Backyard Ponds: 4 Benefits of These Water Features

March 7, 2024March 18, 2020 by The Parke Company

Consider These Water Features

When it comes to landscaping, property owners might believe that a pragmatist keeps their landscaping services limited to lawn mowing and more elaborate installations like water features are for more extravagant types of people.

What you may not know, however, is that there is a whole host of benefits to adding a pond on your property that has nothing to do with impressing party guests or keeping up with the Joneses.

From increased property value to environmental benefits, installing a water feature on your property could be the one landscaping decision that makes a world of difference for your residential or commercial property.

Here is what you need to know about the four most significant benefits of incorporating a pond into your property’s landscape.

Why Should You Install a Water Feature?

Property Value

With relatively high costs for excavation, some property owners may fear that ponds are a fiscally irresponsible choice.

While pond installation is a landscaping project that may cost more than simple leaf raking or regular lawn maintenance, the added value balances out the sticker shock of the initial investment.

According to American Forest Management, the increase in property value after adding a pond is almost certain. In most cases, the bare land values of a property with a pond increased anywhere up to 42% (with an average of a 6% increase, overall). In addition, properties with ponds were also on the market roughly 50 days fewer than homes without!

Saving Money

As previously mentioned, ponds can offer a great return on investment when the time comes to sell your property. Even so, ponds can actually be a great way to save money while you’re still enjoying your current landscape.

Ponds virtually eliminate the cost to water a large area of your property, which cuts out a significant portion of your monthly utility bills. While there is an initial cost to fill the pond, these types of water features can refill with simple rain water, or drain pipes can be set up to capture and reroute rainfall into your ponds.

Switching out the water occasionally may be necessary, but ponds are essentially self-filling and can even be used to water nearby plants and foliage if need be!

Environmental Benefits

The greatest benefit that having a backyard pond offers may be its tremendously positive environmental impact.

The aforementioned reduction in watering is certainly beneficial for the environment as well as your budget. Concurrently, reducing the overall amount of grass on your property reduces mowing, which cuts down on pollutants released into the atmosphere during lawn maintenance, plus it also reduces the amount of pesticides and fertilizers used on your property, further shrinking your carbon footprint and reducing your environmental impact.

Aesthetic Quality

All in all, the first reason most people want a pond is because of the aesthetic appeal. Even those who don’t live close to a lakeshore or ocean can find the tranquility of a body of water on their own private land. Whether it is a large man-made pond, or just something small enough for a few koi fish, ponds offer the auditory pleasure of trickling waters, gorgeous views, and even a relaxing dip if you’re feeling adventurous.

If you’re looking for a new way to holistically improve your property, installing a pond is certainly the route to take, but this is one project you should never do on your own.

Hiring the experienced professionals at The Parke Company for landscape services is the first step to ensuring you receive the kind of lawn services necessary to preserve the assets on your property.

From lawn mowing to tree removal, 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.

Give us a call (615-350-6033) or contact us online today to see how the design experts and arborists at The Parke Company can work for you.

5 Places to Improve Your Home Landscaping with Lighting Features

March 25, 2024February 20, 2020 by The Parke Company

Outdoor residential lighting feature in Nashville

Improve Your Landscape with Good Lighting

Whether your house is on the market or you plan to stay there for years to come, a beautiful exterior is just as important as the home’s interior.

Landscape design projects can be an exciting prospect for creative types. Dreaming up a new backyard filled with water features and picturesque shrubbery is enough to delight even those who only moderately appreciate design. That being said, these projects can also be incredibly taxing when it comes to labor, time, and money. If you’re looking for the best way to spruce up your property over the weekend, a new reflection pond or cobblestone path would be beautiful, but it’ll take a lot to accomplish these feats.

One of the simplest ways to get the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to design improvement is by using a simple installation: lighting features!

Lighting features rarely require heavy construction and can often pair well with the current design of your property, while adding a refreshing finish.

Here are five places you can add lighting features to improve the aesthetic quality of your home landscaping.

Where You Should Improve Lighting

Existing Shrubbery

All the time you spend pruning and caring for your shrubs (or all the money you spend on landscape services) is a bit of a waste if it’s only ever seen during the day.

One of the best ways to feature your beautiful landscaping during your evening gatherings is by adding lights low to the ground to add a little glow to your shrubbery. This brightens your late-night parties with a splash of color by illuminating your garden and shrubs, even in the dark.

Walkways and Pavers

Adding lighting features to your walkways and pavers is a good decision for a number of reasons. On one hand, it is an added safety measure: it’s never a bad idea to aid your guest’s vision when they’re walking at night. It can also be a beautiful way to create soft lines and highlight curving patterns in your landscape design.

Perimeters

Marking off the perimeters of your property with lighting is another way to illuminate your landscape, adding safety and beauty.

Adding lighting to the borders of your property creates a warm glow to surround your guests and family. Not only is it aesthetically beautiful, but it also helps to define the lines of your property.

Water Features

The water features in your landscape design are already gorgeous and they can only be improved by adding some light!

