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Our award-winning landscape services division includes professional on-site consultations, full-service landscape design, installation, and maintenance. Our landscape designers work with the production department through every step to ensure that clients receive the highest quality design and installation. From ponds and walkways to patios and planting beds, our designers will meet with you at your site to discuss your landscaping needs and to ensure that every element comes together within budget. Our installation production crews have achieved a high standard of excellence in the industry and their skills and experience is a source of great pride for them. We are insured for worker’s compensation and are licensed in Maryland as a home improvement contractor. All our trees, shrubs and ground covers (except annuals, guaranteed for 30 days, and perennials, guaranteed for 90 days) have a 100 percent replacement guarantee for one year from the date of installation. Our staff will check your installation throughout your one year warranty period to ensure the success of your investment. During a post installation walk-through, your designer will give you complete plant care instructions. For questions or to schedule an appointment, call 410.867.6336 or click here to send an email. The snow is melting...are you ready for what's underneath?
This severe winter has taken a hard toll on trees, shrubs and other landscaping. But Homestead Gardens can help get your yard looking its best again. So how do you assess the damage to your yard? Take a look at the article below by Homestead Gardens' Education Coordinator, Gene Sumi, for help. Heavy Snow Damage to Your Garden Trees and Shrubs What can you do? The record-breaking snowstorms of 2009-2010 have left a lot of damaged trees and shrubs throughout our region. Many are asking what they can do, now that the snow has melted enough to see and evaluate the extent of that damage. Here is what you should consider in assessing the damaged plants. 1. We hope many of you have followed the advice of many plant experts that you should not try to remove the heavy snow covering your plants. The branches that are already severely damaged may not matter as much as branches with minor breaks or those that are merely bent under the weight of the snow. The act of removing the snow now will often cause more damage to these minor problems and make them more serious and possibly irreparable. Be patient and let all the snow on top of the plants melt down by itself. 2. Broken branches are usually not worth trying to bind up. The damaged branches should be pruned off below the point of the break, just above an outward-pointing leaf bud. Shrubs and trees do not “heal” like tissue in animals, but new branches will emerge in the spring to fill in the open spaces left by the pruned branches. 3. Major breaks in older branches of shrubs and trees, or at the trunk of trees are often difficult to replace by new growth. They are almost impossible to mend on their own. If you have a serious split at the junction of critical main branches or to the trunk itself, these will need more than just first aid. But you can take action to keep the split from getting worse and , at the same time, attempt to cinch the living tissue of the cambium layers to together so that they have a chance to mend. This can be done by wrapping a tape around the circumference of the break to join the two halves of the split branches or trunk. The tape has to be strong enough to keep the split halves of the damaged branch tightly joined. The tape will have to have some “give” so it does not cut into or “girdle” the tree, cutting off the vital nutrients and water paths connecting the branches to the roots. A good choice for that tape would be vinyl stretch tie, which is made of a ribbon of vinyl plastic in a spool. The tape can be doubled or tripled to increase its strength, but it will still stretch enough to prevent girdling. This is a temporary, but an important first step in saving the plant at the break point. The next step requires expert advice and assistance. A brace may be necessary to keep the break point together for the long term. This will require the insertion of a metallic pin to secure the break permanently. This method should be performed by a trained arborist. You should get the opinion of a trusted tree service expert as to the feasibility of doing this for your particular situation. 4. Branches which have been bent over, but not broken, can be mended by tying them back or gathering them in until the branch resumes it normal growth pattern as the growing season progresses. This can be done to evergreen shrubs that have splayed out branches. A single long piece of heavy twine can be tied to the top of a Leyland Cypress or Arborvitae and wound around the plant in a descending spiral. This will gather in all the branches and hold them securely in the original shape of the shrub. Heavy lower branches can be supported by simple crutches made of wood, which can be propped up beneath sagging branches in several places. These ties and support should be applied soon and left in place until the fall, when they can be removed or kept though the following winter.
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For your convenience, Homestead Gardens will plant any item sold in our nursery yard. Included in our nursery planting service is delivery, mulch, stakes, soil conditioner, planting of all material, and an initial fertilizer application.
Best of all, your selections are covered by Homestead's one year plant guarantee, and if you're a Garden Club member, your guarantee is valid for two years. Please call 410.798.5000 for full details.
