Northampton Nursery and Building SOlutions
Courtesy of Northampton Nursery & Northampton Building Solutions       

April 2011       
            



Northampton Nursery

In This Issue

Let Us Help You

If you're considering any home improvements - interior, exterior, landscape, hardscape - give us a call. And share our number with your friends - we'd like to help them, too!

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Northampton Building Solutions

Landscaping
LandscapingProTipTips from the Pros
All You Need to Know About Mulch

When we do spring clean-ups and spruce-ups, we have a lot of conversations about mulch. It may not be a sexy topic for homeowners, but it's an important one that can help make any landscape healthier and more beautiful. A layer of mulch does more than provide a clean and attractive surface. It keeps moisture from evaporating so you don't have to water as often in the summer months. It suppresses weed seeds and blocks the light they need to sprout. It breaks down to enrich the soil. And it insulates, protecting roots from hot spells in the summer and cold snaps in the spring and fall. There are a lot of mulches on the market. You've probably run across licorice root, pine needle or chipped hardwood mulches at the garden center. Ninety-nine percent of mulches available commercially are chipped hardwood. The important thing is to know where it came from. At Northampton, we buy our mulch locally, from a Bucks County business that chips its own from trees it collects from area tree services. We generally recommend triple-ground mulch because it is finer and less "chippy" than double-ground. We have also found that our customers like the triple-ground varieties that are non-toxic dyed mulches. Dyed with vegetable-based dyes, they retain their color longer, and will remain fresh and attractive for an entire summer season.

PlantMonthPlant of the Month
Heritage Birch

Heritage BirtchThe Heritage Birch, or Heritage River Birch, is a popular and beautiful addition to any yard. A native to North America, Heritage is a vigorous, fast-growing tree whose distinctive bark provides year-round visual interest in any landscape. The bark of the Heritage birch is cinnamon or salmon on the outside, but peels back to reveal a creamy white inner bark. A variety of the common river birch, the Heritage birch is a hardy and fast-growing species that can quickly add beauty and value to a property. It can grow up to four feet a year and will top out at 40-50 feet with a spread of 25. It likes full to partial sun and wetter soil, but can adapt well to drier soil as well. Heritage birch can be attractive as a single trunk planting, as a multi-stemmed tree or as a grove of multiple trees. It's also a magnet for wildlife: Chickadees, finches, song sparrows and even wild turkey love the seed.

LandTrendLandscaping Trend
Garden Trends for 2011

Once warm weather lets us get outside, people are all ears to hear about the latest gardening trends. Some years there is one big trend people are talking about; in others there are many. In an article in Garden Chic, a magazine for garden retailers, landscape expert Clint Albin recently targeted the things he's watching this year. First on his list was specialized outdoor lighting "as we continue to make the outdoors another room" in our homes. We couldn't agree more, as we've written about the growing interest in lighting installations in this newsletter. But that's not all Albin's thinking about. Here are the other trends in his "Top Five" trends for 2011: Vintage garden furniture, including metal chairs and rattan porch gliders (just like Grandma used to have); landscaping with water features (another trend we've noticed locally); pre-planted containers mixing vegetables and herbs for terrace gardening (a healthy and fun idea); and food coaching on everything from how to control pests organically to how to cook those veggies you have grown (everybody can use good advice).

TimeToIt's Time To ...
Get That Lawn in Shape for Summer

With temperatures rising at last, April is a great month for getting outdoors. It's also a great month to get your lawn in shape for summer.  

  • Start by taking a walk around your property. Check for dead spots, places worn bare from foot traffic or outbursts of nuisance plants like moss or March marigold.
  • If you haven't already, fertilize your lawn with a good weed and feed fertilizer.
  • If you have crabgrass, now's time to put down a pre-emergent control treatment.
  • Remove excess thatch from your lawn with an iron rake or a rented thatcher.
  • Aerate the lawn if you have areas that have gotten packed down over the winter.
  • Get your mower serviced and sharpened. The earlier you do this the less you'll have to wait.
  • In your garden now's a good time to plant summer blooming bulbs like dahlias, gladiolas and lilies.
  • If you have hydrangeas, it's also time to treat the soil to adjust their color. If your blooms are pink and you want blue, add aluminum phosphate. If your blooms are bluish and you want pink, add lime.

