Landscape Lighting in Attleboro, MA

Here is a post from one our friends in the industry Lightscapes by Design, on the subject of Landscape Lighting and the benefits that it offers.

Timothy Kaiser

Service Manager

Outdoor Landscape Lighting

One of the fastest growing segments of the landscaping industry is the incorporation of low voltage landscape lighting to your home.  This may be a surprise to some of you, but as you drive around at night, if you look, you will see an increased amount of residences softly lit. Landscape Lighting is far more than simply illuminating parts of your property. If you haven’t given outdoor landscape lighting much thought – I am going to start this article explaining the basic benefits associated with low voltage lighting. They are:

-Security - While landscape lighting is breathtaking, it also provides a safe, secure and welcoming environment to come home to.  We have seen high wattage floodlights leave dark shadows and unseen areas around properties. A much better choice is strategically placed low voltage lights that show even lights of distribution throughout.

-Safety - One of landscape lighting's most practical sides is that it is a great way to mark pathways or accent garden areas. If your goal is to get the full use out of your garden, yard and patio areas, consider adding decorative landscape lighting to these areas. With landscape lighting you will also feel safer in your yard as you come home to relax in. A great design will ensure the homeowner and their guests can safely navigate the property and provide eye catching lighting scenes through out your property.

-Evening Enjoyment – Unless it is the winter season, what typically happens when it gets dark? We go inside. You don't have to anymore. A garden with low-voltage lighting can bring a whole new setting to the home and provide the perfect spot for outdoor entertaining. Your landscapes emerge at dark under subtle lighting to create wonderful shapes and beautiful sculptured drama. Other prized possessions you may have such as Ponds, statues, trees, and shrubs all produce a serene environment when lighting is applied.

-Beauty - Your home most likely has beautiful architectural elements - why not highlight them? Designers not only paint pictures with light, they also create dramatic scenes of your property or business. For instance, enhance the texture of a stone facade by grazing it with light, highlight the columns on your porch, wall wash your stone wall - are all examples that create dramatic lighting scenes around your property.

Those are your basics for adding outdoor landscape lighting to your home and gardens. If you are planning on adding lighting around your home, a word of caution: be careful not to over-light your landscape, since too much light might prove unattractive. The secret is to be creative and light only what you want. If possible, hide the light source. You want the attention to be on the light emitted and the elements of the landscape itself, not the light fixture that illuminates them. Which means you should choose fixtures that are functional. Seek fixtures that are unobtrusive, durable, easy to control, energy efficient and, most importantly, diffuse just the right breadth and depth of light needed. Underground wire and your transformer are the remaining pieces to get your project underway. Proper planning, research, materials and design will give you the achieved lighting effects you are looking for. The effect will be sure to add value, evening enjoyment and beauty to your home in the years to come.

About us: Lightscapes by Design offers sales, design, consultation, custom installation and maintenance for all your outdoor lighting needs. We are a dedicated landscape lighting company since 2007. No matter what your lighting objective, from walkway path lights to a complete low voltage lighting system, Lightscapes by Design will help you design the best lighting solution that suits your outdoor needs. ‘We bring your landscapes to light.’

Visit us at the Lightscapes by Design website: [http://www.lightscapesbydesign.com]

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Overseeding in Attleboro, Ma

Have you ever asked yourself: Why does my landscaping/fertilizing company always ask about over seeding my lawn?
In this fourth installment of the lawn care series we will discuss the benefits and best practices for overseeding.

First we need to understand how grass grows. Here in New England lawns are comprised of usually cool season grasses which are mostly bunch type grasses. These grasses are comprised of the roots, crown and the blade. Grass plants expand as new grass blades called tillers grow beside the original crown. These then grow there own roots and crowns. Grass blades have a short six week life span therefore the plant is constantly creating new blades  As the grass ages it grows the production of tillers slows which can thin out a lawn. Overseeding helps to keep the lawn young, thick and weed free. 

Some warnings:
-If seed is applied to heavily when the grass matures it will be too thick and overcrowded.
-The seed needs to stay moist, if dries out it will die.



