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Winter 2008
All of us at New Leaf wish you the very best for this New Year. We are enthusiastic about the upcoming Spring, and hope that Mother Nature will be more kind to all of us now than She was last fall! We have not been idle here, however, and have some exciting things to alert you to for the upcoming warmer season.
First on the list is the implementation of the second phase of our Service Management software. Phase one was the accounting software that we installed last year. Phase two is a routing and work order system that "talks" directly to our accounting system. This new software will allow us to spend less time at the computer and more time managing your yards' maintenance needs. The only change you should notice will be a slight change in the look and format of your statements from us and a much faster, easier way for us to answer questions you may have about your account with us.
The drought continues to weigh in on every decision we at New Leaf make regarding future planting. Now, with the recent rains, the soil moisture has recovered. This will allow us to plan for replacement on plants that may have died due to the drought. Please let us know if you have plantings that you wish to be renewed for the coming growing season. Our annual flower planting program is another item that needs discussion. We must order our spring annuals before February 28th. We will tilt our plant choices in favor of those that have proven to do best in drier weather and although we all assume that the coming summer will not be as dry as last year's summer, some form of watering restrictions may stay in place until our reservoirs recover fully. New Leaf has obtained a permit for using reclaimed water for watering. This means that we can send our tank spray truck out to water annuals plantings. There will, however, need to be a charge for this service. Please call (919) 490-4454 or email us so that we can discuss your annuals plantings with you.
Whitney plans on continuing to expand his work with ornamental container plantings. He creates mixes of annuals and structural plants coordinated with your décor, architecture, or other color elements to "decorate" your front entry, rear decks and terraces, or other outdoor living areas. With the addition of moisture-retaining additives (soil moist) these containers plantings do quite well with hand watering (which is allowed under water restrictions) even in the full heat of summer. This is another way to provide color even if you do not want to plant annuals in beds this year. Please contact him for more information--we can even help you choose and/or provide the pots!
Continuing on the theme of water please feel free to contact us to request our fliers regarding mulching and spring aeration and overseeding. Now that soil moisture has recovered, mulch will not only make your beds more attractive, it will help keep that soil moisture where we all want it: in the soil. Likewise the rains have softened the ground so that aeration will be much more effective than it was in the drought-hardened ground last fall. If we aerate now, we allow additional water penetration to an even greater depth of the lawn area. Overseeding will help thicken up the grass stand, although we all recognize that this is the "second-best" time to seed and if the hot weather arrives early, the new grass blades may not have the root system to sustain the plant. E-mail or call us to discuss these options at (919) 490-4454. Aeration and overseeding now may improve the look of your drought-stressed lawn.
Finally, New Leaf has some naturalizing daffodil bulbs (a blend of perennial daffodils adapted to this part of North Carolina) left from our fall plantings. If we get them in before the end of this month, they will bloom just fine and are not affected by either drought or deer. In my own yard, some of them were still blooming in early May! Please call us at (919) 490-4454 or email me if you're interested in a few sweeps of bright spring color.
We are currently scheduling for Spring 2008 landscape installations, and the schedule is filling up. Should you require changes to your current landscape or are in need of a design for new landscaping, NOW is the time to get started. Beginning the design process now will help ensure that you will be enjoying your newly installed landscape in the full beauty of the Spring. Simply call to arrange a consultation and one of our designers will be happy to accommodate your landscape design needs. Concerned about the drought? As I reminded a friend just the other day: North Carolina was hardly a desert before we had irrigation! With soil moisture high, the right choice of plants, and time to root out into well-prepared beds, plants will do just fine in the coming year.
As always we appreciate your business and your referrals!
Rick King, New Leaf Landscaping
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