Masterpiece Project

HomeImprovementTipMaking the Grade with a New Walkway
New walkway

A stairway built with rock-faced wall block created an inviting and dramatic entry to this home

When we work with homeowners, we go out of our way to meet their expectations. And sometimes making the grade with a client actually involves making a grade. Consider the challenge we faced at Susan and Ishamel's home. They have a lovely stone house with big windows that they enjoy a lot. But they had a problem with what was happening along the old concrete walk that led to the front door from the driveway. The area between the walk and the house had settled and was sloping toward the foundation. That can be a recipe for a drainage problem, and it was our job to prevent it with an attractive solution. We met with Susan and Ishamel and talked through their goals. Then we crafted a plan that would bring the walkway farther from the house and lead visitors up a new set of steps from the driveway to the front door. Built with rock-faced wall block, the stairway created a more inviting and dramatic entry to the home and gave us the opportunity to re-grade the area along the house so that it sloped away from the foundation. To complete the picture, we replaced the existing rock and ivy landscape bed with a gentle slope of black-dye hardwood mulch leading down to the driveway and accented the new space with attractive, low-maintenance plantings. When all was said and done, we had made the grade with Susan and Ishamel. They were happy and so were we!

Would you like a project like this for your home? Ask the team at Northampton Nursery & Northampton Building Solutions how we can help turn your dreams into reality.

Home Improvement

HomeImprovementTipTip of the Month
Remodeling Gains as an Option for Construction

When new construction is not an option, remodeling has greater appeal for homeowners and other property owners. And a new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University confirms that remodeling still accounts for a huge portion of the construction market, even with the construction woes felt by the nation in the last few years. "The recent downturn notwithstanding, remodeling spending has in general been on a healthy upward climb," the Harvard experts wrote in the report titled "A New Decade of Growth for Remodeling." From 1995 to 2009, the remodeling market nearly doubled in size in nominal terms and was up over 36 percent in real terms. With the return of modest growth in 2010, remodeling is again a $300 billion a year market. "As both the economy and the housing market stabilize, so, too, will homeowner improvement spending," Harvard researcher Abbe Will told Philadelphia Inquirer real estate writer Alan Heavens. Where should homeowners begin? The most likely projects, according to the Harvard researchers, are maintenance and improvements that have been deferred during the recession. After that, homeowners will "focus on upgrades with longer paybacks [such as] energy-efficient retrofits." Start small, and take steps to improve your property. It will help the value, help your mood and help the local economy of your community. "Over the coming years, real spending on homeowner improvements is expected to grow at a 3.5 percent average annual pace," the Harvard experts predict. Not overwhelming numbers, but a step in the right direction.
Living Green & Well

GreenYou Too Can Benefit from the Cooperative Extension Program

It may come as a surprise to homeowners, but you don't have to be a farmer to benefit from the expertise of the Penn State Cooperative Extension Service. The Extension Service website is loaded with free information and advice that can help you, even if you've never been near a farm, let alone worked one. The Home and Family section includes information on backyard composting, home lawns, weed management and selecting shrubs for Pennsyvlania landscapes, to name just a few topics. The Pests and Pesticides section includes fact sheets on insects you'll encounter in Pennsylvania, a list of insects that affect vegetables or crops, pesticide education, pesticide updates and a section for kids that introduces young readers to insects - "the most abundant, fascinating and diverse life form on Earth." There's something for everyone at the Extension website. If we have a cool or rainy day this month, take some time to visit. You'll come away with smart ideas for dealing with problems in your yard or garden.

Don't Wait Any Longer for Your Spring Clean-Up! 

We've said it before, but it's time to say it again: If your yards are like ours, you have some clean-up to do from winter storms and winds. And now is the time to contact us about spring clean-ups, mulching of shrubs and plantings and installation of new garden and landscape features. We do get busy fast once people realize winter is over, and this is one case where being early really helps. Give us a call to get on our schedule, and ask us about our maintenance program.

Check Out Our Video Series
On our website we're now featuring our new Northampton Nursery Video Series, in which we show how we work and share our ideas for creating home masterpieces. Click on this link to view.

215-364-7040  [email protected]   NorthamptonNursery.com
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