Your front yard is vital in creating the first impression people get about how well you keep up your home. However, yard maintenance is not an easy task. Case in point: trimming shrubs. Depending upon the size of your property, your schedule and your physical capability, hiring a professional yard or lawn service can be the best approach to keeping shrubs and hedges well-groomed, healthy assets to your home’s curb appeal.
In addition to creating an attractive appearance, there are practical reasons to make sure shrubbery is in good shape, so to speak. Trimming is important to the plant’s health, ensuring it gets enough sun and encouraging growth. Trimming is different from pruning, which is done to eliminate dead, broken and infected parts of the plant. Pruning shrubs regularly helps promote healthier shrubs that produce more blooms.
If your landscaping is new, it’s much better to start pruning shrubs when they are young, then do minor annual pruning. If you allow them to become overgrown, they’ll end up needing major renewal pruning, which – assuming you hire a service – will be even more expensive. Black + Decker’s website provides an informative guide to shrub trimming. (For the adventurous, there’s even info on “How to Make a Topiary.”) Despite being written for the do-it-yourself, the article includes helpful basics that everyone should know. For those who may be entertaining the thought of going the DIY route, learning about the specialized equipment involved may tip you toward hiring a service.
Hiring a Yard Service Versus DIY
There is great deal of difference between a professional approach and the DIY way of doing things – unless, of course, you are qualified enough for the job and own the right equipment. In making a list of the advantages of hiring a yard or lawn service, equipment is a good place to start.
Equipment
Yard and lawn care services have all of the proper tools and equipment to do an expert job in trimming and shaping shrubs. In the hands of an experienced landscaper, these specialized pruning tools, saws and power trimmers create a uniform, beautiful effect for the perfect manicured yard. A professional service regularly maintains its tools, keeping them in good working condition, and stores them appropriately.
Physical Labor
There’s no getting around the fact that yard work is hard work. Even lightweight hedge trimmers are heavy and unwieldy, requiring a great deal of physical effort to use. Florida’s triple-digit summer temperatures make the job especially hazardous, necessitating performing it in the early morning or early evening for those insisting on the DIY route. Overexertion leading to illness, heat exhaustion or heat stroke are possible health hazards. Also, the more birthdays we celebrate, the more mindful we need to be about not overestimating our stamina and assuming we can still do what we once did easily in previous years.
Safety
Professional landscapers are trained to do their job safely. For those who don’t do so on a regular basis, climbing a ladder to reach the top of a hedge, wielding a power trimmer or using a small curved saw can be hazardous. Hiring a yard or lawn service could save you a trip to the ER.
Clean-up
A professional yard or lawn service may include clean-up of plant debris in the price of trimming. Be sure to discuss waste removal before hiring a service. Also ask if the service will remove the bags of debris, or if they will be left curbside for yard waste collection day. Some municipalities charge extra for bags of lawn waste that exceed the permitted limit, so check your local regulations first.
Peace of mind
When you hire a professional yard or lawn service, you can spend quality time with your family and friends instead of spending time on landscape maintenance!
The Paint Manager is well-experienced in such yard maintenance jobs as shrub trimming, and has been serving Central Florida homeowners since 2000. Contact us today to learn how we can make your yard an inviting place of beauty for your family and friends.