Landscaping Projects to Do Now So You Can Enjoy Fall
By Lisa Allen Landscape • Renovation • • • • • • • 0 Comments

Landscaping Projects to Do Now So You Can Enjoy Fall

Landscaping Projects to Do Now So You Can Enjoy Fall

Sure, summer is great. We love the longer days, the backyard gatherings, time at the pool. But if you’re looking forward to cooler temperatures and want to be sure you can still spend time outdoors even after the weather cools, there are landscaping projects you can consider now that might just make this next Fall your best Fall. 

Landscaping Projects to Do Now So You Can Enjoy FallStart With a Small Landscaping Change

If you just want to adjust for the season but you’re not ready to make a huge investment with your landscaping, you might consider planting a cooler weather garden. 

Leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, and kale grow well in cooler temperatures. So do brassicas like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Other crops to consider include beans, radishes, turnips, and carrots. 

If you’d rather plant flowers, Fall is the perfect time for mums, pansies, asters, and dianthus. You can also create gorgeous container gardens with flowering kale, crotons, and fountain grass. 

Dream Big and Tackle Big Landscaping Projects

If you’re ready for a bigger project, think about installing a fire feature before the weather turns cold. Not only is a fireplace a focal point, but it provides a place for family and friends to gather long after the weather turns cooler. 

Outdoor fireplaces in Olathe can be built from a variety of materials including stone and can be either gas or wood fired. Like other architectural elements of a landscaped yard, your fireplace can look however you want it to: it can be round or rectangular, built in a fire-pit fashion or a wall. It can look rustic or sleek. 

An outdoor kitchen is another example of a larger project that will enable you to continue spending time outdoors even once the weather turns cooler. By installing an outdoor oven or cooktop as well as seating and prep space, you can extend the usable space of your home and take advantage of the beautiful Fall weather. 

Other projects you might consider are those that also add additional living space to your outdoor space. These options include a patio, covered deck, screened-in porch, or pergola. Adding one of these features will serve you year-round, not just in the Fall. A covered space will offer respite from the sun during these waning summer months. And a screened-in porch can offer additional space almost year-round, except for the most brutal winter months. 

Get Help with Your Olathe Backyard Fireplace

Part of planning your perfect outdoor space is understanding the seasons in Olathe and the surrounding Kansas City area. Our landscape architects know how to best leverage our seasons to create outdoor spaces that are both beautiful and functional. We’d love the opportunity to review your goals and help you create a plan to achieve them.

By Lisa Allen General Information • • • • • • • 0 Comments

Which Outdoor Landscaping Improvements Will Increase the Resale Value of My Home?

Which Outdoor Landscaping Improvements Will Increase the Resale Value of My Home?

The housing marking in Kansas City is hot right now. Homes are selling for higher prices and showings abound as soon as a new property hits the market. But what if you’re not ready to sell right now? What if you’d rather stay in your place a bit longer and make improvements that will increase the resale value even more?

If that’s you, read on to learn about some outdoor improvements can increase the resale value of your home once you are ready to sell.

Your Outdoor Landscaping Matters Most

Not surprisingly, Consumer Reports says that improving your landscaping is the number one way to increase the resale value of your home. Zillow even says that adding the word “landscaping” to your sale listing can add 2.7% or more to the sale price.

Why? Curb appeal! Your front lawn and whatever features it includes, whether that’s shrubbery, a flower bed, or something bigger like a water feature, give a potential buyer a first impression. And that first impression can’t be changed. When your lawn and landscape is well-maintained and attractive, a potential buyer will think that the inside of your home is also well-maintained, tidy, and attractive.

Of course, we’d recommend working with a landscape architect or landscaping firm to make sure your outdoor space is ready for potential buyers. But if you choose to do the work yourself, focusing on a few key things will give you the best return. One of those things is to mulch with dark-brown or black mulch. You should also mow your grass to the appropriate height. Another important task is to trim foundation hedges so that first-floor windows are clear.

Think About Your Outdoor Landscaping Lighting

Adding new or improved lighting to the outside of your home can have a dramatic effect on your resale efforts. According to Zillow, listings that included the words “outdoor lighting” sold 3.1 days faster and for 1.6% more than other homes (on average).

We specialize in outdoor lighting and would welcome the chance to help. But if you’re DIYing your way through selling your home, there are a few things you can consider first. Those include path lighting, spotlight lights, or solar options to make the most of your efforts.

Making the Most of Your Outdoor Space

If you have an outdoor living area like a patio or deck, an outdoor kitchen, or a fire or water feature, be sure that those areas are working and staged. It’s important to show potential buyers how the space is intended to be used. But it’s also important to keep your personal “stuff” out of that space. Too many personal touches, like personalized decorations, can work against you by making it difficult for potential buyers to see themselves using the space.

If you’re working with a team on the sale of your house, we’d love to be part of it. Reach out for a consultation or a discussion to see how we can help you net more when you sell your home.

By Lisa Allen Landscape • • • • • • • • • • 0 Comments

Organic Pest Control Options for Your Johnson County, Kansas Lawn and Landscape

Kansas Lawn and Landscape

Organic Pest Control Options for Your Johnson County, Kansas Lawn and Landscape

Deciding which options are best for controlling pests in your lawn and landscape can be tricky. Should you opt for all-natural options or chemical intervention? Perhaps a mix would work best for your particular space. If you’re curious about whether or not organic options might work for your lawn, garden, or landscape, keep reading.

Determine Which Pests You Need to Control

Keeping pests in check in your outdoor space is different, of course, than mitigating pests in your home. When we’re looking at controlling pests in the outdoors, the ideal is very rarely to eliminate pests altogether, like it might be inside your home. Rather, the ideal is more often to create a space that fosters the good critters and keeps the ones that cause harm out of your space.

