value as well.

Fireplaces

By matching or complementing existing masonry to your fireplace addition, you’ll extend your patio and entertainment space. You can opt for a wood-burning fireplace, or if you already have gas as a heating or cooking element in your house, it’s not difficult to have a gas line run outdoors for a fireplace. When installing an outdoor fireplace, just make sure to build one with a large enough chimney to be able to get a good draft for ventilation.

Firepits

Sitting around a fire pit evokes almost the same feelings as gathering around a summer bonfire on the beach or a campfire in the woods. Usually circular or square in design, a fire pit allows people to gather around all sides. Fire pits can be portable or built into patios as a permanent fixture.

Fire pits have several options to fuel their fires. Wood is traditionally used in fire pits and provides a nice flame and heat. With open wood fire pits, wind is a consideration. When placed in a windy location, the smoke produced by traditional wood burning fire pits can shift onto you, your guests, or toward your house at times. Debris and dirt may be more visible, and you may need to drain rainwater from it often. With wood, you’ll need to have storage nearby to keep your wood dry.

Great Fire Pits

If you are warm to the idea of wood-burning fire pits, there are some smoke-free options. Two companies we recommend are:

  • Solo Stove: This portable firepit offers a great burn with almost no smoke. It’s designed to maximize airflow and has air vents placed in strategic areas. You may get a little smoke when lighting or putting out the fire, but that’s about it. The trick is to keep wood below the secondary air vent and not overfill it, then you’ll enjoy a great fire without being bothered by smoke.
    Their stainless-steel design fits well into any décor and allows for easy cleaning. They also offer a lifetime guarantee from any manufacturing defects. Solo Stove also makes a matching pizza oven.
  • Breeo fire pits are another company that offers smokeless, portable fire pits. Breeo’s pits come in several design, glass, and color options. You can even custom design your fire pit on their website, so it’s built to your own specifications. Breeo’s fire pits are smokeless due to raised air vents on the bottom of the pit, enabling oxygen to feed the fire regardless of ash build up. Their double-walled build allows hot air to enter from vents at the bottom and escape at holes in the rim at the top. This escaping air causes a secondary ignition of flames, burning off the rising smoke.

Breeo also offers accessories like fireside furniture and implements you can use to cook directly on the flames themselves. As with all fire pits and fireplaces, make sure to clean all debris, drippings, and food particles completely off before relighting the fire.

Other Fuels for Fire Pits

Propane and gas fire pits are other options for fueling fire pits if you don’t want to bother with wood. Both gas and propane fire pits have instant ignitions, so you don’t have to mess about getting a fire started. And both can be shut down instantly without waiting for flames to die down or embers to cool.

There are no sparks emitted from a gas or propane fireplace, so these types of fire pits can be a safer option. To avoid carbon monoxide build up, both gas and propane fire pits must be used in well-ventilated areas.

We’ve helped many homeowners add a fire and heating element to their landscapes and outdoor entertainment spaces, and we’d love to help you come up with ideas to incorporate a fireplace or fire pit into your property. Please call us at 603.707.0630 or email us to get started.

Fall into Planting for Spring

Plantar

When winter gives way and spring is on the horizon, many of our thoughts turn to our gardens, lawns, and planning what to plant in the coming year. But, from a landscaping perspective, fall is a much better time to plant anything but annuals or plants too delicate to survive our cold winters.

It may seem strange to plant when the usual growing season is winding down, but by planting in the fall, you’re giving your plants a better chance of survival. Then in the spring when your plants start to grow, you’ll be ahead of the game and your landscaping will look great in a shorter period of time.

Why plant in the fall?

When plants grow in the summer, many factors—hot temperatures, varying humidity levels, drought, or occasional periods of heavy rain—tend to add stress to plants. In the fall, the soil is still warm enough to nourish growing plants, and the more moderate temperatures and increased rain will give your plantings a healthy, stress-free start.

