|
Progressive Lawnscaping’s New Online Garden Store |
|
Visit Progressive Lawnscaping |
|
No...We haven't changed our name to Go-GreenGardening. We are still Progressive Lawnscaping, and we still offer the same top notch landscape service we have since 1990. Go-GreenGardening is our new online garden store featuring a variety of eco-friendly garden and landscape products. Many are items that our customers have requested over the 19 years we have been in business. |
|
To remove your name from our mailing list, please click here. Questions or comments? E-mail us at kelly@progressivelawnscaping.com or call 317-780-6619 |
|
* Sow seeds of summer blooming annuals indoors * Prune trees and shrubs, except those that bloom early in spring, while plants are still dormant . * Prune winter Jasmine after flowering; cut honeysuckle back to 3ft. * Fertilize any bulbs that have finished blooming with bone meal or bulb booster. * Plant new trees and shrubs as soon as soil dries enough to be worked. Plant bare-root plants before they leaf out. * Take a little time to prepare the vegetable garden soil for planting. * Remove winter coverings from roses as soon as new growth begins. Prune and fertilize as needed. * Fertilize woody plants before new growth begins, but after soil temperatures have reached 40 F -- around early March in Southern Indiana and late March in Northern Indiana. * Begin planning this summer’s landscape projects. If you are going to do the landscaping yourself, choose appropriate species and cultivars. If you are having a professional design your landscape, initiate contact now to 'get on the list'. Once Spring arrives, landscape designers can become extremely busy. * Visit us at the Indiana Flower & Patio Show, March 13– 21, 2010. (read newsletter for more details) * Check out our New Items at: Go-GreenGardening.com
The fickle weather of March makes it impossible to set dates and schedules for planting, so proceed with caution! |
|
Hellebores (Lenten Rose) Lenten rose is the easiest species of Helleborus to grow, requiring only a shady location and good, moist soil. Hellebores are beautiful harbingers of spring, with interesting, nodding flowers and large, dark green leaves. Lenten Rose hellebores is by far the most common in cultivation and many hybrids exist. Leaves are similar to the Christmas rose, but the large flowers can be any combination of white, pink, rose-red, and purple. Many other varieties are available including double and semi-double flowering plants. Because the blooms can be highly variable, especially among the various seed strains, it is usually best to view and choose plants while they are in bloom. Zones 4 - 9.
How to Grow: The best location for hellebores is in average to rich, well-drained woodland soil under deciduous trees where they benefit from the spring sunshine and the cool summer shade. Hellebores are extreme cold season growers. They grow only during cold weather and go dormant in the summer. That means you should avoid watering or fertilizing during the warm summer months. When temperatures moderate in the fall you can resume watering and fertilize lightly. Plants will bloom just as the snow melts in late winter/early spring. The cooler they are, the longer they will bloom. Some plants even have the potential to rebloom during very cool summers.
Landscape uses: Hellebores are wonderful, evergreen plants for the partially shaded garden. Use them with spring wildflowers and early bulbs, or use them as a foundation with deciduous shrubs and ornamentals. They blend nicely with the landscape after flowering. |
|
Creating a Bed Edge for Your Landscape Bed
Creating a bed edge with a nice sharp spade: * Enhances the beauty of your landscape * Prevents the spread of lawn grass into the bed area * Provides a nice edge for your lawn mower to follow * Prevents mulch from spreading onto your lawn * Can be done by anyone with a strong back! How to: 1. Create a line to follow by either using spray paint or a series of wooden stakes pounded into the ground connected by a string. 2. Use a long handled, square head spade to drive into the ground about 4 inches deep. 3. If you are re-edging a bed from last year or widening an existing bed, you may be able to just pry up the soil after your initial cut and flip it into the bed for easy cleanup. 4. Then create an angled edge on the bed side. 5. When finished your edge should make a 90 degree angle at grass line and the soil in the bed should go out at a 45 degree angle away from the grass. Tips: 1. Leave at least a 1 foot space between plants and grass edge. If plants hang over the bed edge they tend to affect the turf quality and tempt you to continuously prune them. Pruning all of the time tends to disfigure the natural shape of the plant. 2. Keep mulch rings around trees in proportion to the trunk sizes. Go big. 3. Tie a string loosely around the tree trunk and stretch it out. Hold the string and walk around the tree marking your perfect circle with a can of marking paint. 4. When designing your landscape beds, make long sweeping curves. Round off corners, do not square them off. 5. Combine trees and shrubs growing closely together into 1 large bed instead of a bunch of little beds.
March is Mulch Month
Nothing makes your landscape beds look better than a fresh layer of mulch. Spring clean-up just wouldn’t be complete without it. Besides its aesthetic value, mulch is also beneficial for your plants. It helps keep soil temperatures and moisture levels from fluctuating too severely and aids in weed prevention. Before you start spreading your mulch, take a hard rake or pitch fork and ‘mess up’ your existing mulch. By breaking up the existing mulch you help water percolate through it more easily. The water gets to the plant roots instead of just running off the matted mulch. ‘Messing up’ the mulch also helps the old mulch decompose into valuable organic matter.
When installing your mulch, keep it away from the base of your plants. By piling mulch right next to the plant you are providing a place for insects and rodents to live and snack on your greenery. Your ultimate goal is to have no more than 3 inches of new mulch on your landscape beds. Once you have broken up the old mulch you can assess how much new mulch is needed and if you should first remove some of the old stuff. Piling on 3 inches of new mulch over layers of existing mulch each year just creates favorable habitat for insects and diseases. Excess mulch also causes plant roots to develop too closely to the ground surface which can prove to be very stressful to the plants in drought conditions. So remember, whether you install mulch by bag or wheelbarrow and pitch fork, keep your mulch at a final depth of about 3 inches. |
|
Lenten Rose |
|
Visit Progressive Lawnscaping in Garden Booth #490 |
|
2010 Indiana Flower & Patio Show
Come visit us at this year’s Indiana Flower & Patio Show, March 13– 21, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. We will be in the same location we have been for the last several years. Garden Booth #490 This year’s landscape design features a black slate patio, a unique twist to a bubbling boulder, a colorful glass/metal pyramid bird bath and a slate textured Firetable! Come join us and celebrate the beginning of Spring!!
Printable $3 Off One General Admission Coupon (Good Monday-Friday only)
|
|
FEATURED Bird Feeders
|
|
Bird Feeders
Check out our selection of bird feeders. We have platform feeders, suet and fruit feeders, feeders made from recycled plastic, decorative bird feeders and many others to choose from. We can help you turn your yard into a sanctuary for the birds and more importantly, a place for you to go to relax and enjoy mother nature. |
March SaleAll Bird Feeders Sale Price: 10% off any bird feeder Use coupon code: FEEDER at checkout to get the 10% discount. Order from our website at: Or call our office at: 317-780-6619. Offer expires: 3/31/10 |
|
Cutting Back Ornamental Grasses
If you did not cut back your ornamental grasses last fall (good for you), you will want to cut them back by early spring. It is best to cut them back before the new growth begins to grow into the old blades. If you wait too long to cut your grass back, you will be cutting both the old blades and the new tender growth. To make it less messy, if it is a large, full ornamental grass, gather up the blades about half way up the plant (2’) and wrap a rope or even a bungee around the circumference of the grass. Next, use pruning shears or power hedge trimmers to prune the grass back to just about 6 inches above the ground. Your neat and tidy bundle of grass is now ready to carry back to the compost pile. |
|
Ornamental Grasses |
|
Recycled Glass Bird Feeder |