Kansas City Landscaping and Lawn Care Ideas

The old adage – Plant a $5 plant in a $25 hole holds true in Kansas City’s Landscaping.

On a  recent project I planted over 70 Hostas, Coral Bells and Astible in an existing garden.  This garden had gravel already put down and the soil underneath was not great.  Normally, when making a new bed it is best to amend the entire bed with high quality organic compost.  However, this is not possible in a bed that already is covered with several inches of gravel.  So you have to amend the planting hole.  You have to be careful when doing this though.  You have to make the hole quite large in comparison to the plant you are planting.

Start by removing the rocks from where you are going to dig the hole.    Notice that the hole is about 3x as big as the plant itself.

The laws of geometry then say that you are not just increasing the volume of the hole by 3 – but closer to 9x the original plant container size so you will need to add a considerable amount of extra compost.  I use a high quality compost made from landscaping debris.    It is tested regularly to ensure its purity of toxins. 

After mixing the compost with the native soils – carefully plant the plant.

With Coral bells specifically – Be careful of their crown and make sure that crown of the plant is carefully planted just below the surface.

Then slide the rocks back in place around the plant.

Each plant can take upwards of 10 minutes to plant carefully and correctly.  So it truly is a $25 hole for a $5 plant.  However, The long term growth and vigor of the plants will be worth it to the customer.  However, with 70+ plants to plant – it is not a quick job.

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One of the landscaping projects I am most excited about this year is the remaking of a new clients complete backyard in Brookside.  These clients called me in April, looking to have the work done by their wedding in May.  In order to get things done in time I knew we would have to work fast to be able to schedule, plan and get everything ready.  Right now, we are on track.

The Landscaping Plan

The plan was fairly simple and drawn out on the spot since we were going to have to move fast.  Essentially, we will be removing all the existing shrubs in the back since they were not part of a cohesive plan.  New beds would be created around the perimeter of the property and then new sod would be installed.

The Plants

Here are the plants that we will be using in this landscaping project.

The Dirt

Dirt is quite a misnomer.  I don’t use dirt for many of my Kansas City Landscaping Projects.  This is 8 yards of pure compost.  Generated organically from a local yard waste recycling center.  It is the single most important thing to the the landscapes I plant not just surviving, but thriving.  This dirt will be spread out and tilled into all bed and new lawn areas.

The Removal

A lot of plants had to be removed before anything else could be accomplished.

Once all the shrubs were removed.  This is what it looked like as it filled my trailer! There is a lot of plant material in that trailer !

Moving the Dirt

Here are progress shots as the

compost is trucked around to the back.  Because of the layout of this yard, the dirt could only be moved by wheelbarrow.  10,000 – 12,000 pounds of compost was used for this project.

That was the stage 1 of the project.  Next, will be the more exciting part of preparing the beds and installing the plants.

Stay tuned

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This year, Kansas City Landscaping has seen a Spring that was more gradual than in past years.  This has been good for the plants and lawns in Kansas City .  Consistently cool Kansas City temperatures with only rare and short warm-up have allowed us to gradually slip into Spring and avoid the landscaping pitfalls of moving too fast.  Landscapers like slow springs because very few plants have been hurt by April freezes this year and although it has been fairly dry the plants have faired well.  However, gradual will soon give way to rapid growth as soon as we get some heat.  Lawn Mowing will soon be the most common weekend chore for most Kansas City homeowners. 

Blue Grass and Fescue lawns have thrived in this slightly cooler temperature.  They have been growing laterally and down for the last several weeks.  The imminent heat will spur rapid upward growth – we will soon be mowing VERY often!

One of the negatives of this low soil temperature ahs been for any new spring lawn seeding.  The grass has not grown much at all if any.  That is again due to cooler than normal soil temps.  This may not be a great thing for Spring seeded lawns since it simply will not have the time needed to grow before summer heat sets in.  However, if my inside sources at NBC Action News are accurate, we may have a cooler than normal Summer which would be good for all of Kansas City’s lawns. 

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