The cooler air temperatures in the fall mean that the plants will not waste a lot of their energy growing upward. Instead, they will focus their energy downward, establishing strong root systems before going dormant in cold weather. When spring arrives, your plants will already have a strong foundation from which to grow, making them hardier for the growing season, and giving them a better chance for survival.

As you’ve watched over your lawn and gardens through the summer, you’ve undoubtedly lost some plants or found some trouble spots. Autumn is a great time to work on those problem areas.

It’s also the perfect time to add shrubs and trees specifically for winter interest, and add a bit of color to our usually stark and colorless landscape. Trees like basswood/linden and spruce trees prefer to be planted in the fall and do really well in cold weather. A hawthorn tree will produce beautiful white flowers in the spring, and by planting a maple tree, you’ll get beautiful colors on the leaves next autumn. The Japanese maple, a garden favorite, does best when planted in the fall. Really, most any tree or shrub that will grow in our New England environment can be planted in the fall, and these trees prefer to have the extra time to root themselves deeply before the summer growing season.

As for personal comfort level, planting in the fall is a bit more pleasant as the cooler temperatures make it easier to work outside on your property without the bright sun and high humidity of summer months. An added bonus to working in the garden in the fall is that fewer weeds will grow, and there will be fewer insects and pests to deal with.

Planning for Spring Beauty

There are a great variety of things you can plant now to give you early pops of color in your spring yard. Plants like tulips and hyacinths need cold temperatures before they will bloom; crocuses, winter heath, and snowdrops will bloom through the snow. Lilly of the valley and bleeding hearts will add early color to your garden, as will peonies, pansies, and violets. If deer are a problem, consider planting things that deer do not like to nibble on, like grape hyacinths, daffodils, or anything from the allium family.

If you’d like to add a bit of greenery to your landscape, select a cold-season turf to help the bare or brown spots in your lawn, or add trees and shrubs to your property for added interest.

Plan to get all plantings in the ground about six weeks before the usual date of first frost, and mulch your plants before the nights get too cool, which will protect your plants even further. And all your landscaping needs a good fertilizing this time of year to get it ready for winter, so be sure to add a little extra to your new plants for some TLC.

Extending the Season

If you are not quite ready for the growing season to be over, there are some plants you can plant in the fall that will be ready to harvest until the winter, and even through the cold months. (Just make sure to plant them six weeks before the first frost.) Some cold tolerant plants that can be grown in our zone include:

  • Lettuce (it can grow after a little snow or frost)
  • Broccoli
  • Cauliflower
  • Spinach
  • Carrots
  • Cilantro
  • Turnips
  • Peas
  • Radishes
  • Kale (will grow all through the winter)

Let us help you prepare your landscaping for fall and the growing seasons beyond. Give us a call at 603.707.0630 or email and we’ll work with you to come up with a plan to get ready for spring and beyond.

Water and Your Landscaping

Mantenimiento del paisaje

In this month’s blog, we’ll discuss how to deal with the water conditions of your property: having not enough and having too much.

Dealing with Drought

If it hasn’t rained for a while, look for signs that your landscaping is experiencing water stress—plants with stunted growth or brown or yellow leaves, trees dropping leaves and have some dead branches, plants in the garden may not have flowers or start to seed early, and your lawn may start to show footprints or can’t “bounce back” after you walk on it or may even begin to show brown spots in some areas.

If a drought is coming, there are steps you can take immediately to minimize the damage:

  • Add mulch to garden areas and bare spots. Mulch keeps areas cool and traps moisture.
  • Don’t add any new plants; instead, focus your watering efforts to your existing landscape.
  • Don’t fertilize your plants or lawn. If you must fertilize, cut the amount of fertilization by half. Your lawn and plants are trying to survive, not grow. Fertilization is not needed at this time.
  • Pruning is not necessary, but remove dead branches and leaves, stalks, etc.
  • If plants look like they are going to die, remove them. Try not to waste water on something that will not make it through the drought.
  • Pull weeds. Eliminating weeds will cut down on unnecessary water usage, and your landscaping will look better.

