Garden Designing, Maintenance and Irrigation Services
Companies & Individual Contractors in Spruce Grove

Garden Designing, Maintenance & Irrigation Spruce Grove / Alberta / Canada

About Garden Maintenance in Spruce Grove

Most people love a garden around their home or office. Garden adds aesthetic, as well as financial value. With proper planning and design, a garden can be a great accent or even a centerpiece to a property. And with appropriate garden maintenance, it can continue to look great, all year round, for many years. But this can also be a great work, which many people can’t carry out as they don’t have the time or expertise to handle. It can be overwhelming for many people, who want the beauty and enjoyment of a garden around their home or property, but don’t want to spend hours outside in the sun, bent over or sitting on the ground, planting, weeding, and sweating.

That’s where garden maintenance services and gardening services come into play. These garden maintenance services companies offer a full range of services for maintaining gardens, refreshing their contents, and keeping the flowers, shrubs, and other plants in top condition. While individual gardening services vary from company to company, most employ professionals who have a great deal of experience in plant care, garden maintenance, and landscaping, as well as expertise in the related equipment, chemicals, aesthetics, planning, and horticultural skills.

In this article, we’ll look more closely at garden maintenance services and gardening services, comparing them to landscaping services, looking at the different roles they play and services they offer for commercial and residential customers, and provide some advice on choosing the right garden maintenance services or gardening services company to suit your needs.

GARDEN MAINTENANCE SERVICES AND GARDENING SERVICES VS. LANDSCAPING SERVICES – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

It’s important to address the differences between garden maintenance services and gardening services, and their counterpart, if you will, landscaping services. There is a gray area, or overlap, between these types of companies. Some landscaping companies do most, if not all, of the tasks of garden maintenance services and gardening services. Options can vary significantly from company to company, of course. On the other hand, most garden maintenance services or gardening services companies don’t perform all the tasks that a landscaping services company might. They usually are more focused on maintaining, refreshing, and dealing with the garden area specifically, whereas landscapers often perform tasks such as mowing and trimming lawns, removing leaves and debris, tree trimming, and more.

Therefore, often garden maintenance services and gardening services are more specialized than general landscaping services. There are pros and cons to using individual services for gardening and landscaping needs or using a single landscaping service. As always, it is ultimately up to consumers to weigh their options and pick the best type of company that makes sense for their needs and budget.

GARDEN MAINTENANCE SERVICES AND GARDENING SERVICES – COMMERCIAL SERVICES

One of the largest employers of garden maintenance services and gardening services are the myriad of commercial spaces in our everyday lives – office parks, malls, public areas and parks, schools and universities, and many more. Commercial garden maintenance services are not dissimilar from residential, though they tend to operate on a much larger scale. Many commercial spaces require significant gardening services to manage the various shrubs, trees, and large flower and plant beds on their properties, and to keep them looking their best. Services typically include cutting and trimming works, planting annuals based on what is seasonally appropriate, planting and pruning perennials, and tending to the plants with fertilizing, irrigation, and many other necessary tasks. It may also include maintenance of the garden-related structures, such as structural stones for raised beds, decorative elements like walkways, rock or mulch, and similar.

Of course, in both commercial and residential situations, one of the necessary routine tasks that garden maintenance services and gardening services are often required to undertake is weed and pest control. Weeds growing in a commercial garden, flower beds, or planters are just unacceptable to most commercial property owners, so routine and rigorous removal of weeds is par for the course. If pest problems develop – whether insect, animal, or otherwise – they may be called upon to undertake mitigation measures, such as swapping plants with less pest-appealing options, using insecticides or traps, and other related tasks.

