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Healthy Trees – 5 Signs to Look For

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What Do Healthy Trees Look Like?

When it comes to landscaping, flowers and shrubs tend to be the stars of the show: they’re a lot more delicate, require more focused care, and tend to grasp attention much more quickly than anything else on your property. 

As such, most property owners are likely to make their greatest landscaping investments with flowers, gardens, and shrubbery. Some will even assure they always have a meticulously tailored lawn.

In most cases, trees are relegated to the perimeters of a property and many people understandably assume that they take care of themselves. However, during dry seasons, you actually should ensure they are watered almost weekly. 

While they can be easy to ignore, the savviest property owners and managers are keenly aware of the health of the trees on their property. 

Not sure where to start when it comes to evaluating the trees on your property? Look no further for the answers you’ve been seeking! 

Here’s everything you need to know. 

  1. Full, Healthy Leaves

Hopefully this one is a bit of a no-brainer. All trees will undergo natural cycles of dropping their leaves in the fall and remaining dormant in the winter, but a tree that doesn’t regrow in the spring and summer is a sign of a dead or dying tree. 

Your healthy trees should have full, colorful leaves with every new season; if not, it may be time to call a local arborist for a check-up. 

  1. Trunk (or Central Leader)

In the best circumstances, your healthiest trees will have one single trunk and it will split off into branches close to the top. If your trees do not have a strong central leader, and it splits off into multiple trunks, this is the sign of a weak or damaged tree. The healthiest trees will have a strong base off of which smaller branches will stem. 

  1. Strong Bark

It can be helpful to think of bark on a tree as similar to your own hair. In times of stress or nutrient-deficiency, our hair tends to fall out at a greater rate than what is normal, indicating that we may have a health problem at the time. 

In the same way, a tree’s bark should be strong, not brittle or crumbling. Bark that remains strong on the tree’s trunk is a sign that your tree is in good health. Strong bark does not crumble and is free of moss and mold.  

  1. Growth Over Time

It doesn’t take a landscaping professional to know that plants should be growing over time. If you’re curious as to whether or not your trees are healthy, it may be prudent to check their growth every season. 

While long-term growth can be difficult to detect if you haven’t been tracking your trees, a landscaping professional can help you devise measures to evaluate your trees’ growth.

  1. Branch Health

One final method to verify tree health is through examining branches. Certainly, branches that have fallen to the ground are likely to be brittle and dry since falling usually indicates that they are already dead. 

Check the branches that remain on your tree to determine your tree’s health. In the case of a healthy tree, peeling back a bit of the bark should reveal green-ish flesh beneath.

In any circumstance, healthy trees are crucial, not only to maintain the beauty of your landscape, but also to prevent the catastrophe that accompanies trees that fall. 

Especially if you suspect that your trees may not be in perfect health, hiring landscaping services is a crucial first step. 

Hiring Landscaping Services

Our landscaping experts have the experience and skills necessary to help you devise the best ways to protect and beautify your landscape. Our technicians know just how to get you the biggest bang for your buck and add value to your home’s aesthetic while keeping your property safe. 

From lawn mowing to tree removal, the landscaping professionals at The Parke Company have the experience and the skills to handle lawn problems and answer your landscaping services questions. Let us meet the unique needs of your property and bring your design dreams to life. 

Give us a call (615-350-6033) or contact us online today to see how The Parke Company difference can work for you.

Adding Color with Annuals and Perennials

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Yellow perennial flowers

The summer of 2020 may be a bit less exciting than you had previously planned. For many of us, vacations have been postponed or cancelled, parties have been reduced to small gatherings, and daily interactions have dropped to a bare minimum. 

At this point, we are all doing everything we can to socially distance from one another in an effort to keep the world’s vulnerable populations safe and eventually return to normal — or a “new” normal. 

Many of us are looking for safe ways to stay busy and occupy ourselves. There may be no better way to do this than through a new landscaping project! 

Not only can landscaping projects be completed outside, but they can also help to spark creativity and add some beauty to your surroundings. 

If your property needs some sprucing during quarantine, check out landscaping services from The Parke Company. Start with today’s focus: adding color with annuals and perennials!

Types of Flowers to Add Color With

Annuals

Annuals get their name specifically from their function. Annuals are flowering plants that complete their full life cycle within a year. Typically, annuals are separated into summer annuals and winter annuals, depending on which type of plants you wish to grow. 

Aside from their beautiful colors, annuals are desirable choices for landscaping because they can grow successfully almost anywhere. Whether it is in a hanging planter, a raised bed, or along the border of your property, annuals can be planted nearly anywhere. 

Varieties of annuals can be found all over. Annuals come in any color imaginable; from pink petunias, to purple geraniums, to yellow zinnias, annuals can help you create any color scheme and spice up every part of your landscape.  