Light and water interact beautifully. As light reflects off of water, it creates interesting shapes and a glittering effect. Placing lights around the borders of water features like ponds and pools can also help to illuminate these features and make them stand out in the dark (this is an added safety bonus as well!)

Add Some Height

Any design expert will tell you that one of the keys to creating beautiful and interesting spaces is to consider levels.

Adding taller lamps and lighting features enables you to create some height and bring the eye up from the ground toward the sky and trees on your property. This can also have the effect of making any property seem larger.

If you’re looking for a simple way to add some glamour to your property, lighting features are some of the easiest and most cost-effective choices, but you shouldn’t do this on your own.

Hiring the experienced professionals at The Parke Company for landscape services is the first step to ensuring you receive the kind of lawn services necessary to preserve the assets on your property.

From lawn mowing to tree removal, 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.

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

5 Signs Your Irrigation System Needs Maintenance

March 7, 2024February 13, 2020 by The Parke Company

Watch Out for These Signs of Damaged Irrigation

At its best, an irrigation system should make every property owner’s life significantly easier. With the installation of the right irrigation system, caring for your landscape can be as simple as setting a timer or flipping on a switch. No longer will you have to haul out a heavy sprinkler in the middle of July or conduct the painstaking process of dragging out a hose to tackle lawn maintenance.

Irrigation systems make watering your lawn and the rest of your landscape a breeze– that is, as long as it is working properly. A malfunctioning irrigation system can cost you precious time and money. In that case, you’d be better off with no irrigation system at all!

To avoid these costly risks, it’s important to catch subtle flaws in your irrigation system before they become major problems. For a proactive approach, here are five signs your irrigation system needs repair.

Signs of a Damaged Irrigation System

Visible Leaks

One of the most obvious tells that your irrigation system is in need of repair is that it has visible leaks.

Certainly, there will be water present on or around spigots simply because valves disperse water, but it is not normal for valves to leak. Especially if your irrigation system is leaking water while it is not in operation, this can be a sign of damaged equipment.

A brief visual sweep of the irrigation system on your property can help to ensure that these visible issues are mitigated quickly.

High Utility Bills

Monitoring the cost of your water bill is more than just a prudent financial practice; it could also tip you off to an issue with your irrigation system.

Typically, you control the settings on your irrigation system, so unless you have increased the amount of water you want dispersed throughout your lawn, the cost of running your irrigation system should remain the same.

If you’ve noticed a jump in the cost of your monthly utility bills, double-check your irrigation system. This could be a sign of a leak or faulty valve that is causing your system to release more water than intended.

Excess Pooling

If you don’t observe any visible leaks, and if the leaks aren’t significant enough to cause an increase in your water bill, you can also catch this issue if you notice any excess pooling of water on your property.

Puddles gathering around your lawn might be fun for the family dog, but they spell trouble for your landscape assets and are a clear sign that something is malfunctioning in your irrigation system. If you notice water pooling on your property, contact a landscaping professional immediately to mitigate this issue and avoid disaster.

Plant Damage

Conversely, too little water flow can be another sign that your irrigation system isn’t functioning properly.

If you’ve noticed patches of dead grass or other lawn problems, your first course of action may be to adjust the settings on your irrigation system. If you find that still doesn’t solve the issue, it could mean there is some sort of blockage or disruption in your irrigation system preventing water from flowing to your property.

Not enough water eventually means that you will have two problems to solve: repairing a damaged irrigation system and fixing the dead landscape. This can be doubly costly if not discovered and addressed quickly.

Disrupted Water Flow

It can also be beneficial to take a look at your irrigation system while it is running. Typically, irrigations have a steady flow or rhythm while in operation.

If you notice any disruptions, this is a clear sign of damage to your irrigation system. Disrupted flow can be a sign of a blockage or clog in your system and can be detrimental to the health and safety of not only your landscape, but the system itself.

A system running without enough water pressure will not sustain the life of your landscape and a system running with too much pressure could damage the irrigation system in the long run.

It’s one thing to identify the issues with your irrigation system; it’s a whole other thing to be able to mitigate those issues. Hiring the experienced professionals at The Parke Company for landscape services is the first step to ensuring you receive the kind of lawn care necessary to preserve the assets on your property.

From lawn mowing to tree removal, 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.

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

Landscape Maintenance: Should You Be Using a Different Mulch?

March 7, 2024January 23, 2020 by The Parke Company

Make Sure Your Nashville Home Has the Right Mulch

According to the experts at HGTV, one of the best things you can do for your landscape as it pertains to mulch is to simply try a new one! In fact, they also suggest that not having any form of mulch on your property can put you at a serious risk for erosion and sediment runoff.

If you’re already using mulch throughout your property, bravo! But your work shouldn’t stop there. Mulch is certainly not a one size fits all product and over time you may find that the mulch you chose just isn’t up to snuff.

Here is what you need to know to answer the FAQ: Should you be using a different mulch?

What to Consider with Mulch

Erosion and Damage

If you do use mulch and you’ve noticed erosion and soil damage in and around your plant beds or trees, this probably tells you that it’s time for a new mulch.