GARDEN MAINTENANCE SERVICES AND GARDENING SERVICES – RESIDENTIAL SERVICES

Pretty much all the commercial services offered by garden maintenance services and gardening services companies are also undertaken in a residential capacity. For residential customers, garden maintenance services and gardening services often care for individual home gardens, which typically includes tasks such as:

Weed and pest control
Pruning and trimming plants, shrubs, flowers, and similar
Removing annuals when out of season, and cycling in new plants
Trimming and deadheading perennials
Mulching or placing/refreshing decorative stones
Physical maintenance on pavers, structural rocks for walls and raised beds, and similar
In some cases, working with the homeowner to understand what planting/changes they want to be undertaken in the garden as seasons change, and purchasing/integrating the customer’s ideas

Residential services often may include more general landscaping tasks as well, such as trimming the grass around the garden area, tree trimming work, removal of leaves, branches, and other debris, replenishment of topsoil, addressing drainage or irrigation issues, and other tasks. Precisely what a garden maintenance service or gardening services company does can vary from company to company, and job to job. When in doubt, consumers are advised to check it on the garden maintenance company’s website or call and ask relevant questions to ensure they offer the services you need for your home or commercial garden work.

GARDEN MAINTENANCE SERVICES AND GARDENING SERVICES – CHOOSING THE RIGHT COMPANY

Like many home services, consumers can sometimes find it difficult to know how to choose the right garden maintenance service company for their needs. After all, selecting a garden maintenance service or gardening services company is not something that comes up very often for most people! To make the process easier, we’ve highlighted some fundamental questions and categories below, which can be used to evaluate and compare garden maintenance services and gardening service providers.

Services – what garden maintenance services do they exactly offer? Are they experts in garden maintenance, or are they a general landscaper? Do they do physical maintenance of structures, beds, and planters, or only deal with the plants themselves?
Reputation – does the garden maintenance services company have a good reputation? How are the reviews from customers? Do you know anyone who has hired them for their garden maintenance services or gardening services previously?
Experience – how long they have been in garden maintenance services and gardening service in the business? How many satisfied customers do they have?
Professionalism – do they promptly return customer calls? Are they polite and courteous? Do they answer questions clearly and thoroughly?
Time and Cost – how long do they estimate the garden maintenance services and gardening service job will take them to complete? How often do they visit, and what’s the duration of each visit? What is the cost estimate? How does this compare to other garden maintenance services and gardening service companies?

SUMMARY ABOUT GARDEN MAINTENANCE SERVICES

In summary, it should be clear that gardens are a beneficial aesthetic portion of both commercial and residential properties. They can be a joy to see and be around, but also take a great deal of work to maintain. The experts from garden maintenance services or gardening services companies help make this easier, offering a variety of services for garden maintenance. Some specialize in commercial settings, others in residential settings, and many works in both gardening cases with equal ease. Some garden maintenance services and gardening service companies may cross over into the realm of landscaping as well. No matter what a garden maintenance services or gardening services company offers, they generally provide high-quality, professional garden maintenance and gardening services to keep gardens looking great, fresh, and clean – leaving you to enjoy the aesthetic appeal of your garden, without the hassle of trying to maintain it all yourself!

Garden Designing

Gardens of all sizes and shapes are a great addition to any home. They provide a beautiful aesthetic appeal or can be functional to grow vegetables and herbs and add to a home’s value. Gardens as a landscaping element are one of the most accessible and most affordable ways to improve the look of your home and to put a distinctive touch on the landscaping and area around your house. While some may prefer a DIY approach, others like the cohesive look of a professionally-designed garden. Garden designers, garden designing, and construction services providers are the experts who work in this field. In this article, we’ll highlight the differences between garden designers and garden designing and construction services, walk consumers through the typical garden design consultation and garden design process. Talk about various design considerations, briefly walk through the steps of standard construction processes, and talk a little bit about when and why a DIY approach may be warranted, as opposed to a professional approach from garden designers and garden designing and construction services companies.