To that end, it’s important to know which pests cause the most havoc in the Kansas City area. That list includes ants, clover mites, chiggers, crickets, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, and ticks. For more detailed information on all of these pests and more, visit the K-State Extension office page here.

Remember: Organic Doesn’t Mean Homemade

It might seem natural to think that organic options for pest control can be made with ingredients you might already have in your pantry. But this is untrue. Organic pest control options aren’t homemade potions. Rather, they are treatments that are derived from natural matter. That might include greenery or living matter—like seaweed or bone, for example.

This means that there are organic options on the shelves right next to chemical pesticides, should you choose to go the DIY route. Be sure to read the labels and perform your due diligence to ensure that the pest control options, even though organic, are safe for the humans and pets in your family.

Making the Choice: Organic or Conventional Pesticides

Determining which pest control option is best for you and your outdoor space can include considerations that only professionals know, such as how each option has performed over time and what, if any, long-term effects those options have caused.

Because we’ve worked on countless lawn and landscapes in Olathe and Johnson County, we know how every pest control option affects both your space and the community as a whole. If you’d like to learn more or have help determining how to make your space the best it can be, we’d love to work with you. Please reach out if we can offer options or assistance.

 

 

By Lisa Allen Landscape • • • • • • • • 0 Comments

How to Maximize Privacy Through Landscaping

Maximize Privacy Through Landscaping

Maximizing Privacy Through Landscaping

The idea of a wide-open space filled with elements you love might seem like the perfect set-up. That is, until you remember that you live close to others and value your privacy. Luckily, you can use a few landscaping tips to have the best of both worlds.

Landscaping Tips to Maximize Privacy

It’s easiest, of course, to achieve this goal if you are just starting on your outdoor space. This means you can plan for privacy by planting a row of trees, for example, or by installing a retaining wall that doubles as a privacy fence.

If you are remodeling, this is an option too. Sit down and talk with your family and with your landscape expert about what you love about your current space and what you’d like to change. Where, exactly, do you need privacy? Is it for the entire yard, or just for a particular area? Do you want to block sightlines into the space, or remove your neighbor’s ability to see into your windows?

Knowing exactly what—and where—privacy is most important to you will help you determine which elements will work best going forward.

Using Trees and Shrubs for Privacy

An obvious way to make your space more private is to install natural elements that impede an outsider’s view or access. This might be a row of shrubs that obstruct a clear view into a window or a line of trees that prevent people from crossing your property line.

You can also use non-living elements to achieve the same goal. Consider building a privacy panel with additional sheets of lattice or a privacy wall that mimics a fence, but shields a seating area from prying eyes.

Keep Your Privacy: The Landscaping Options are Endless

Truth is, creating privacy in your outdoor space can be an endeavor that is just as individual as you are. You can use living elements like trees, bushes, or vine-covered fences. You can build a pergola that you outfit with drapery that can be opened and closed whenever you want. Or, you might build a huge water element that faces into your space and blocks your neighbors’ views. The options truly are endless.

The trick is deciding which elements you love and then incorporating them in a way that brings you just the amount of privacy you want. We’d love to work with you on a project like that, so please reach out if we can offer options or assistance.

 

By Lisa Allen Construction • Landscape • • • • • • • • 0 Comments

The Difference Between Stamped Concrete and Stained Concrete

stamped concrete olathe

Have you ever taken a good look at the foundation of your outdoor living space? The ground under your feet on your patio or deck isn’t just your lawn—it’s a foundation built of material like wood, stone, or concrete.

Concrete foundations offer particular advantages. They can last longer than wood and they withstand weather well. And, because concrete is poured, it can be designed in a way that enhances the overall aesthetic of your space.

But concrete isn’t a one-size-fits-all decision. It can be colored (stained) or stamped to create a look you love. Keep reading to learn a few of the differences between stained and stamped concrete.

What Is Stamped Concrete?

Stamped concrete is concrete that is poured and patterned to create an entirely different look. Stamping concrete allows you to emulate the look of brick, stone, slate, tile—and countless other options. It’s common to stamp concrete for patios, decks, sidewalks, and driveways.

The process of stamping concrete is akin to using a cookie cutter to make shaped cookies in that the concrete is stamped in a way that markings are left in/on the concrete so that as it dries, the markings and indentations become permanent. This is how a landscaping company can turn a smooth slab of concrete into a surface that looks like brick, for example; rather than creating the surface brick by brick, one pour is stamped to look like brick.

What Is Stained Concrete?

Stained concrete is concrete that has been tinted to another color. Think of it as wood stain but for concrete—it can be opaque or translucent, shiny or matte, monotone or ombre. Staining concrete can turn a space from industrial-looking to sleek or homey, depending on the colors and finishes selected.

The Advantages of Stamped Concrete

Adding stamped concrete to your outdoor space increases your design options. No longer are you limited to a plain foundation slab; now you can build something that looks like natural stone but has the durability of concrete.

One advantage of opting for stamped concrete is budget. Because stamped concrete can last longer and is easier to maintain than natural elements, it requires less money as it ages. And, unlike wood, it doesn’t need to be replaced as often. Another advantage is maintenance. Stamped concrete can require less upkeep than stone or other natural elements.

The Advantages of Stained Concrete

More and more people are opting for stained concrete because it can combine the best of both worlds: economical durability and creative license. The colors concrete can be stained are limitless, which means design options are plentiful. And, depending on how much work and detail you want your space to have, a stained concrete foundation can be a work of art in and of itself.

No matter which option you find most interesting, it’s always a good idea to discuss your plans, budget, and timeline with an experienced landscaper. We’re here and eager to help when you’re ready.