6 Reasons Why You Should Prune Your Trees

It’s every homeowner’s responsibility to keep their landscaping maintained and looking nice. A well-kept yard increases your home’s curb appeal and contributes to the overall look and feel of your street.

Tree pruning is an outdoor job that adds significant beauty to your home.

What is Tree Pruning?

Tree pruning is the trimming or removal of certain branches and stems in your trees. It’s an important job that is usually done in early spring while the tree is dormant, but minor pruning can be done throughout the summer if needed.

Here are six reasons why you should include tree pruning in your list of landscaping priorities:

1. Safety. Removing dead branches before they break and fall is an important precaution. Wind or the weight of snow can damage or weaken branches over time, causing falling branches to damage to your property.
2. Aesthetics. Tree pruning allows you to control the size and shape of your trees, keeping your landscaping in proper proportion.
3. Preventing cross branches. Overgrown trees sometimes cross branches, causing them to twist and rub together.
4. Promote growth. Pruning trees can encourage flower and fruit development, or growth of a certain part of your tree.
5. Avoid insect infestations. Many types of trees are susceptible to disease and insect infestations. Pruning can help control this and encourage the overall health of your tree.
6. Tree thinning. Most people appreciate the shade a tree can bring, but a thick, overgrown tree can be a canopy that blocks light. Pruning helps to thin the branches, so air and sunlight can reach your home and benefit your landscaping.

If you’d like more information about tree pruning, or a quote for tree pruning for your yard, contact Blue Ring Residential Services at 614-633-6770.

5 Benefits to Outdoor Lighting

Your plants, flowers, shrubs and trees may be the focus of your landscaping during the day, but their beauty disappears in the cover of night. You may enjoy sitting outside on your patio or deck with your family and friends, but when the sun goes down, you may gravitate inside.

Outdoor lighting adds to your home’s appearance, functionality and safety. A well-landscaped yard can look striking both during the day and at night, and carefully placed lighting allows you to use your yard long after the sun goes down.

Here are five advantages to having outdoor lighting installed in your yard and landscaping:

1. Lighting increases curb appeal. Lighting is one of the first things people notice when they are finding their way to your home. Strategically placed lighting adds a unique beauty to your yard.
2. It accents the features of your home’s architecture. Having outdoor lights installed in your yard is a great way to accent the beauty and charm of your home.
3. It highlights ponds, pools, gardens, patios and decks. Lighting can accentuate the hardscapes and other features of your home. It allows you to use your patio, pool or sitting area well into the evening hours.
4. Lighting illuminates walkways. Lighting for your driveway, pathways, sidewalks and entryways provides your guests with a clear and safe walking path to your home at night.
5. It provides an element of security. Lighting can brighten the darkest corners of your landscaping, making it difficult for burglars to go unnoticed. With timers and dim controls, outdoor lighting makes your home look occupied, even when you are not there.

Through strategically placed lamp posts, uplights, downlights, or underwater lights, outdoor lighting can help give your home or business the look and feel you want.

If you are interested in having outdoor lighting installed at your home or business, call Blue Ring Residential Services at 614-633-6770.

Photo courtesy of Outdoor lighting Perspectives of San Antonio & the HillCountry, LLC,https://www.flickr.com/photos/olp_sanantonio/2584479877/ Creative Commons

What is Spring Clean-Up?

Cleaning up your yard in preparation for the spring season is as important as the spring-cleaning you do in your house.

Spring Clean-Up prepares your yard for a successful growing season. Dead leaves and other leftover foliage can suffocate your landscaping, and breed diseases and infestations.

Getting your yard ready for spring is a necessary process to ensure you have a strong start to your landscaping and planting season!

Spring Clean-Up services can include:

• Weeding – Begin your Spring Clean-Up efforts by removing weeds, fallen branches, dead plants and pinecones from your landscaping beds. Pull out last year’s annuals if you didn’t get around to it. It’s also important to cut back overgrown ornamental grasses and perennials. If the perennials have outgrown their spot in your bed, dig them out, divide them, and transplant them in another area.
• Pruning – Trimming the dead or damaged branches from your trees and shrubs caused by the cold winter weather makes room for new growth.
• Edging – Edging defines the shape and form of your landscaping beds. It keeps your soil and mulch in place and helps maintain clear walkways. Include your sidewalks, driveways, and patios in your edging efforts.
• Mulching – Not only does mulch make your landscaping beds look immaculate, it also allows for water and air to move through the soil. Mulch is an insulator, keeping the roots cool from the warm summer sun and reducing water evaporation - which means you have to water less.
• Planting – It’s fun to plant new flowers, bushes and trees to your yard that add color and balance. Be sure to leave plenty of space between what you plant to avoid overcrowding once it grows.   

If you have questions about Spring-Clean Up services or are looking for a landscaping company to do it for you, contact Blue Ring Residential Services at 614.633.6770, or visit our website at www.blueringresidential.com.

5 Signs Your Yard Has Drainage Problem

Spring is known for blooming buds, chirping birds and green grass. But it’s also known for rain, and sometimes lots of it.

Rain is necessary to the survival of our plants, bushes and grass. But it can also do lots of damage to our lawns and homes if it’s not drained properly.

It’s normal for your yard, landscaping and hardscapes to to be wet after it rains. But what are signs that the moisture is not normal?

Here are a few signs that may mean you have a drainage problem in your yard:

1. Standing water in your yard. A little sogginess after a soaking rain comes with the territory, but puddles of standing water could means the rainwater is not draining to the perimeter of your yard as it should.
2. Your lawn is mushy long after the rain has stopped. If a couple of days have passed and your yard is still wet, it’s not drying out properly.
3. There are puddles of water or wet stains in your basement or crawlspace. This is something we all hope never happens, but stains or seeping water in your basement or crawlspace can be the result of poor drainage.
4. Soil on your sidewalks or driveway after a rainstorm. This means the rainwater is accumulating and pushing the soil around, instead of draining away from your house.
5. Soil washed away from your foundation. Soil should remain in your flowerbeds no matter how much rain you get.

If you’ve noticed any of the five signs in your yard or home, the good news is it is possible to fix. The slope of your yard may need to be evaluated or you may need a French drain.

Please call Blue Ring Residential Services at 614.633.6770 for help with the water drainage in your yard. We’ll make sure the water sticks around just long enough to do its job, then has a clear route away from your home.