Landscaping at Restoration Gardens begins and so can you!
March 15, 2012
Conversations with Sod…….. 
Landscaping notes from the field
Hi, it’s Rachael from the Landscape crew. I had thought about writing a blog since my first summer with Restoration Gardens last year documenting the great gardening and landscaping tips I’m learning from my super knowledgable bosses and co-workers and so here goes! I’ll journal once a week on what I’ve seen and learned from the many activities on the Restoration Gardens grounds and around Sheboygan County at the beautiful homes where we landscape. I also plan to share with you a monthly “Expert Blog” from each of the great design and landscaping experts at Restoration Gardens: Brian, Craig, Lisa, Char and Deb.
So the first exciting news to share of course is the coming of the amazingly transformed restaurant The Blind Horse Restaurant and Winery (taken from one of the pictures on the walls of Birdy, the blind horse from the Dreps farms homestead that was the brickhouse years ago!) and next year’s winery with the addition of Matt and Heidi Moeller to Restoration Gardens. We welcome them and know that what they create will be a great reflection of the quaintness, history and serene feel of the Brickhouse Bistro with a more elegant and even better menu, service, ambience and expanded hours in to dinner service. We’ll be able to work with them on even more beautiful weddings potentially beginning the following summer where we focus exclusively on flowers and design while they focus on creating exquisite menu offerings.
That gives the landscaping and garden center departments even more opportunity to continue creating gorgeous specialty gardens and maintain the beautiful sites you’ve come to enjoy on the grounds. And over the years with a newly designed barn and garden center we will have more opportunity to grow into the unique and high quality garden center that you’ve come to trust.
As for my landscaping notes from our first three weeks: First off, holy cow! The weather was spectacular and provided a great opportunity to get some early spring clean up going to prepare our client’s yards for their perennials and lawn to begin to grow. Crocuses were already blooming, daffodils, tulips and irises were all beginning to sprout, and we saw them bloom in no time. So now is a great time to start prepping your yard for the beauty of spring without planting anything that could be ruined with a surprise last frost or snow. Might as well take advantage of the great weather! Here is a summary of the things we focused on this week during our early spring clean-up:
- Raking up or blowing dead leaves from the lawn and garden beds.
- Pulling, cutting down and clearing away dead leaves and branches from non-woody perennials flowers such as echinacea, shasta daisies – cut down all the way to the ground for most (ask us about specifics!).
- Don’t prune the early spring blooming shrubs such as lilacs, forsythia, and magnolias – look on the branches and see if you notice small buds coming and let them be if you see them!
- Prune other woodier flowers and shrubs according to the shape you would like to see (ask us about specifics!).
- “Fluff” the mulch! Slightly rake with a hard rake or 3 pronged scratch fork to make it look fuller and spread out the way you want it.
- If you’d like, now is the time to protect your crocuses and tulip leaves from the deer and rabbits. You can use a repellant such as milorganite which is a natural fertilizer (also use as a grass fertilizer) and is very stinky so the animals stay away!
Just a brief list of things to think about as you prep your yard for the beauty of spring – feel free to contact us for full details on spring clean-up. Also contact us with any questions on how to make your yard a little mini paradise this summer according to your own budget, time and energy! Stay tuned next week for more great landscaping tips.
From the field,
Rachael
