Tag: landscape maintenance

Timely Trimming

Trees and shrubs are a property’s most prominent features. Unfortunately, they sometimes need to be removed simply because they’ve been allowed to outgrow their designated space. Regular pruning eliminates the need for premature removal and allows you to enjoy trees and shrubs for many years to come.

One of the best times to prune trees and shrubs is the winter. When trees and shrubs aren’t actively growing, they respond well to pruning. When plants are dormant, their energy can be entirely focused toward healing wounds from pruning. The absence of leaves allows for a clutter-free work area where limbs and branches can be removed selectively. This makes for a quicker, more efficient job.

Proper pruning adds to shrub and tree longevity by addressing damage from severe weather. Decaying and diseased wood can be strategically removed so that sickness is unable to spread. Smart pruning helps control a plant’s size by removing branches that overlap and rub against each other. Excessive growth blocking driveways, walkways and windows can also be cut back.

Gorgeous, prominent trees and shrubs are your landscape’s biggest assets. Winter is an ideal time for professional pruning that will make your trees and shrubs look great in the coming spring and healthy for many years to come.

closeup of a mulch bed with a tree, roses, and other shrubs

What’s Wrecking Your Landscape?

Could it be your landscape contractor?  After all, this is not an easy job or you would do it yourself, right?  Besides the shear physical labor involved (pun fully intended), it takes a huge amount of knowledge to properly maintain a mature landscape.

Literally Thousands of Plants

There are thousands of ornamental perennials, shrubs and trees, each with multiple cultivars and varieties that have specific environmental needs and are susceptible to unique pests and pathogens.   Each of these unique plants needs to be cared for in unique ways to promote healthy, vibrant and lasting growth. Continue reading

beach with seagulls flying over the ocean and beach

Lawn & Landscape Care While You’re Away

Summer is here and it’s time to get away! When you’re working through your list of to-do’s before and during your vacation, be sure your lawn and landscape gets the attention it needs. A few simple tasks now can mean the difference between coming home to dead plants, brown grass, and unruly weeds, or your lawn and landscape appearing like you never even left.

Preparation is the key to success when it comes to your lawn and landscape. Whether your vacation lasts for a week or it stretches beyond two weeks, one of the best tips for keeping your lawn and landscape cared for while your away is some simple prep work.

Vacationing for a week or less?Continue reading

Professionally done landscape by Hively Landscapes

3 Options for Proactive Landscape Maintenance

If you’re familiar with our blog you’ve likely read our previous article on the benefits of proactive lawn care maintenance. From maximizing your flowers and growth to early identification and treatment of problems, residents and businesses alike have found that by selecting a proactive landscape maintenance plan with Hively Landscapes they’re maximizing their landscape investment, while avoiding costly replacements, removals, and other landscape troubles.

We offer three forms of proactive maintenance, and have outlined each below. Continue reading

5 Things to Look for In Your Next Landscaping Company

Choosing the right landscaping company is easy, when you know what to look for.

man weeding his garden

With spring underway, it’s now time to dive headfirst into everyone’s favorite landscape maintenance tasks!  If you enjoy this dirty, sweaty, and tiring chore as much as we do, you understand that this job comes with no finish line. As soon as you think you might be done, it’s time to start all over again. Lawn and landscape maintenance is a hobby that just keeps on giving! Day after day, week after week, year after year. Mowing, pruning, weeding, mulching, etc, etc, etc.

Ok, we realize it’s not quite as much fun for everyone as it is for us, and that’s why we offer proactive maintenance plans and other landscaping services for those people who just can’t find the time or the passion to do this kind of work.

So, if you don’t want to spend your wonderful spring, summer, fall, and even winter hours pushing a mower, digging out weeds, or pruning unruly trees and shrubs (and who can blame you?), how do you select a landscaping company that will do the job right? How do you know that company will treat your lawn and landscape with the same respect that you would, if you actually wanted to do all the work yourself?

Here are five things that you should look into before hiring any landscaping company:

  1. Reputation

While it may seem obvious, we still find it quite common that people will hire landscaping companies strictly on price, with no consideration of reputation or references. Don’t make this expensive mistake! There’s a reason why these companies charge $5 to trim a bush, and the next spring you find that your beautiful bush is barely alive. So check into what companies your neighbors are using. Then ask if these companies have solid references. If your neighborhood is like most others in Pennsylvania, you get bombarded in the spring and summer with flyers advertising grass mowing for a price that just seems too low to be true, such as $20.00. The truth is, these companies cannot maintain that price, and once the season kicks into high gear they’re nowhere to be found. We encourage you to check with friends and neighbors to see who their landscape contractor is, and if they’re happy with the work the company is doing for them. Continue reading