Filed under: Landscaping, Lawn Maintenance, Raise the value of your home, Uncategorized | Tags: balanced root feeding, landscape, root feeding, Tendercare
Your trees and shrubs are a growing investment that should increase in beauty and value with each passing season. But landscape plants often fail to flourish, and may even go into decline, due to lack of proper nourishment. Proper feeding of your ornamentals offer many benefits, including improved flowering, increased resistance to disease and increased ability to ward off insect attacks. Root feeding injects the proper plant foods directly into the root zone of plants which allows the fertilizer to be easily absorbed and quickly put to work.
Feeding helps compensate for poor soil or less-than-ideal planting locations. Over time, poorly located plants may gradually “decline” if not given proper care.
Feeding your trees and shrubs at least once per season is good preventative maintenance. The right diet helps to prevent many types of stress that weaken plants. When your trees and shrubs are in top health and growing well they’re often strong enough to fight off many infectious diseases or insect attacks without suffering serious permanent damage.
Balanced root feeding, scheduled on a regular basis helps to improve and protect your growing landscape investment.
Call TenderCare Lawn and Landscape today for more information at 316-788-5416 or visit www.tendercarelandscape.com
Filed under: Landscaping, Swimming Pool, Uncategorized | Tags: chlorinator, fiber optics, gunite, maintenance, pool, repair, saltwater, vinyl liner
What’s the best way to have summer fun? A swimming pool from TenderCare is the answer! If you have ever thought about a swimming pool now may be a great time to actually dive in and consider the fun & possibilities. Pools offer family entertainment and enjoyment year after year, unlike a family vacation that is over with in a week or two. Pools offer great exercise opportunities with very little impact on the joints.
Today’s pools are very easy to maintain and with what seems like endless options available from saltwater pools, which are very popular today, to fiber optics that boast shine and dazzle at night. There is a pool for just about everyone’s taste and budget.
TenderCare can design your swimming pool to achieve the most in pure backyard enjoyment. While many pool builders simply install pools, TenderCare creates the complete package. Our design team takes into consideration: proper placement, future additions, accurate equipment sizing and the overall fit into the family’s needs, just to mention just a few details.
A TenderCare pool is built to last! Contact us to see how a new pool can become your very own secret vacation hideaway. Or if you would like to see how a saltwater chlorinator or any of the wide array of options available might fit your existing pool give us a call, we offer the finest swimming pool repair and maintenance available.
Visit our website at www.tendercarelandscape.com or call 316-788-5416 for more information.
Filed under: Irrigation, Sprinkler System, Uncategorized | Tags: dog days, hot, Irrigation, landscape, lawn, mother nature, plant saving, solar sync sensor, temperature, Tendercare, time saving, water, water saving, watering
As July and the “Dog days of summer” arrive, so will the need to water our lawns & plants! Up until now our area has experienced plenty of help in this department from Mother Nature. However, temperatures have started creeping ever so closely to the century mark and as one very wise person recently informed me that over the years Fathers Day begins what she calls the hot dry days of summer.
Well if this proves to indeed be true, and history generally tells us it does stay warm and a bit dry in July and August, we will need to really pay attention to our watering practices. Our landscapes and lawns will depend on us to insure they remain healthy during these times. Often times the tendency is to “over water” when the temperature rises and Mother Nature gets stingy with her help keeping plantings adequately hydrated.
All growing things depend on oxygen to survive if roots are held under to much water for to long they simply drown or they develop very shallow, unhealthy root systems. In over 30 years we have seen more people inadvertently kill new plantings with too much water than any other single thing. While in today’s society we all tend to be a bit busy with work schedules and social events, we must remember to care for our investment.
Technology in the irrigation field has grown significantly the past few years and now allows the user the ability to monitor proper watering through advanced controllers and much more efficient sprinkler heads and valves. The Solar Sync Sensor is, without a doubt, one of the best watering devices I have come across. It helps monitor the landscapes requirements much better than in the past. It not only shuts the system off during rainy periods, but adjusts watering times as the temperatures rise, as well as shutting down the system as freezing temperatures arrive in late fall and all at a very affordable price. Water saving, time saving and plant saving it really makes sense.
Want more information on proper watering? Check out our website @ www.tendercarelandscape.com click on the link ‘proper watering” on our home page.
Filed under: Landscaping, Lawn Maintenance, Pest Control, Uncategorized | Tags: landscape, lawn, pest, plants, spider mites, tender care
What Are Spider Mites?
Spider Mites can be a major problem on many woody ornamental plants. Feeding by spider mites causes’ discoloration, dirty appearance and early leaf drop. Spider mites are related to spiders, having eight legs. These pests are extremely small and are difficult to detect unless viewed with a 10X hand lens. Dormant periods are spent as adult females in protected places (plant or mulch debris) or as eggs. Under appropriate conditions adults resume activity or eggs hatch. Many generations can occur over a single season. Adult females can live for several weeks, laying many eggs daily. Mite development, from eggs to adults, occurs within days, which accounts for rapid build up of large damaging populations on plants.
How Spider Mites Cause Damage
Spider mites have needlelike mouth parts, which pierce cells and suck fluids out. The feeding action causes fine stippling or flecking of foliage. With large mite populations on plants, entire leaves can become yellow or bronze. Presence of shed skins, eggs, and mites give the foliage a dirty appearance. Sometimes, spider mites will spin very fine webs on the plant. These webs are not the coarse webbing produced by common garden spiders. Damage caused by spider mites not only affects the appearance and aesthetic value of the plant, but also its health and vigor. Early leaf drop can occur with some mite-infested plants.