GARDEN DESIGNERS AND GARDEN DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES – DIFFERENCES

For a start, let's talk about the differences between the services and capabilities of garden designers versus garden designing and construction services. Strictly speaking, garden designers are designers, who work with a client to figure out the garden design plan, layout, contents plan, and other aspects relating to a garden. Then, the work is turned over, either to the client, or the client’s chosen garden contractor or garden construction service. By contrast, garden designing, construction services providers tend to be full-service operations, working with the client from the garden design through construction and completion of the garden.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both garden designers and garden designing and construction services. Typically, experts who are solely garden designers may have more artistic or aesthetic expertise, which can lead to more aesthetic or artistic results. That said, they may not have as much knowledge in materials and engineering as someone who works with a garden designing and construction services firm, meaning the garden design itself may be harder (or even impossible) to execute. At the same time, garden designing and construction services companies may sometimes fall into the “jack of all trades, master of none” category, producing inferior designs for gardens. For the most part, however, you’ll find good and bad examples of both types of providers, and the choice rests with the consumer and their preferences.

GARDEN DESIGNERS AND GARDEN DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES – THE DESIGN PROCESS

The garden design process is mostly the same, regardless of whether you choose garden designers or garden designing and construction services to do the design. Typically, the process begins with a consultation between the garden designer and client, as well as surveying the property and space for the garden. The garden designer will talk to the client to get a sense of what they are looking for – how large, what kinds of contents, what their aesthetic likes and dislikes are, etc. There are also other considerations, which we’ll touch on in the next section. The garden designer will likely take pictures of the property or designated area for the garden as well, to use as a reference, and later, for renderings (in some cases).

The garden designer will then go back to their office, and work on design plans. Usually, these are like simplified blueprints – highlighting what kinds of beds or planting locations will go where, what the heights/depths and other factors are, what types of materials are to be used, and what plants, flowers are to be planted in that area. That may also include designing garden watering/sprinkler systems in some cases. Some garden designers, garden designing, and construction services firms use 3D technology to render the garden design in a virtual space, and then slug in the photos from the client’s property as background, to give an accurate impression of what the garden design might look like.

Lastly, the garden renderings and plans are shared with the client for approval or modification. The garden designers, garden designing, and construction services companies will work with the client until they approve the garden design, plant choices, and other elements of the garden design plan. In the case of garden designing and construction services, this often comes with an estimated price tag for the work to be done to construct the garden as well.

GARDEN DESIGNERS AND GARDEN DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES – DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

There are several considerations during the design process that both client and garden designers or garden designing, construction services need to know. In no particular order, the most prominent factors are listed below.

What is the climate like in the region? Temperature range, typical weather, wind patterns, and other factors unique to the area, and the property can severely influence the choice of plants, layout, watering, and other factors.
Does the proposed area for the garden have a lot, moderate, or only a little sunlight? Are there areas that are saturated with the sunlight, and areas that get a minimal amount of the sun? These details are necessary to know for garden designers and garden designing and construction services to select the right types of plants for each location.
What plants are best suited to the area, based on the above two factors? Which plants and types of plants does the client like more? Do they want a mix of shrubs, trees, and flowers, or mostly flowers? Do they want an area to plant vegetables?
What level of maintenance does the client expect to undertake with the garden? Are they planning to hire a landscaping and gardening service to maintain it, or are they going to do the garden maintenance themselves?
Are there any neighborhood, local government, or other zoning or ordinance/rules that have an impact or limit the range of what the garden designers or garden designing and construction services can do – either in material choice, height/size of plantings, etc.?
How much is the client looking to spend, both in the design phase and in the garden construction phase? Their price range will be a significant limiter on the overall scope of the garden design plan.

GARDEN DESIGNERS AND GARDEN DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES – THE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

After the design from garden designers or garden designing and construction services provider has been completed and approved by the client, garden construction work can begin. It generally involves first preparing the garden site with any excavation or earth moving that may be necessary. Topsoil and other elements are often trucked in, along with the chosen building materials for raised beds and similar. Next, they follow the garden design plan and work on the completion of beds, walkways, planting areas, and more. Garden irrigation systems are put in place, and any final topsoil and decorative elements added. Plants will likely be purchased and planted (unless the time of year means planting will have to happen later). With some labor on the part of garden designing and construction services, the design of a client’s ideal garden is brought to life!

