Lawn and Plantings
 New sod lawn and simple planting-no edging |
Rodda and Sons Landscaping has been providing creative landscape plans since 1937. Request an appointment online now for a lawn and planting landscaping quote for your Seattle area home.
There are many keys to a successful landscape. The three main ones are design, installation, and maintenance.
Soil quality is also an essential key. Few plants will do as well in poor soil as in good soil. Good soil has adequate drainage and air spaces, yet retains moisture, and either has nutrients or can store nutrients when they are added. Good soil is a blend of its three main components, sand, silt (clay) and humus (organic matter). Most soils have the clay and sand and we can improve it by tilling in additional organic matter. Tilling in organic matter helps sandy soils hold moisture and nutrients, and helps improve the texture of clay soils.
Sometimes (eg. if the soil is too rocky) it is easier to spread a layer of topsoil over the existing soil. Then you need to be concerned with the quality of the imported topsoil and with layering. Frequently with a layer of good topsoil on top, the lawn or plants will keep their roots in this upper layer (ie layering). That often results in shallow rooting that is more susceptible to drought. Rodda and Sons’ solution is to spread a layer of topsoil over the rocky ground and till it in to 6 inches deep. Then we spread a second layer of topsoil on top.
There are three common methods of starting a lawn: sod, hydroseed, or seed. Each method usually uses about 5 different types of grass seed mixed together to allow the final lawn to do well in different conditions of sun, soil, and season.
Sod lawn for children to play on-brick edging
Sod is grown from seed at a sod farm for about a year. Then a thin layer is cut, transported, and relaid on the new site with fertilizer and lime. Finally the newly sodded lawn is rolled with a lawn roller and the edge is trimmed. Sod can be successfully laid any time of year. This is especially helpful when lawn needs to be installed in the winter.
Hydroseed is a watery mixture of lawn seed, fertilizer, and mulch (wood fiber) that is sprayed on a prepared seedbed. It usually costs less than sod but more than seed. The new lawn comes up faster and can be used sooner because hydroseed has been pre-germinated. It has the best results when done between early April and mid October.
A seeded lawn is often the least expensive and is accomplished by spreading grass seed and fertilizers over a prepared area. As with hydroseeding, you get the best results seeding your lawn between early April and mid October. Rodda and Sons Landscapes occasionally seeds a lawn or damaged area in the winter, realizing we may need to overseed in the spring.
Installing an edging to separate the lawn from the planting beds adds a finished look and can help lower maintenance, but is not a necessity. Often, even the finest estate gardens have no edging materials around the lawn. The lawn edge is just carefully maintained. But edging can be used to keep a tidy, defined border on the lawn and provide a strip to run the lawn mower wheel along. We like to install edging between lawns and gravel paths or river rock to keep grass roots out of the gravel and rocks out of the lawn mower blades. Some popular edging materials are: treated wood timbers, concrete curbing, plastic lawn edging, and bricks laid soldier course or end to end.
Planting around Japanese laceleaf maple
Planting trees, shrubs, and groundcovers and installing lawns can be done almost any time of year in the Seattle area. Our summer drought period in July and August is the most difficult time for new plants to get established unless they receive routine watering. Planting in fall and winter, during our rainy season, is great for getting new plants rooted in to prepare them for summer.
A good landscape design reflects your tastes and lifestyle, as well as taking into account the physical attributes of your property. How will you, the owner, use different areas of your site? What are your dreams of a perfect garden? Do you crave more privacy or want a view opened up? Do you need play areas for children and/or pets or areas to entertain friends? Are there certain plants or colors you love or hate in a garden? Do neat, controlled plantings or loose, blowsy ones feel better to you? Do you enjoy gardening, or is “low maintenance” more appealing? And how about drought tolerance? Are there places in the world you would like to be reminded of, or should the garden style reflect the style of your house?
Rodda and Sons provides the creativity to plan your landscape, combining your ideas with our expertise in construction and planting. A plan drawn to scale, with the plants and hardscaping features labeled, will help you visualize your finished garden and provide a roadmap of how to proceed or how to divide your project into phases. The finished landscape needs to please you. Request an appointment online now or call Rodda and Sons at (206) 242-6063.
There is a “right type of plant for right place” phenomenon. Some are rapid growers, continuing to grow larger with each year. Others are medium to slow growers, staying a more controlled size for more years. Very few plants grow rapidly, then stop at a certain height, bamboo being the exception. We design plantings with individual plants spaced so they will be visually full in 3-5 years. We try to space larger growing plants to give them the room they need.
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“Many thanks for the terrific job you did & much help and assistance given. We are delighted with the results, & I hope if we need help or more work done we can feel free to call. Also please thank Bob especially – He was terrific.”
- Frank F.