Here at T.J. Landscaping Inc. we recommend to overseed in the fall sometime in late September or early October if the lawn needs it. We cut the grass to about 1.5-2"aerate and top dress,  and then broadcast the seed. We use different grass types depending on the lawn and and the growing conditions. Generally we seed at 2-4 lbs/1000 sq.ft. and any bare spots we add extra seed. We follow up with starter fertilizer and then kept the seed watered. We try to wait 2-3 weeks before resuming the mowing to avoid blowing the seed around. Depending on the variety of seed used the new grass sprouts in 3-5 weeks. If done in the fall, the roots will have time to grow before winter and will also take off in the spring before the summer heat.

Lawn Aeration Attleboro, MA

This is the third installment of the lawn care tips and techniques.

What is aerating?
There are two types of lawn aeration 'spike aeration' and 'core aeration'. Spike aeration is a way to poke holes in the lawn. They are very small holes and almost worthless. Core aeration on the other hand removes half inch diameter by 2 to 3 inch long cores or plugs out of the soil.

What is the benefit? 
Aerating a lawn can have many benefits if done properly. First it must be core aerated or anything that actually creates small holes, removes the soil and spreads it on the lawn, to have any real benefit. It reduces the compaction of the soil which is a better condition for denser, healthier root system. Another reason it allows for air, water and nutrients to get down to the roots of the lawn. Generally this is done just before over seeding the lawn.

How to properly aerate a lawn.
To properly aerate a lawn there are a few considerations. Season, weather, and what to do after. First, this is something that is best in the fall when the grass is focusing on the root growth, but early spring is okay but not ideal. Next is the weather. The soil must be moist, if it is too wet you will rip up the lawn, if it is too dry equipment may not be able to get deep enough cores. It is generally best to follow aeration with top dressing, fertilizer, or grass seed, depending on your purpose.

How we aerate at T. J. Landscaping 
We generally aerate in the fall just before over seeding, also depending on what the clients want to do we recommend top dressing the lawn and/or fertilizing. We leave the plugs on the lawn which make it look like Tootsie Rolls and next time we mow they are spread over the lawn adding to the nutrients as well. 


Timothy Kaiser,
Service Manager

Lawn Dethatching in Attleboro Ma

This is the second in the series of lawn care tips and techniques. So what about thatch.

What is thatch and where does it come from?
Thatch is a naturally occurring layer that includes the ligneous parts of the grass including - crowns, stolons and rhizomes. The thatch layer of a healthy lawn is less than 1/2 in thick, but it is there. A healthy thatch layer helps the lawn in many ways:
-It shades the roots.
It provides shade to the turf crowns and also also the root systems. If a lawn has no thatch layer the summer sun will scorch the turf crowns and dry them out, as well as possibly burn the roots.
-Aids in moisture retention. 
A healthy layer of thatch keeps the moisture from evaporating so quickly, and retains the moisture between waterings.
-Reduces soil erosion.
Without thatch heavy rains can wash away the soil around the turf roots and expose them. The thatch helps to disperse heave flow.

-Promotes microbial activity.
Many microbes and bacteria reside in the thatch layer and help to break down nutrients for the grass and are part of ecosystem of a healthy turf.

How it is conventionally dealt with.
Thatch is usually thought of as a problem and something that needs to be removed. As I have laid out above it is actually necessary to a healthy lawn. In most cases if there is unhealthy build up, people resort to power raking or vertical mower. The problem with these options is they are more destructive to lawn than beneficial. They rip out the thatch but also the roots of your lawn. In these areas weeds can take over even before the seed comes up (if you do overseed). It will rip out 100% of the thatch and you will not have the benefits listed above. 

How to treat the problem, not the symptom.
 The problem with the thatch layer in most cases is that the thatch layer is not breaking down fast enough. The organisms that break down the excess thatch are very temperamental. They need the right amount of water, air and food in the form of organic matter. Lawn clippings that are mulched are an excellent form of food (refer to this post for more information). So the power raking causes more damage to the lawn and is only treating the symptom of the problem which is microbial.

