At Colonial Lawn & Garden, we’re not just a lawn care company – we’re also a landscape company. If you’re lukewarm about the look of your yard, we can enhance it for you with mulch or landscaping rocks! Here are some options for a summer landscaping project.
Landscaping Enhancements To Spruce Up Your Yard
Mulch
Mulch is organic material placed over the soil surrounding trees, flowers, shrubs, or other ornamental plants. The neat thing about mulch is that it not only looks nicer than having bare soil, it will also nourish your plants as it breaks down. We’ll handle all the math and hard work for you! From calculating how much mulch to hauling and installing it, you can rest easy and enjoy the fruits of our labor without lifting a finger.
Bark Chips
Not only are these decorative, but they’re also great for suppressing weeds and grass growth in areas like flower beds. If you opt for cedar, you can enjoy some added pest control as well since many bugs do not enjoy the scent of cedar. Bark comes in many colors like black, brown, red, gray, or natural.
Compost
This rich, dark soil is made from things like food scraps and grass clippings that have been allowed to break down. You may even have a backyard composter yourself! Using this gives your garden beds countless nutrients as well as a crisp finish.
Added Benefits Of Mulch
Whichever type of mulch you choose, they all share some amazing benefits.
Weed Control
By shading the soil, mulch inhibits the growth of undesirable fauna like weeds. When garden bed soil is bare, weeds just beneath the surface enjoy direct sunlight. You’re less likely to have to weed your yard if you choose to add mulch.
Moisture Retention
You won’t have to water as much or as often. Mulching naturally holds in moisture, which is especially important during hot summer days and cold winter nights. And with less watering, you’ll save on your water bill!
Less Splashing
When you water over mulch, it prevents the soil from splashing onto plants’ leaves, thereby reducing certain diseases.
Landscaping Rocks And Stones
Landscaping stones and rocks are ideal for high-traffic areas. They’re even better than mulch at preventing weeds – especially if you apply a landscaping fabric first. Stones and rocks also last far longer than mulch, which needs to be replaced every few years. You may need to use the leaf blower in the fall to get leaves out of the stones, but generally, that’s about all the maintenance you can expect from rocks and stones. That being said, you may want to consider stones and rocks for garden beds with perennial plants. Annuals will die out and need to be replanted every year, which means you’ll have to move the landscaping rocks out of the way to get to the soil beneath. Depending on the size of the rocks, this can be quite tedious. Another thing to consider is that stones will not break down over time like mulch, so you may need to add fertilizer to your garden beds.
Types Of Landscaping Rocks
Like bark, stones and rocks come in just about any color you can think of: grays, blacks, tans, browns, whites, or even ones with a greenish hue! They also come in a variety of styles.
River Rocks
Tend to be larger; available in a variety of colors. This option is popular with homeowners for creating a dry riverbed. Basically, the rocks recreate the look of a dried-out creek. It looks nice and can even assist with drainage.
Gravel
These are the smallest option and also inexpensive. Unlike the other options, gravel can work not only in landscaping beds but also serve as pathways or areas for dining. Placing your outdoor dining furniture over larger stones would be challenging and create an imbalanced table, but gravel is small enough that your furniture could fit over it without a problem.
Crushed Stones
This option lays flatter like woodchips. If you’re envisioning a highly modern-looking exterior, this is definitely the way to go.
Pebbles
Like river rocks but smaller. They can come with light polish, which creates a more upscale, sophisticated look than the jagged lines of crushed stones.
Lava Rocks
About the same size as pebbles. Their porous qualities allow for better drainage, which is good if your yard struggles with that. They’re also lightweight, so if you want rocks in your annual bed, moving them around every year would not be an issue.
Get Professional Landscaping Services From Colonial Lawn & Garden
The experts at Colonial Lawn & Garden provide landscaping services in Yakima and the surrounding region. Whether you prefer the crisp look of rocks and stone or the more natural look of bark and mulch, we’ll give your landscaping a fresh look for summer. Our landscaping enhancements can bring your dream yard to life! To learn more, give us a call or leave us a message online. For service in Yakima, call (509) 966-1655, and for the tri-city region, call (509) 371-1655.
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