When mowing your lawn, don’t mow too short. Keeping the blades long will shade the soil, reduce evaporation, and minimize any heat damage that may happen during the drought. Consider leaving the clippings on the lawn to help protect it and return nutrients to the soil.

If the drought is really bad and it looks like it will continue, consider letting your lawn go dormant; most grass is drought resistant and will recover when a steady supply of rain returns.

If you have ornamental plants around your yard, consider how long is left in the season. If it’s an annual, is it worth keeping them alive? If the season is almost over, it might be easier to let them die. If you’ve planted shrubs and trees in the past one or two years, they are more susceptible to being lost. Focus your watering efforts on new plantings, those plantings that are expensive to replace, or anything that you’ve planted that has sentimental value.

How to Water During a Drought

Once a drought is firmly established, soil will begin to harden and get impacted. Add water slowly so it gets absorbed instead of running off. A good way to make sure water gets absorbed well is to use soaker hoses. After running for an hour check that water has penetrated down about an inch; if not, run the water longer.

It’s best to water on a schedule, and to water in the early morning. This will stop the water from evaporating and allow time to soak in the soil. Do not water at night; wet grass overnight can cause fungus to grow.

If you have an irrigation system, it’s best to use a timer. Some irrigation systems can connect to your home’s Wi-Fi to monitor weather conditions. These systems control when and how you water your property and respond to water, weather, and soil conditions to deliver the right amount of water at the right time.

Water, Water Everywhere

What if we’re having a rainy summer and we’re experiencing the opposite problem? If you have noted areas of your lawn or garden where water pools, there are things you can do to avoid erosion and have your plants or lawn die from too much water.

One thing you can do is aerate your lawn to assure water is penetrating the dirt’s surface. By doing so, you’ll direct water to the roots of your grass, which will make it stronger and more lush when the rain stops. And it’ll make the soil less compact, allowing it to drain easier.

Make sure your gutters and downspouts are clean, so the runoff doesn’t create erosion around the foundation of your home, garage, or other outdoor structures and buildings.

When planning your landscaping, be sure to properly grade your lawn, garden, and flower beds. And choose plants that love water—ask us if you’re unsure.

For existing landscapes, add soil and grade the surface away from your home. Consider adding terraces to your landscape to help water run down slopes. Prune your landscaping to allow sunlight to dry areas.

For areas that always seem wet or are susceptible to pooling, you might have to install a drain, or consider changing the layout to a hardscape. You can add a permanent water feature and incorporate that area, like a pond, water garden or even a meandering stream with a bridge to your yard.

At Stephens Landscaping, we have a lot of experience helping homeowners come up with a plan for drought and overwatering. Let us help you and your landscape; call us at 603.707.0630 or contact us today.

Cómo aprovechar el mantillo

Mantenimiento del paisaje

Mulching has been favored by gardeners and landscapers alike for many years, as mulching adds a nice finishing touch to well-landscaped grounds and protects plants, trees, and shrubbery. Since mulch can affect the soil beneath the mulch, it must be applied properly to not damage the root system of your plants. We’ll discuss what to consider when adding mulch to your property so you can make sure your gardens, yard and landscaping look their best year-round.

¿Qué es el mantillo?

Mulch is the name used for a substance that’s put on top of soil to provide protection or add visual interest to an area. When you are deciding which mulch to use in your landscaping, remember, the best mulch is an organic material, that is, it’s a substance that already comes from nature. Common mulches are made of bark/wood chips, and moss. Mulch comes in a variety of colors, so you can choose one that best complements your property features and landscape design.

¿Por qué usar mantillo?