Perennials 

For property owners looking for plants with a bit more lifespan, perennials may be a better option. Much like annuals, perennials are named for the length of their life cycle; perennials, however, typically live for more than two years rather than just one.

Perennials are much sturdier than other flowering plants and can often be resistant to pests or deer who may show up on your property for an afternoon snack.  

Some great examples of perennials are multi-functional lavender, bright and colorful daylilies, or big, bold, hydrangeas. 

Some of the most common choices for landscape florals are perennials, which also means that some of your favorites are relatively low-maintenance and will last through the next season!

Hiring Landscaping Services

As much fun as a new landscaping project can be, it may just turn into another headache if you don’t go about it in the right way. Rather than gorgeous and colorful flower beds, you may be left with dirt piles and an expensive home improvement store bill. 

Our landscaping experts have the experience and skills necessary to help you devise the best ways to shake up your landscape. Our technicians know just how to get you the biggest bang for your buck and add value to your home’s aesthetic. 

From lawn mowing to tree removal, the landscaping professionals at The Parke Company have the experience and the skills to handle lawn problems and answer your landscaping services questions. Let us meet the unique needs of your property and bring your design dreams to life. 

Give us a call (615-350-6033) or contact us online today to see how The Parke Company difference can work for you.

Creative Hardscapes: Changing the Flow of your Landscape

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The Parke Company landscape maintenance in Nashville garden

Spending weeks or months cooped up indoors has left many of us restless and ready for something to shake up the mundane. One of the best ways to change up your environment and get out of the quarantine funk is to engage in a landscaping project. 

Aside from planting flowers and trimming trees, a great way to change up your own little corner of the Nashville landscape is through the design and installation of creative hardscapes. Here’s what you need to know about changing the flow of your landscape through hardscapes. 

The Best Ways to Change the Flow of Your Landscape

Shape 

Hardscapes like fountains and paved walkways can provide something that is difficult to achieve through plants alone: diverse shapes. 

In most circumstances, flower beds and small gardens must be contained in a fairly square or rectangular shape — not so for hardscapes. 

By installing a pond or fountain, you can incorporate virtually any shape you like into your landscape without being bound by boxes or lines. Paved walkways can be laid in any winding or circular shapes you wish to add variety to your landscape and create a more dynamic backyard experience. 

Function

Changing the flow of your landscape might also involve installations that offer a variety of functions rather than just aesthetic improvements. 

While flower beds are beautiful, they don’t offer much activity during your next small, backyard gathering. Installations like ponds and fire pits can help answer the elusive “What are we going to do?” question and and change up your landscape in the process. 

Shelter

While social distancing practices remain crucial for reducing the spread of COVID-19, many of us are able to reconnect with small numbers of friends and family by hosting gatherings outdoors. 

This reconnection may be threatened, however, when bad weather strikes. When rain comes around, it may feel like your long-awaited reunions must be cancelled. 

This can be avoided, however, by installing hardscapes like gazebos or other covered structures. Not only does a gazebo improve the aesthetic appeal of your landscape, it can also change up the flow of your landscape by offering new gathering spaces that were not possible previously.

Hiring Landscaping Services

While DIY backyard projects may be fun, installing a pond or gazebo isn’t a task you should take on by yourself. Leave it up to the experienced professionals at The Parke Company. 

Our landscaping experts have the experience and skills necessary to help you devise the best ways to add some variety to your landscape. Our technicians know just how to get you the biggest bang for your buck and add value to your home. 

From lawn mowing to tree removal, the landscaping professionals at The Parke Company have the experience and the skills to handle lawn problems and answer your landscaping services questions. Let us meet the unique needs of your property and bring your design dreams to life. 

For landscaping, Nashville, TN, trusts The Parke Company. Give us a call (615-350-6033) or contact us online today to see how The Parke Company difference can work for you.

The Dangers of DIY Tree Removal

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Dead tree sitting in the woods

Be Safe and Trust Professionals With Tree Removal

A do-it-yourself project always starts off as a good idea. You may get the opportunity to learn a new skill. You might save money. Plus, you get to revel in the glory of a job personally well done. 

In most situations, however, the best laid plans for a DIY project usually result in a half-completed project and a lot of frustration.

Attempting to complete your own landscaping can pose a lot more challenges than stray fabric scraps or a half-assembled bookshelf. Especially when it comes to tree removal, this is one project you don’t want to do without professional help. 

Here’s what you should know. 

Tree Removal Services

Tree removal is a bit more involved than many of the other common landscaping services you might otherwise be able to complete on your own. 

Those attempting to remove their own trees might go about it in the old fashioned way by looping a chain around the trunk of the damaged tree, attaching the chain to a truck, and putting their foot on the gas. 

While this might seem like a straightforward approach, it is fraught with danger for those removing the tree and everyone around. 