GARDEN DESIGNERS AND GARDEN DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES – DIY VS. HIRING A SERVICE

Sometimes, clients may wish to have a garden design done by garden designers or garden designing services provider and then proceed to complete the garden construction work themselves. That can be appealing, especially for smaller gardens, but should be discussed up-front with the garden designer. That allows the garden designers or gardens designing and construction services company to make sure they tailor the design plan to commercially-available materials and things that can be done by a homeowner, without the need for heavy equipment, for example.

Otherwise, some clients may want a garden designed without reference to any plants or contents – instead, they want the design and layout for beds and planters that they can fill as they see fit as an ongoing DIY gardening project. The garden designers or garden designing and construction services companies will design and build the actual, physical aspects of the garden, such as paths, planters, raised beds, and irrigation, but the consumer will make the choice of garden plants and actual planting work. That is entirely possible, but again, clients should advise their chosen garden designer upfront, as it is a somewhat different type of job.

SUMMARY ABOUT GARDEN DESIGNERS AND GARDEN DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTION

In summary, gardens are a great addition to a home for many reasons. Expert garden designers or garden designing and construction services companies that can help clients to design a stellar garden, marrying practical considerations with an artistic vision. Then, garden designing and construction services providers can bring the design to life, performing the necessary tasks to prepare the garden site, build the planters, beds, pathways, and similar, and plant the chosen flowers, trees, bushes, shrubs, herbs, vegetables – whatever the customer desires. In no time, a lush and vibrant garden to rival those of the rich and famous is entirely within most consumers’ reach.

Garden and Lawn Irrigation

We all know why we need lawn and garden irrigation systems. Whether we believe in global warming, climate change, and all that, it doesn’t matter. The fact is, our climate is unreliable and does not always provide either the amount of sunshine we would like or the amount of rainfall our gardens would like. Of course, in more southern climes we know that every summer there will be long periods of drought and high temperatures, and if we want to maintain a flourishing garden, we must water. But, unless we live in the Pacific Northwest, where too much rain and proper drainage rather might be the problem, we might well want to think about garden and lawn irrigation during a dry spell, to protect our investment.

Most people who like gardens like to spend time making sure they are carefully maintained, and rich and luxuriantly planted. The motivation here is partly just the satisfaction of seeing things grow, self-satisfaction in creating and maintaining beauty. Here is the therapeutic value of getting our hands dirty, the aesthetic pleasure we get from seeing our lovely property with its beautiful trees, shrubs, lawns, flowering borders, and for some the understanding that the money invested in the garden, garden irrigation equipment, etc. is related to the value of the property itself. It’s not just how big your spread is, or how many ‘baths’ the house boasts, but how beautiful the whole property looks, that counts when it comes to selling. Comparing like for like, a good-sized, well maintained (and well-watered) garden can attract bids up to 20% higher compared to a property with the same total area but with a lesser garden.

LAWN AND GARDEN IRRIGATION INSTALLATION SERVICES – WHAT DO THEY DO?

Can you install a garden or lawn irrigation system yourself? The answer, of course, is yes, but whether it is a good idea or not is a different can of worms. (A very apt metaphor, as will be explained in just a moment.) The thing about garden irrigation systems is that they are often complicated. A garden or lawn irrigation system must have the right water pressure and water volume and must deliver precisely the right amount of water to all the different areas of the lawn or garden, as and when they need it. A lawn and garden irrigation installation service will evaluate the property, consider the makeup of the soil, the different drainage capacity of the ground in different areas, ask what is underneath the topsoil – sand, gravel, rock, clay? Each of these will have different retention and drainage characteristics; for example, the waterlogged ground can be much worse for plants than too little water - everything affects the choice of the garden irrigation system. Some lawn and garden irrigation installation companies will not only evaluate how the water flows through the property but may even go to the lengths of counting the number of worms per square yard, to better understand the porosity of the lawns and gardens. Can you do all this yourself? Well, some of us water gardens with different grades of lawn and garden irrigation, but could you come close to delivering the precision in garden irrigation control which the real lawn and garden irrigation installation professionals can achieve – and precise lawn and garden irrigation is what you need, to have a beautiful garden which stays that way.