Checking for Spider Mites
To check for the presence of spider mites, hold a white piece of paper under a branch. Shake the branch to dislodge mites onto the paper. If present, these specks will begin to move after a few seconds.
Plants Vulnerable to Spider Mites
Plants commonly damaged by spider mites include: arborvitae, azalea, beech, birch, boxwood, citrus, elm, euonymus, holly, honey locust, juniper, maple, pine, pyracantha, oak, rose and spruce.
Controlling Spider Mites
- Early detection and treatment is the key to control.
- Once populations build to damaging levels, control is difficult.
- Spray coverage of both leaf surfaces as well as stems is critical for mite control.
- Horticultural oils will help, applied both dormantly and in-season.
- For mites that do not overwinter on host plants, dormant oils may not work.
- Several applications of miticides may be necessary
Filed under: Pest Control, Uncategorized | Tags: landscape, lawn, lawn care, perimeter, pest, pest control, protection, Tendercare
Pests can run…but they can’t hide!
Your home is a place for relaxing with your family. However, it can also be a place insect’s call home! Your home is an attractive place insects can invade in many ways. Some can enter through open doors and holes in screens, but many others enter through less obvious ways.
It is impossible to block all access into your home; however, one of the most effective methods for keeping out insects is a perimeter pest control application.
What is Perimeter Pest Control?
Our certified applicators will apply a barrier of residual insecticide to the foundation of your home as well as around the doorways, windows, vents and basement windows. This will create a barrier and will keep the majority of insects our of your home.
- Applications tailored to your needs, not a generic program.
- Applications last 4-6 weeks
- Affordable
- General pests controlled: ants, spiders, crickets, roaches, beetles, pill bugs, moths, etc.
Call TenderCare Lawn and Landscape TODAY to schedule your Perimeter Pest Control Treatment at 316-788-5416
Visit our website for more information or to sign up for our newsletter at www.tendercarelandscape.com
Filed under: Frost, Landscaping, Lawn Maintenance | Tags: frost, landscape, lawn, perennials, shrubs, Tendercare
There is nothing you can do to prevent a late frost from happening but you can lessen its effect on tender new plant growth in early spring.
For shrubs that have started to bud out or perennials that have begun to emerge from their winter sleep, protect them with a breathable cloth covering during the night between sun set and sun rise. Do not use plastic of any type as it does not breathe and your plants need fresh air as much as they need water. You can remove the covering in the morning to allow sunlight to hit the plant but make sure that if the threat of frost is still in the air, they are covered again at nightfall. Make sure that whatever you use to cover these delicate plants is not too heavy as to break stems or branches. Weight the edges of the material and leave room for the plants to move a little. This will also trap an insulating layer of air to protect from plummeting temperatures.
For practical purposes, there is little to nothing one can do to protect trees from a late frost. In an orchard situation, fire-pots are used during the night to stave off the cold but for the individual tree in the landscape, it’s up to nature as to the effects of freezing temperatures.
Usually, a late frost only causes aesthetic damage which means a possible loss of flowers on spring blooming trees but significant damage may occur if the freeze is too long or deep.
Filed under: Energy Conservation, Irrigation, Landscaping, Lawn Maintenance, Raise the value of your home, Sprinkler System | Tags: backyard, conservation, cook station, Derby, economy, efficient, energy bill, environment, eroding, fertilize, green, homeowner, Irrigation, landscape, lawn, Mulvane, patio, perennial, plants, real estate, renovation, shrubs, Sprinkler System, Tendercare, trim, water feature, Wichita
Being a homeowner can be one of the most gratifying things for an individual, but as we all know, we are in an unpredictable economy. If you are a homeowner that is planning on staying in your home for a while, this may not be as big of a deal, but if you are one of the many homeowners’ who need to sell their home, the current climate can be frustrating.
One of the most successful ways to achieve a quicker sale is to boost your home’s curb appeal. Whether your landscape is overgrown or lacking, the investment to hire a professional to design or revamp your landscaping can pay off as much as 10% to 15% on the selling price of your home. A well landscaped home sells six weeks sooner on average.
Landscaping is a good thing, but sometimes less is more. Most landscaping requires at least minimal care. Trimming, fertilizing, and removing plants that are either dead or way past their prime can make a huge difference on the look of your home. This can be one of the most affordable ways to add some curb appeal.
Have you purchased a home that has an absence of landscaping and made that a last priority? Landscaping has many more advantages than just something nice to look at. A nice turf lawn keeps the ground from eroding and shrubs and perennials planted around the foundation keep your soil in place and discourage water leakage in basements and foundation problems. Properly placed trees can give you, not only something great to look at, but can also conserve on energy bills by blocking harsh winds and sun rays. As a bonus, you will be doing your part to help out the environment by keeping our air clean.
Maybe you have decided to stay put and make the changes in your yard to adjust to your ever changing life. Or if the pinch of the economy has eliminated the long awaited vacation, you can create your own custom environment in your yard. Landscaping has gone way beyond merely planting trees and shrubs. Cook stations, water features, and custom patios can help create your own personal outdoor oasis.
Don’t forget about maintaining your landscape! A sprinkler system is a great way to keep from dragging those dreaded hoses around the yard and make sure you are taking care of your investments. Sprinkler systems have improved by leaps and bounds in the last 5 to 10 years. The systems are more efficient while also making water conservation possible.
The bottom line is; whether you are planning on moving or staying put, landscaping is a wise investment for your pocketbook and peace of mind. Estimates are usually free of charge and if you want a plan drawn, it can be an affordable way to make sure your vision becomes a workable and attractive reality.