Removing a tree through this method, without proper techniques, puts your car at risk for significant damage. It can be difficult to estimate only through a visual inspection just how strong a tree’s roots are. 

If inaccurately measured, attempting to remove a tree by using a car could mean losing a bumper– and that’s not the worst damage you may suffer. 

For the amateur landscaper, guessing which direction a tree will fall can be a gamble. You might get lucky and the tree will land where you want it to. If Marshall’s law is in effect, the tree is much more likely to fall on your home, your garage, or another place in your yard that puts you in danger. 

Aside from the destruction, attempting to remove your own tree could also involve removing a tree that still has life remaining. An experienced landscaping professional will know how to determine whether your tree can still be saved through simple tree trimming or maintenance, rather than removal altogether. 

Unless you have extensive experience in landscaping, it can be nearly impossible to tell whether you should remove or repair the trees in your yard. 

Even if you want to remove the trees on your property for cosmetic purposes, the dangers of DIY tree removal could result in more cosmetic damage than aesthetic improvement.    

In any case, the most important thing is that you don’t do tree removal alone. The landscaping professionals at The Parke Company have the experience and the skills to meet the unique needs of your property and bring your design dreams to life. 

Our landscaping experts have the skills and experience to keep your landscape healthy using safe and effective procedures. Don’t leave tree removal up to chance. Trust the experts!

For lawn problems, raking leaves, or other landscaping services, give us a call (615-350-6033) or contact us online today to see how The Parke Company difference can work for you.

Fertilizer Options

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Parke Company soil in gardener's hands

Know Your Options and Pick the Best Fertilizer for You

As the spring months slip by, so do our chances of preparing our landscapes for summer gatherings and backyard hangouts. Creating a beautiful backyard landscape is a lot more involved than just lawn mowing and sprinkling a few seeds. 

For your landscape to reach its full potential, you need a nourished foundation that can foster healthy, lush plant life. The best way to ensure your soil produces green grass and pretty flowers is through properly fertilized soil. 

Here’s what you need to know about making the right fertilizer choice for your property.  

What are the Different Types of Fertilizer?

Inorganic vs Organic

When it comes to nourishing your soil, one of the biggest decisions you will have to make is the choice between inorganic and organic materials for your fertilizer. 

Choosing an inorganic fertilizer does not necessarily mean that you end up pumping your land with dangerous chemicals. 

While inorganic fertilizers are processed to some degree, many of them contain the naturally occurring chemicals that are already at work in the soil on your property, with a little added help for your plants. 

When you look into the components of inorganic fertilizers, you will probably hear terms like carbon, nitrogen, and ammonium. While these may sound like the materials of a mad scientist, they are actually the very components at work to help your plants grow. 

Take this explanation from SFGate, “Balanced inorganic fertilizers, high in all three macronutrients, commonly include products like ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, potassium chloride (potash), triple superphosphate, and magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts) . . . inorganic fertilizers provide this nutrition in plant-ready form immediately.” 

Inorganic fertilizers may be a better choice if you want to add nutrients to your soil at a low cost and quickly improve the overall quality of your foundation. 

Organic Fertilizer

As is the case for many products on the market, fertilizer made of organic components is attractive for a number of reasons. 

While inorganic fertilizers provide nutrients to soil rapidly, organic fertilizers transmit a bit more slowly and their actual nutritional contents cannot be appraised without laboratory testing. That being said, slow and steady does result in a greater improvement in the long term. 

Choosing an organic fertilizer does result in a greater upfront cost, but the longstanding improvements to soil over time may result in a foundation that stays healthier for season after season, making it a cost-effective choice in the long run. 

When it comes to choosing the right type of fertilizer, there are a number of factors to consider. Some individuals want to make quick improvements to their landscape in order to expedite the beautification of their property as much as possible. In this case, inorganic fertilizer is your best option. 

Other property owners may want landscape improvement for the long haul and opt for the environmentally-friendly organic options. 

At the same time, some people just don’t want the mess and odor of organic fertilizers made from manure or compost, so an inorganic fertilizer eliminates some hassle. 

The most important thing when it comes to choosing a fertilizer is that you choose the product that perfectly coordinates with your unique property, your budget, and the aspirations for your landscape. 

A great landscape starts with a nourished foundation. Don’t leave the health of your landscape up to chance, leave it up to the experienced professionals at The Parke Company to help you choose the perfect fertilizer. 

From lawn problems to tree removal, the landscaping professionals at The Parke Company have the experience and the skills to handle lawn problems and answer your landscaping services questions.

Let us meet the unique needs of your property and bring your design dreams to life. 
Give us a call (615-350-6033) or contact us online today to see how The Parke Company difference can work for you.

MAKE IT PRETTY, MAKE IT RIGHT.

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7110 Cockrill Bend Blvd Nashville, TN 37209
615-350-6033
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