Landscaping Information

Texas Native Trees

Monterrey Oak: Also known as the Mexican White Oak is a fast growing tree that can reach heights of about 40-60 feet depending on the growing conditions of your yard. In the suburbs though it only reaches about 20-30 feet at maturity. Its drought resistance and moderate watering needs make it great for our Texas climate. The great thing about this tree is that it is oak wilt resistant as well as insect resistant.

Live Oak: This wide spreading provides spotted shade. It is fast growing and can grow to be 40-60 feet in height and have a 60-100 foot spread! Needless to say this tree needs some space to grow. It’s an evergreen tree meaning it has leaves all year round. It has deep green glossy leaves and grows acorns. Live Oaks can tolerate drought, salty soil, and alkaline soils.

Southern Magnolia: Southern Magnolias are a Texas natives large evergreen trees that provide partial to heavy shade. It has a moderate growth rate and watering needs. It’s best to plant them in well drained soil. The tree may produce large surface roots if under deep shade. They have beautiful white flowers and deep green leaves.

Crapemyrtle: This beautiful small tree has smooth peeling bark. During the summer it grows many white, pink, or purple flowers. It is a great way of easily adding color to your landscape. It has a moderate growth rate. And has dry water needs making it very drought resistant.

Landscape Lighting

Landscape lighting is one of the best subtle ways you can drastically improve your yard. Using a low voltage lighting system makes it affordable and only consumes about 1/3 the electricity of high voltage systems use. It increases the usability of your yard by allowing you to enjoy your deck, patio, seating areas throughout evening hours. Landscape lighting creates a relaxing ambiance that is great for recovering from stressful days. With the lighting you can accent certain trees or lawn ornaments to enhance the overall beauty of your yard and house. Landscape lighting also increases the security of your house. By adding light to the darkest corners of your yard you can eliminate hiding places for burglars. It also increases the safety in your back yard. You will be able to see exactly where your pathway is to not worry about tripping or be able to outline where your pool is.

Once decided to add landscape lighting, you need to figure out what kind of bulbs to put in: LED or Halogen. Halogen bulbs uses 90% of the energy they consume to convert into radiant heat while LED only uses 5%. LED lights have longer life and lower power consumption. They also provide more visibility with their greater ground definition with less eye fatigue.

Fall: Hardscaping

There are two parts of landscaping, softscaping and hardscaping. Softscaping is the plant life in the yard, while hardscaping is all of the non-plant design elements of a yard. Hardscaping includes: paved walkways, walls, lawn ornaments, fences, and rocks. It is the foundation of landscaping and should be installed before softscaping. Hardscaping provides that extra push of beauty that softscaping alone can’t accomplish.

Fall is the best time to prepare your yard for Spring time softscaping by designing and installing all hardscaping aspects of your yard! Instead of doing your entire landscaping project at once, installing hardscaping in the Fall and softscaping in the Spring allows you to split up your landscaping project making it more budget friendly! Doing this division allows for a more feasible landscaping project.

As opposed to softscaping being vulnerable to weather changes, hardscaping provides a more permanent beauty that will out live freezing winters and dry summers. Hardscaping enhances the appearance of the yard without adding to lawn maintenance requirements. It also can make your yard more livable by enhancing privacy, making the lawn more level, reducing lawn maintenance needs, and creating boundaries.

Let us use our years of experience to help you check off your hardscaping project from your To-Do List!

Imagine…

coming home after a long stressful day at work. Seeking an escape before commencing your home routine you open the door to your backyard. At that moment, you feel a gentle breeze that wraps you in the aromas of your freshly planted flowers. Serenity. As you walk down a flagstone walkway to your wooden swing that is shaded by a beautiful vitex tree. You sit quietly and take in a deep breathe. As you exhale slowly you feel all the stress from earlier that day disappear. A smile immerses, re-energized to take on the rest of the day.

Our mission is to make this a reality for you. To achieve the aesthetic look you want while choosing plants that can stand our hot texas summers, try adding in some beautiful purple salvias and gold lantana to your backyard garden to add bursts of vibrant color. Vitex trees are a good choice due to their drought tolerance and delicate colorful look.

Contact us if you need help in make your landscaping vision a reality. We will send over a skilled professional to make this process as stress free for you as possible!

Howdy!

Have you ever wanted to plant a garden but didn’t know what type of plants can survive this Texas sun? If you plant a tree or a garden in the summer, will it survive? What is the proper way to water plants and what are the water restrictions during a drought? These are some of the questions that will be answered in this blog. Here, you will also find landscaping tips for every season.

If you have any questions regarding a certain type of plant or landscaping in general, please feel free to comment on any of our posts and we will get your questions answered!

We are Blades of Glory Landscaping. Dedicated to doing high quality work while exercising professionalism and customer service.