Depending on the type of mulch you’ve chosen, you may also notice damage to the quality of soil. Organic mulches continuously decompose which release nitrogen into the soil, providing nutrients to your trees and flowerbeds. If you are using inorganic mulch, the soil quality will likely stay the same or even worsen if it is already unhealthy because there are no nutrients being created by decomposition.

It stands to reason that–if you want to improve soil quality–you should certainly switch over to an organic mulch. Furthermore, if you find that your organic mulch isn’t yielding the results you seek, talk with a lawn maintenance and landscape professional, like the experts at The Parke Company, to determine precisely what kind of organic mulch will best serve the needs of your property.

Age

Like any living substance, organic mulch will change over time. You may find that the bright reds and rich browns of your mulch have faded into a lackluster grey. If this is the case, you may want to consider another type of mulch.

While most professionals agree that a dull looking mulch can still nurture the soil around it, it may be unsightly after 1-2 years (while still effective for 5-6). Depending on your preference, you may opt for an undyed mulch to save yourself from unsightly curb appeal or from having to replace the mulch every other year.

Along a similar vein, there are so many options for mulch (both organic and inorganic) that you can make this choice based on aesthetic preference as well. From nut shells, to wood chips, to seaweed, you can tailor your mulch to match the appearance of your property and any design you can dream up.

Chemical Content

According to a UMass report, there is definite cause for concern when it comes to the chemical makeup of some mulches.

Surprisingly, it is not inorganic mulches that are under scrutiny, but organic mulches sourced from ground-up trees.

As reported, some now-prohibited wood preservatives contained dangerous chemicals like arsenic, which can seriously compromise the health of your soil.

Especially in cases where the wood used for much comes from demolition or construction sites, “it has been found that some of the recycled waste wood used for making landscape mulch products is contaminated with various chemicals, such as creosote and CCA (chromated copper arsenate),” according to the UMass report.

In any case, you shouldn’t need to have a degree in biochemistry to choose a mulch for your yard, nor should you live in fear that you could be contaminating your property. The best step that you can take when you have lawn problems is to consult a professional for landscaping services.

From simple tasks like raking leaves, tree removal, or helping you select the perfect mulch, 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.

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

Tree Services: 3 Ways Tree Care Professionals Prevent Tree Decay

March 7, 2024January 13, 2020 by The Parke Company

Let The Parke Company Take Care of Tree Decay

Tree decay is detrimental for a number of reasons. On one hand, tree removals can be a costly, unwanted procedure. Especially if the tree has been on your property for some time, the last thing you may want is for your beloved arbor to be uprooted.

On the other hand, tree decay can pose a serious threat to the safety of your home. Damaged, unhealthy trees can be a hazard during storms and run the risk of falling on your home and causing injury to your family or your assets.

While it may be necessary in some cases to have a tree cut down, prevention is always a better option. Are you curious as to how the tree professionals at The Parke Company can help you prevent tree decay? Here are five ways they can do just that.

What to Look for When Handling Tree Decay

1. Tree Inventory

One of the most common reasons you may find decay in your trees is simply because their issues have gone unnoticed for an extensive period of time. Especially if you have a large property, trees in areas of your yard you don’t frequent, or you oversee a large municipal area your trees may be suffering from neglect.

A tree inventory is a calculated process conducted by a tree care professional to locate the trees on your property and take stock of their health. In this way, you can ensure that you are keenly aware of any potential health risks to your trees and can tackle problems quickly as they arise before your trees suffer decay.

While tree inventories are typically conducted for municipal projects, there can also be some value to conducting a smaller tree inventory of your personal property’s landscape. While the chances are that you don’t have trees you are unaware of, you may not necessarily know the intimate details of your trees’ health. A tree inventory yields that helpful data.

2. Pest Control

While woodland creatures are often cute and fluffy, they’re also called pests for a reason. Any animal that chooses to make your tree its home puts your landscape at risk for tree decay or advances any existing damage.

Talk with your landscaping professional about potential barriers for pest deterrence. They will be the most knowledgeable source to help you decide if you should establish a physical barrier, use repellents, or some combination of the two to best protect the health of your trees.

3. Brush Clearing

Another proactive way to care for the health of your trees and prevent decay is through frequent lawn maintenance and brush clearing. While dropping leaves and limbs can often be a sign that a tree is in poor health, those piles of brush and foliage also put your trees at risk for even more damage.

On one hand, piles of brush at the roots of trees are very attractive homes for rodents and other pests which, as previously mentioned, cause great damage to trees. On the other hand, these uncleared piles of brush can also be a source of trapped moisture, which increases the risk of fungus growth at the base of trees. In either case, without proper regular maintenance from a lawn care professional, trees may be at a greater risk for decay.

When it comes to landscaping services, the needs of your property extend further than just lawn maintenance and raking leaves. To ensure that your property stays safe and healthy, it is vital that you do everything within your power to maintain the health of your trees.

Lawn care and landscaping can seem like a complicated and overwhelming task, but the most important thing is that you don’t do it 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.
Give us a call at (615) 350-6033 or contact us online today to see how The Parke Company difference can work for you.