Our Mission:
To make your yard as
inviting as
your home -
and keep it that way!
Indianapolis, Brownsburg,
Avon, Plainfield
Home Softscape Hardscape YardCare Our Staff
Beautiful Lawns and Patios
Softscapes - Beautiful Plantings for your yard!
We offer complete professional
planting: from dainty flowers to large trees, from lawns to shrubs. We design and
plant annual and perennial flower beds as well. We not only design and
create your softscape, we will maintain it too!
Landscape Design
Whether you are reworking old landscaping, or starting with a blank slate (such as a new home in what was once a cornfield) we can design your landscape to be both beautiful and functional. If you like to garden, we can put in annual beds that you can replant each year with different flowers and plants. On the other hand, if you simply want to enjoy and live in your landscape, we can design perennial gardens that will give you beauty year after year. In locating trees we will pay attention to seasonal patterns in sun movement to place shade appropriately. Often evergreens are useful placed to the Northwest to give winter shelter, whereas deciduous trees, after shading and cooing the home in the summer, will drop their leaves and allow the warmth of the sun on the south side of the home in winter.
Lawns
To Sod or to Seed, that is the question. Both methods require two to three years to establish a strong healthy lawn. From a maintenance standpoint, sod requires as much or more watering than seed, but obviously looks better immediately. Sod is normally cut thin enough that it looses much of its root system, and thus requires at least two years to establish the strong and durable roots that grass needs to be drought hardy. When establishing a lawn from seed, it is important to put down adequate seed to avoid bare spots. Such spots are labor intensive to repair, since just putting down seed without a binder will result in the seed washing to the edges of the bare spot. In either case we will make sure that the soil has the proper nutrients and consistency, and appropriately amend it if necessary. The best time for us to plant your lawn is early to mid fall, so that roots are established when the grass starts to green up in early spring. The second best time is in late winter to early spring so that the seed can take advantage of spring rains. This establishes the grass with minimal watering before the dry season. if you are considering having us put in a lawn in late spring, try to establish a well or other source of non-commercial water or be prepared for large water bills.Planting Trees
Contrary to what one might think, planting trees is more than digging a hole and setting the root ball down in it. The hole should be at least twice the size of the root ball, and the soil that will be put back in around the root ball should be amended to be fine grained, low in clays, and rich in phosphorus, potash and nitrogen. Potash is particularly important as it encourages root growth. If the soil is largely clay, we will add peat moss and sand to break it up. The very best time for us to plant trees is early to mid fall, followed by early spring, as with starting a lawn. We will stake your trees until roots are well established into the soil surrounding the root ball so that the tree will not be damaged by high winds.
Planting Shrubs
Planting shrubs is similar to planting trees, with similar requirements for the size of the planting hole relative to the root ball, and for amending the soil. It is best if we plant shrubs in fall or spring as with trees, but fall and spring planting is not quite as critical. Bushes are not usually staked.Planting Annuals Beds
One of the advantages of annuals is that they have bright flowers and they grow to full size the year they are planted. Often with Perennials, while they look good their first year they don't look their best until their second or third year. When laying out an annual bed one of the first things we look at is the amount of sunlight available. Of course there are beautiful annuals for any light level, but the available light will limit our selection for any given location. In preparing beds we will work the soil to at least 8 to 10 inches deep. Depending on soil quality, we may amend the soil with composted cow or horse manure or mushroom compost. If the soil has lots of clay, sand and peat moss will also be added. When planning a bed we will consider not only color, but also height. and blooming time. We design your annual beds to look good all summer and fall.Planting Perennial Beds
While Perennials usually do not look their best the first year, they will require considerably less work, especially after the first year, than annuals. No digging up beds, no replanting - Perennials provide relatively low maintenance and a great appearance! As with annuals, we will look to the amount of light a bed will receive. Initial bed preparation will be the same as with annuals (but it will only be done the first year). As with an annual bed, a perennial bed requires consideration of height and blooming time in addition to the amount of light. One other great thing about perennials is that it is easy to have a series of flowers blooming in the same space as the season progresses. We might start with crocus as the last of the snow melts away, followed by daffodils and then by tulips. The tulips could be followed by iris, which would quit blooming just as the purple cone flowers are coming on. The purple cone flowers will bloom right into the hardy mums.Planting Mixed Beds
Planting mixed annual and perennial beds is a way to have your cake and eat it too. By mixing part perennials with a larger part annuals (maybe one part perennials to two parts annuals) the first year, and converting more of the bed each year to perennials, we can give you a beautiful bed the first year and every year, and convert it over a three or four year period into an perennial bed, with reduced maintenance each successive year.