Developing an Annual Gardencare Program

As your garden care professionals, we are trained to look at the big picture. Your lawn, garden beds, ornamental shrubs and trees, hedges, fruit trees and irrigation can all be part of our or annual garden care program. We will design a program that will meet your needs and desires for the landscape as a whole within your budget.

We have developed a Twenty Point Checklist for our properties, which the crews revisit regularly to ensure the landscape is up to standard. The Checklist includes elements such as:

Lawn

• Overall health, colour and thickness of the grass
• Crisp, clean edges along garden beds and hard surfaces
• Presence of weeds, disease or pests

Garden beds

• Overall health of soil and compaction
• Presence of weeds or moss
• Notable gaps or overcrowding of shrubs
• Ground cover growing beyond control
• Presence of Invasive plant species
• Shrubs that require care or replacing

Hedges, trees, and shrubs

• Require shaping, structural pruning, or thinning
• Damaged branches
• Visibility issues around windows, doors, and driveways

Irrigation

• Proper coverage
• Signs of over spray, leaks, or dry spots from an impaired head
• Requires repairs, renovations, additions, or deletions

Hard surfaces

• Presence of debris, weeds or moss
• State of repair

Integrated Pest Management

• Presence of damage to shrubs due to insects or disease

Service Schedule

Your Habitat gardener will prioritize jobs based on your priority(s), the time of year, prominence of the affected area and the BCLNA Standards associated. A good rule of thumb is to look at the property the way a visitor sees it, working from the front door and front walkways outward the way corners for last.

Seasonal Planning

Habitat gardeners work twelve months of the year and will visit your property weekly to keep your garden looking its best. Each season in the garden brings its own particular joys, and, correspondingly, its own demands on the gardener.

Additions

Plants need mineral nutrients to survive but the required nutrients are not always present in enough quantity for healthy plant growth. One of the most valuable resources to supply vital nutrients to a plant is organic mulch (not to be confused with bark mulch). A good quality organic also dramatically reduces the need for water and limits the growth of weeds.

Future Planning

We want you to think of us as your landscape professionals and we want to be a resource, not only in providing a terrific looking lawn and garden in the present; but in helping you move towards your vision of what your garden can look like in the future.

The right choice of plants can have a significant environmental impact. Plants that are native and drought-tolerant are obvious considerations but plants can serve many functions. For example, certain plants can attract pollinators like bees, provide shelter for insects and birds, or provide a food source for local fauna (e.g. berries).