Summer Services: Commercial Landscaping Tips

As a property and business owner, you understand the importance of quality landscaping and lawn care in order to attract customers, clients, renters and new employees. After all, a good first impression on those that visit your commercial building can only happen once. And, the summer is the time of year that landscaping and lawns are expected to look lush and well-kept.

You can always call on Advanced Irrigation for help with commercial lawn care in Minnetonka and the surrounding areas. We offer an entire spectrum of commercial lawn care services and can come out on a scheduled or as-needed basis and can always fully customize our commercial lawn care services to meet your company’s needs. But, until then, here are a few of our favorite commercial lawn care services and tips:

Pruning

Corrective pruning is one of the best ways to ensure beautiful flower beds. Our commercial lawn care company will go through your flower beds and prune the flowers that need it. We can do the same for any trees and shrubs on your property as well.

Watering

Deep watering is best for your grass as well as other plants. An irrigation system and specialized commercial lawn care can take care of this task for you. And, a sprinkler system can automatically water based on the type of plant, where it is located in relation to the sun and shade and how much rain has fallen as of late. Irrigation systems help maintain steady, efficient watering unmatched by hand watering. This is one of the many commercial lawn care services we specialize in, so give us a call for more information and to have one installed.

Mowing

Cut the grass to the correct length; not too long and not too short. If you mow the grass too short, this can cause the grass to turn brown or it can damage or destroy the root system. The mowing length mostly depends on the type of grass, but the general rule of thumb is to only cut about 1/3 of the blade. Longer grass blades encourage the root system to grow even deeper into the soil, which promotes healthy and green growth. The experts at Advanced Irrigation are well-versed in all commercial lawn care best practices including mowing and can keep your grass at the length ideal for great looks and optimal growth.

After you are done mowing, leave the grass clippings on the ground. They can help with happier and healthier grass.

If you would like more information on our commercial lawn care services in Minnetonka, call Advanced Irrigation at 612-599-8675, or you can contact us and get a Free Estimate.

Landscape Design Care Tips for the Winter

With winter all but here, you have worthwhile things to do that can enhance the winterscape outside your windows, while you sit by the hearth. As a means of landscape design for your Bloomington or nearby home, we will be focusing on your hardscaping--the pavement, the back patio, the harder surfaces that you have had installed around your home. Our technicians in landscape design also install other sorts of hardscaping items like retaining walls, outdoor fire pits, pergolas and lighting. The key to maintaining their aesthetic appeal in wintertime is upkeep. Make sure that they are free of snow and ice so that they can be a focal point throughout the dead months. 

As your plants go through their dormant stages this winter, enjoy a landscape design with a little hardscaping. Your eyes will be drawn less to the trees and shrubbery that you possess and more to the pop that a master in landscape design has added to your property. With so many options as far as what you can do to enjoy your lawn and garden, why not set yourself up to enjoy it all while they sleep or are covered by snow and ice.

You will want to actively take care of your hardscaping during the winter months. If you are not vigilant you can run into a repair project or two after the thaw that could easily have been prevented. Stay on top of your salt usage. If you apply it but let it sit without removing it or the slush generated, it will eat away at or even stain any concrete, paver or stone that has been incorporated into your landscape design. Stay on top of it! In the grand scheme it does not take more than accumulated minutes for de-icer to do its work. Be there to get rid of it when needed. 

If you have had a nice and fancy patio installed, chances are that you have some metal containing furniture placed upon it. Do not leave these items outside to face winter. Take them inside, use them again as you knew them in the spring. A side effect of leaving these metallic items outside is that if they are under snow or ice the rust that emerges will also stain the hardscaping below it.

Installation is what matters most regarding your hardscaping and how it deals with winter. A winter surviving landscape design of this sort will need a good solid base and options for drainage. Snow and ice accumulate, mass, ultimately melting. The melt should not pool or sit on the surface of your hardscaping only to refreeze. A landscape design installed via hardscaping professionals should be set up adequately to allow this to occur. 

If you would like more information on our landscape design skills in Bloomington, call Advanced Irrigation at 612-599-8675, or you can contact us and get a Free Estimate.