El mantillo se ha utilizado durante décadas para añadir un toque estético y decorativo a los paisajes. El mantillo alrededor de las plantas, arbustos y árboles añade una dimensión de sombra bajo el follaje, así como un contraste bajo las flores de colores brillantes. Pero el mantillo sirve para mucho más que para decorar.

El mantillo puede ayudar a impedir el crecimiento de las malas hierbas entre sus plantaciones al no permitir que la luz del sol pase a ellas. Ayudará a que la tierra que rodea a tus plantas retenga la humedad, lo que siempre es beneficioso para su crecimiento, especialmente en los periodos secos. El mantillo atrapa el agua y retrasa la evaporación de la superficie del suelo, por lo que las plantas se mantienen hidratadas durante más tiempo, reduciendo la necesidad de regarlas con frecuencia. Puede proteger tus plantas durante los periodos de lluvias intensas, ya que absorbe el agua y protege las raíces; el mantillo también ayudará a minimizar la erosión del suelo alrededor de tus plantaciones.

El mantillo también puede ayudar a proteger las raíces de sus plantas durante los periodos de calor extremo, ya que actúa como aislante. El uso de mantillo puede reducir los daños causados por el calor tanto en la base de sus plantas como en el suelo circundante. También ayudará a sus plantas a resistir las plagas y las enfermedades de las plantas; de hecho, los mantillos orgánicos proporcionan alimento a las lombrices de tierra y a los microorganismos, lo que es estupendo para sus plantas y su salud.

Durante la descomposición, los acolchados orgánicos devuelven los nutrientes beneficiosos a la tierra, enriqueciendo el suelo para el próximo año.

Aplicar correctamente el mantillo

Una vez que haya decidido el "qué" (tipo y color) del mantillo que desea utilizar en su propiedad, querrá centrarse en el "cómo" de la distribución del mantillo. Un mantillo mal extendido no sólo puede alterar el diseño general de su jardín, sino que también puede ser perjudicial para el jardín o el paisaje. Un mantillo demasiado grueso puede dañar el sistema radicular de una planta y puede impedir que el agua llegue a la raíz de la planta, o no permitir que el área que rodea a la planta drene correctamente después de un riego o una tormenta.

Comience la aplicación del mantillo limpiando las zonas donde desea aplicarlo. Retira las malas hierbas, palos, hojas, etc. que se hayan acumulado durante los meses de invierno, y riega si es necesario. A continuación, comience a extender el mantillo; lo mejor es colocar el mantillo a una profundidad de aproximadamente 5 cm.

Si pones mantillo alrededor de las plantas, arbustos, árboles, etc., asegúrate de mantener el mantillo a unos cinco centímetros de la planta, para ayudar a la circulación del aire alrededor de la raíz de la planta. Sin embargo, si estás acolchando un huerto, debes hacerlo hasta el tallo de la planta, para ayudar a retener el agua. Riega toda la zona después del acolchado.

En Stephens Landscaping, tenemos mucha experiencia con el uso de muchos tipos de mantillo, y nos encantaría discutir qué tipos y colores de mantillo son adecuados para su paisaje y jardín. Llámenos al 603.707.0630 o por correo electrónico.

¡La primavera ya está aquí!

Mantenimiento del paisaje

La primavera es la época de la renovación, y eso significa también para sus paisajes y jardines. Aunque el inicio oficial de la primavera comienza en marzo, el comienzo real de la primavera parece que empieza un poco más tarde aquí en Nueva Inglaterra. Todavía tenemos restos de nieve y hielo en algunos lugares, pero los signos de la primavera empiezan a aparecer por todas partes. Este periodo de transición es el momento perfecto para empezar a preparar tus espacios verdes y jardines para las próximas temporadas de primavera y verano. Aquí tienes algunos consejos para empezar.