LAWN AND GARDEN IRRIGATION SYSTEMS – GARDEN IRRIGATION SYSTEM MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR SERVICES

Do you have a maintenance contract on your car or your boiler or air-conditioning system? If the answer is no then maybe that is something else you might want to think about, but concerning garden and lawn irrigation systems, it is strongly advisable that you take out a lawn and garden irrigation system maintenance and repair contract with an irrigation system installation service provider.

There are three main reasons for that:

As said earlier, advanced lawn and garden irrigation systems are fiendishly complicated. The original irrigation system piping map might be reasonably straightforward, but the automatic lawn, garden irrigation valve activation, and water distribution management systems often are driven by PC level software or smartphone interface these days. If something goes wrong, the garden and lawn irrigation diagnostics system will flag it, but will you know how to find and fix the irrigation system problem, and then get the whole system reset and back in kilter.
Depending on the scale of the property, the garden and lawn irrigation system will have a central control station, at least two independent garden or lawn irrigation water sources, one or more pressure pumps and valve-based distribution nodes, a lot of pop-up misters and watering sprayers, and perhaps miles of garden or lawn irrigation tubing. But your garden is usually full of people, pets and is also open and exposed to the ravages of Mother Nature. Garden and lawn irrigation equipment will get disturbed, or trampled on, or even stolen! Anything from a remote garden irrigation system actuator to a hundred-yard length of sub-surface garden or lawn irrigation tubing might have to be replaced. Are you going to trace it, find it, replace it, and reset the garden and lawn irrigation system?
Gardens and lawns never stay the same for long. The main reason for this is, of course, that it grows. In general, most plants keep getting bigger. Also, most gardeners like to fiddle. “What would this look like here? What would happen if I put a new hedge just there? I am bored with roses, let’s plant delphiniums!” When you change the garden, you must change the garden or lawn irrigation system for its needs. Once again, you can make a garden and lawn irrigation system change yourself, and you will gain knowledge and confidence over time in modifying and resetting the garden irrigation system you have had installed. But when something with a garden irrigation system goes wrong, then it is much better to press a button on your phone and have the lawn and garden irrigation system maintenance and repair experts on hand to sort things out.

LAWN AND GARDEN IRRIGATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT SERVICES – WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY DO WE NEED THEM?

The most complex system in the world is the international communication network, with tens of billions of landlines, mobile connections, routers, bridges, exchanges, firewalls, even satellites. Millions of people work every day to keep it working, and it can’t be allowed to fail. Comparing the garden or lawn irrigation system to the web system is, of course, inappropriate, but there are some parallels. If you have (or want) a large and beautiful garden, then your advanced garden irrigation system will usually be by far the most complex system on your property, it cannot be allowed to fail (Or many expensive plants will simply curl up and die!) and irrigation system has to contend with the constant pressure of change and growth. That is why you need a contract with a local lawn and garden irrigation system maintenance or repair company to inspect your entire garden and lawn irrigation system twice a year – once in Spring and once again in late Fall. To check that garden irrigation is ready for the new season, put the irrigation system into winter mode, test and inspect it for wear and tear or damage, and review any changes and developments you might have made or be considering. Your garden and lawn irrigation equipment are complex systems, and that is recommended having someone check it out twice a year – your local lawn and garden irrigation services company will be happy to do that.

LAWN AND GARDEN IRRIGATION SYSTEM INSTALLATION – WHAT DOES IT COST?

It is not cheap. You probably may feel that we have been unstintingly generous with your cash. But note what we said right at the beginning - a beautiful garden will also strongly affect the value of your property. Work out the value of your house on a bare plot, take around 10% of that, and that should be the budget you have to spend on the garden. Give some of that to the lawn and garden irrigation system installation and maintenance services, and you can watch your garden and the value of your property grows together. Do the math.