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.