Winter Masonry

Wintertime, the night air is vibrantly crisp, and a dull white expanse of snow spreads out beneath punctuate bright stars scattered across the Heavens. This is an opportune time to sit with your family on the backyard stone patio, relax and brown marshmallows over a toasty fire brightly dancing in the outdoor chimney or fire pit.  This is a seasonal experience you don't want to miss, so contact your landscape mason ahead of time, before the first winter snows covers the last traces of green in the outdoor ground cover.  

Go over a checklist of to-dos with your contractor. Be certain your chimney and or fire-pit are clean and in good working order, fix any cracks in your patio's stone work. Enhance your backyard visual effects by trimming all summer blooming bushes (after their leaves turn), and installing outdoor lighting to give visitors the best night view of your yard's features.  Add color to your otherwise drab winterscape by putting in winter plants such as lenten roses, colored-twig dogwoods, or winter foliage conifers.     

If the snow days are still a bit off, you might be able to complete a last minute masonry project. With modern heating technology, outdoor construction companies can work all year around in most locations. Cement loses its hydration when temperatures drop below 40 degrees, but the modern mason is fully prepared to implement sophisticated winter procedures.

Outdoor builders employ a variety of techniques to keep their workers and the cement warm. This may include warming the mortar in an outdoor enclosure or enclosing the whole construction area in poly-draped work areas. Powerful propane heaters generate warm air that can be pumped throughout the site. Masons adapt cement to winter conditions by using bulk delivered dry, unfrozen ingredients, which are mixed with pre-warmed water. Type III, quick drying cement, increases the available heat.  Instead of traditional straw, stone-workers use insulating blankets, electric blankets, or heat lamps to retain the heat of cement hydration for extended periods.

Take advantage of all that your outdoor landscape and masonry can offer you to enjoy this year's winter's beauty!  

For the best in winter masonry contact the Turf Barbers. 2929 Quinlan Street Yorktown Heights, NY 10598; +1 914-302-2469; http://www.trufbarbers.com   

Fall Landscaping Tips

Landscaping Yorktown Heights, NY

Fall is an ideal time for landscaping. Want to make hardscape changes? You can replace paving, make raised beds, re-shape, re-lay out, make paths, build retaining walls, removing unwanted plants. Fall is also a good time for pool and paver installation.

When it comes to softscape landscaping, fall is the time to enjoy your garden and enjoy the fall colors. Maintenance gardening will allow to make the most of the fruits of hard work throughout the spring and summer.   Important fall landscape activities include pulling off dead flowers, trimming bushes.  Fall is a time to tidy up your camellias by removing spent blossoms, and picking up fallen one. Pick off dead flowers from rhododendrons and azaleas, which are at their peak in the fall. 

Fall is a good time for adding many plants and trees, because they have time to develop hardy root systems that will get them through the winter and ready to go next spring. Fall id also a good time to reflect on new landscape changes. You can get great ideas by attending flower shows, open gardens, and visiting garden shops. You can add style to your landscape by sharpening edges of your lawn and flow bed. You can create focal points of interest by adding a circular bed, outdoor artwork, or interesting borders of wood.  

Finally, you can consult with your landscaper. After thoroughly enjoying your home's softscape, which you worked so hard to create and nurture throughout the spring and summer, use the late fall to sit down and plan changes to your overall landscape design.  Agree on major design changes with your landscaper, make a down payment, make a start on the project if there's time, and the work will have top priority when landscaping begins anew in the spring.

For expert landscaping in the Westchester and Putnam County areas, contract the Turf Barbers. 2929 Quinlan Street Yorktown Heights, NY 10598; +1 914-302-2469; http://www.trufbarbers.com