Pasea y asimila

Antes de hacer nada, recorra su propiedad y vea lo que hay que hacer. El invierno puede ser duro para el paisaje, y muchos daños pueden quedar ocultos bajo los montones de nieve. Es posible que descubras agujeros en el césped provocados por animales que escarban, daños causados por el hielo en los pasillos, ramas de árboles rotas y arbustos aplastados, y puntos muertos en el césped.

Empezar de cero

Una vez que hayas visto lo que hay que hacer para poner a punto tus espacios verdes y jardines, lo mejor es empezar con una buena limpieza. Ahora es el momento de retirar las ramas rotas, los restos de hojas y lo que el viento recoge de las entradas, las carreteras y las propiedades cercanas.

Rastrillar el césped es la mejor manera de limpiar las hojas muertas que cayeron durante el invierno o que quedan de la última limpieza de otoño. El rastrillado también eliminará los trozos de hierba que no han sobrevivido al invierno, así como las innumerables ramitas y pequeñas ramas que han caído durante las tormentas de nieve y hielo que hemos tenido esta temporada.

Limpia alrededor de tus parterres y en la zona del jardín. Es importante preparar estas zonas para plantar, así que una vez que la amenaza de las heladas haya pasado, estas zonas estarán listas para funcionar.

Ordenar los árboles

Early spring is the best time to lightly prune your trees and shrubbery. Heavy winter snows and ice storms are damaging to trees and shrubs, so a light pruning helps to keep them in good shape.

Al podar pronto, también estarás dando a tus árboles y arbustos un comienzo saludable para el nuevo crecimiento. Es mejor podar antes de que empiece el nuevo crecimiento, porque a finales de la primavera y el verano, la energía de la planta se centrará en la floración y el crecimiento. También será más fácil dar forma a la planta cuando no haya hojas que obstaculicen la vista.

Cuidado del césped

Es posible que su césped tenga un aspecto un poco escaso y marrón en esta época del año. Si tiene zonas sin vegetación en su césped, una vez que el clima sea más cálido y el césped esté más verde, es una buena idea sembrar y fertilizar el césped. Puedes arrancar las malas hierbas que veas, antes de que hayan tenido la oportunidad de empezar a crecer y antes de que hayas abonado el césped.

Don’t mow the lawn just yet, though, even though you may see a bit of winter growth. The lawn has been through a lot over the winter months, and you don’t want to cut it too short while it’s growing in the early spring or you may damage its root system. Wait until it’s well-established and warmer outside before eayou begin mowing.

Si no has aireado el césped en otoño, puedes hacerlo en primavera, antes de que empiece la verdadera temporada de crecimiento. También debes rellenar los agujeros de tu césped en este momento, si has encontrado alguno.

Prepare toda la zona

No te olvides de tus paisajes exteriores. Barre los patios y las verandas, destapa o saca los muebles y limpia las jardineras.

Inspecciona tu sistema de riego. Si hace suficiente calor, enciéndelo para asegurarte de que funciona correctamente y de que no hay fugas. Si encuentras problemas, llama a tu empresa de riego antes de que esté ocupada durante la temporada.

Planificar con antelación

Durante el largo invierno, y sobre todo mientras se ocupa de su propiedad durante esta preparación de finales de invierno y principios de primavera, lo más probable es que haya pensado en algunas ideas sobre lo que le gustaría hacer con su propiedad este año. Ahora es el momento de reunir todas esas ideas en un plan. Decide si vas a plantar un huerto o si vas a buscar un nuevo lugar para el que ya tienes para ver si le va mejor. Selecciona nuevas plantas anuales o perennes para dar más color a tus espacios exteriores.

Visite nuestro Centro de Jardinería en Moultonborough para ver qué puede querer plantar, o si hay algo nuevo que probar. Por supuesto, querrás esperar a que pase la posibilidad de las últimas heladas antes de plantar nada, pero ahora es el momento de planificar qué quieres plantar y dónde. Contamos con un equipo experimentado y creativo, así que no dejes de pedir ayuda o ver lo que están haciendo para obtener nuevas ideas.