Keep Your Landscape Looking and Feeling Cool With Shady Trees

When planting a shade tree, many do not put enough thought into just where and how a shade tree should be added. There are two major things to consider. The first is that you will want to consider planting it somewhere “inland”—streets representing water—and not on the very edge of your property. If you plant shade trees near a street or at a point where municipalities will likely one day implement imminent domain and put a highway through your property, you run the risk of your tree being violated by power lines and the like. Right of way of overhead wires wreaks havoc on a tree, often to the point of eliminating its shading value. Our landscape design team is fully aware of this issue and would seek a location within your property where risk  is minimal.

A second problem involves just how your plant your shade trees. It is often thought to be elegant and regal to implement something of a platform or raised bed—surround by brick or stone—for a noble shade tree.

Problems can quickly arise. This raised bed, especially if it is built high enough to cover any of the trunk, will make life difficult for your shade tree. Soils will remain moist and not drain or feed the as it otherwise would in a standard planting situation. The soil will not aerate properly because it is compacted to that which encases it as well as the weight and understructure of the tree. Bugs and rodents will also find the area more appealing than they otherwise would, which tends towards damaged bark. These factors combine to rob your shade tree of nutrients, drying out and eventually killing your shade tree. It will be a slow death for your beloved tree. Trees grow slow and die slow. The process will start below the soil, near the trunk, working its way through the interior of the tree outward.  

Many lawns and landscapes are fully exposed to constant sun. If you wish to be part of and directly enjoy your property, perhaps in a hammock, sometime you just want to lay in the shade. Why not implement some shade trees into your landscape design? Advanced Irrigation can help you with your shade tree needs with some landscape design for your Minneapolis home. At Advanced Irrigation, our landscape designers are fully aware of just how and where to implement proper yard shading through shade trees. Season veterans all, our designers can assemble a perfect landscape design to please any and all.

If you would like more information on our landscape design skills in Minneapolis, call Advanced Irrigation at 612-599-8675, or you can contact us and get a Free Estimate.

Smart Irrigation Systems Save Water

No one wants an ugly, dry, brown yard. If you run a business, that large expanse cannot be all dried out and lifeless either. Lush green is definitely the preference. If you are wondering about irrigation systems in the Bloomington area, consider Advanced Irrigation. We are a company that believes firmly in the conservation of water and safe environmental practices in general. Our irrigation systems are water efficient by design.

Through the calculation and practice of evapotranspiration (ET), 20-50 percent savings of water (over a standard irrigation system set-up) can be achieved while keeping your lawn as healthy and alive as it has ever has been. The way evapotranspiration works is by taking the sum of evaporation from the soil and plant transpiration (process whereby grass and plants absorb water through the roots, giving off water vapor through pores).

The evapotranspirator (the grass) is monitored by a smart controller that is digitally in touch with a weather station (24/7) measuring current and pending conditions to calculate local evapotranspiration factors. The smart controller then operates based on those conditions rather than on a schedule. For example, there is no need to water the lawn if it is going to rain in three hours.

These irrigation systems will water your lawn or business property only to replenish the moisture that is needed based on those calculated plant and soil conditions. The smart controller is programmed with the precipitation rate, plant type, soil type, slope and sun/shade exposure and combines with the weather station data of temperature, humidity, wind and solar radiation. The factors then blend to create the irrigation system unleashing its water on your property. Live local data is combined with landscape information to calculate the ET. Your lawn or property ends up with healthier roots and a longer lifespan.  

The savings of water (and as a bonus, money) hover anywhere in the 20-50 percent range based on what would be used in a normal “scheduled” irrigation set-up. One study estimated 66 percent savings in water use.

If you would like more information on our irrigation systems in Bloomington and the surrounding areas, call Advanced Irrigation at 612-599-8675, or you can contact us to get a Free Estimate.

Developing the Perfect Landscape Design

With winter just around the corner, considering landscaping for your yard is probably the furthest thing from your mind. However, fall and winter can be great times to plan what you’d like done in your yard. Some things can be done now, while others will need to wait till spring. Still, if you have a plan already worked out, you can get right to it as soon as the weather warms up again.