What does this company do? 
Here at T. J. Landscaping we prefer to dethatch lightly one to two times a year. We use a rake a in front of our mowers which do take up a minimal amount of thatch and also help to pick up large leaves pieces that the mower would not normally pick up. It also helps to keep the grass from matting. In most cases aeration and top dressing correctly will help to maintain a healthy lawn.

Timothy Kaiser
Service Manager

Lawn Mowing Attleboro, MA

This is the beginning of a lawn care series that will walk you through how to maintain a beautiful lawn, it will also give you an inside look at how this Attleboro landscaper maintains and creates beautiful lawns. In this article we will discuss mowing techniques and tips to have a beautiful lawn.

~ Weekly Cutting
The first tip is to only cut 1/3 of the height off the lawn at a time. If you cut more that 1/3 the grass can react in adverse ways such as turning brown or thinning out which makes it more susceptible to diseases. In most cases you can say ahead of the growth of your lawn by cutting once a week. This depends on irrigation schedules and lawn health. Here a T.J. Landscaping Inc. we encourage a weekly mowing schedule so that we are not have to remove more that 1/3 the height.

~Grass Height
Mowing height is another thing to consider. Most of the norther varieties of grasses are to be cut between 2 and 3 inches. If the the grass is cut too short it will be prone to weeds and dries out, if it is allowed to grow too tall it will thin out and fall over. This landscaping company cuts most lawns at 3 inches and just before winter we cut between 2 and 2.5 to prevent winter disease.

~Mowing Patterns
When you mow the lawn, mow in different directions and patterns this helps the lawnmower from forming ruts in the lawn. It also helps the grass grow upright, if grass is constantly mown in one direction it will start to grow in that direction. Also it is more ascetically pleasing, it gives you that basket weave or checkerboard pattern on your lawn. At our company we mow a different pattern ever week.

~Mulching vs. Bagging
The northeast is the only area of the country that bags or collects the grass clippings. In most cases people do not like the clumping or the look of grass sitting on the lawn. Which I agree is very ugly and will kill the lawn by blocking sunlight and moisture. Collecting the clippings does make the lawn look nice but it can have side affects. On the other hand there is the myth that mulching the lawn adds to the thatch layer in reality it feeds the organisms that break down the excess thatch (we will discuss this later in the lawn care series). Some of the mowers on the market now are equipped with special blades and closed off mowing decks that allow the grass to be chopped up very fine. This enable those clippings to fall down through the grass and compost nutrients back into the soil. This debate seems to be raging between the two sides of whether to bag or mulch the lawn clippings. Our company is set up for both scenarios, we also recommend that every lawn is mulched about once a moth.

~Sharpen the Blades
Make sure the mowing blades are sharp. This allows for a clean and even cut. When the blades are dull they rip the grass which slows the healing process which in turn makes the lawn less disease tolerant. For a home owner blades should be sharpened at least once a year. When sharpening blades if you do it your self it is important to balance the blade so that it spins evenly, putting less strain on the blade shaft or spindle. This company sharpens blades every 30 cuts on average.

I hope that this post has been helpful to you, and that you put these tips into practice to keep your lawn beautiful and healthy.

Timothy Kaiser,
Service Manager

Spring in N. Attleboro MA

What an amazing winter we have had this year! It has been in the mid forties and some days in the fifties. With this weather it seems that some of the plants are beginning to grow. We have started planning and scheduling and are looking forward to the 2012 season.  Now is the time to start thinking about plans for your landscaping and your lawn. Let us know about projects that are on your to-do-list this year. Before you know it April will be around the corner!

Owner- Jonathan Tavares

Landscaping in Attleboro, MA

Hello Everyone,

I’d like to welcome you to our new blog. Expect to find some great articles about everyday practical tips and knowledge on an array of different topics on indoor and outdoor living from me and my staff. You can also expect to see occasional guest posts from some of our friends in the landscape industry and other professions offering unique insight. Stay tuned for some great posts and chances to win awesome deals.

Looking forward to sharing with you all!

Sales Manager- Jonathan Tavares

T.J. Landscaping Inc.