There are many things to consider when designing the perfect landscape. You can have something more formal looking or you may choose something with a more casual look that is easier to maintain. We specialize in landscape design in Edina and the surrounding areas, so we want to offer a few suggestions on what to consider when working on your plans.

While you may feel a formal English garden would be great for your home, you might want to reconsider. Formal English gardens require nearly around-the-clock care and maintenance. So, unless you can devote nearly all of your free time to caring for your garden or can afford to hire someone for full-time maintenance, you may want to go a less formal route.

For a more casual look, start thinking of your landscape design in terms of plants and flowers that complement each other but don’t match exactly. Find plants that have similar leaf shape or flowers that have complementary colors. Plan to have them planted in groups and not rows. Groups of flowers are easier to maintain, plus they make the landscape more interesting rather than having everything planted in straight rows.

You should also consider flowers and plants of different heights. In your plan, you can plant them together and it will again give your landscape a more interesting look.

Although Minnesota winters are not known for being mild and sunny, you can still find plants that will bloom even when it’s cold. Consider adding some of these to your landscape design to have a focal point for your garden for every season of the year. You may not make it outside as much during the winter months, but it’s still nice to have something to look at from inside your home when the weather is frightful!

If you need help with your landscape design, you can contact us. We can help you develop a plan that will look great and provide year-round enjoyment. We can even come to your home to set up the landscaping for you by adding plants, flowers and even hardscaping.

Would you like to learn more about landscape design in Edina? Call Advanced Irrigation at 612-599-8675 or you can contact us to get a free estimate.

Winterizing Sprinkler Systems

In the fall when it’s starting to turn chilly, one of our most popular services are fall blow outs. Also known as “winterizing,” this is an important task that should be done to sprinkler systems in Lakeville (and anywhere else where temperatures regularly dip below freezing during the winter) on an annual basis. 

Water that is left in your lawn sprinkler system can freeze when the temperatures get below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. When water freezes into ice, it expands and could cause the pipes, fittings, valves and other parts to crack or burst. Sprinkler systems with these types of damages can be expensive to fix. Winterizing sprinkler systems eliminates this problem because we will first drain the water out of your sprinkler system using the manual or automatic drain valves. After that, we used compressed air to blow the remaining water out of the system, which ensures there is none left in there that could potentially freeze and cause problems.

We will then make sure that main drain valve is fully closed, and that will keep the water from flowing back into the system. From there, we look at the timer and/or controller and turn that off as well. That keeps the lawn sprinkler system from running during the winter months, but it does not get rid of any of the programming.

Sprinkler systems usually come with rain and freeze sensors. These devices will detect if there has been a large amount of rain and will automatically readjust the sprinkler system’s programming to compensate for that. It will also detect if temperatures are below freezing and will keep the system from turning on. This is great for added peace of mind if you don’t have your lawn sprinkler system winterized before the winter or if temperatures plummet unexpectedly.

All of these steps ensure sprinkler systems will work as they should when the weather gets warm again and when you want to start watering your yard and landscaping again. A little bit of preventive maintenance this winter can go a long way and can help prevent expensive repairs and replacements for your sprinkler system.

These are just a few reasons you should look into having your sprinkler system winterized.

Would you like more details on sprinkler systems in Lakeville, or do you want to schedule your fall blow out? Call Advanced Irrigation at 612-599-8675, or you can contact us to set up your Free Estimate.

How to Properly Mow Your Business’ Lawn

The outside of your business is the first thing potential customers and employees see. So you want to be sure that you are always putting your best foot forward to give everyone a good first impression. While a commercial irrigation system for your Minneapolis can definitely help with this, another way to make sure your grass and landscaping look good is by mowing it properly. Here are a few tips.

You should be sure that your lawn mower’s blade are adjusted to the correct height. The general rule of thumb is two to three inches, but sometimes the height will depend on the type of grass you are mowing. You want to be sure the grass is short enough to look nice and well-kept, but you don’t want it so short that you damage the root system.

When you mow your grass, avoid mowing in the same pattern every time. Mowing in different patterns encourages your grass to grow more upright, plus it will help prevent ruts from developing in the soil.

Make sure that, when you mow the grass, that it is totally dry and not wet from a recent rain storm. Wet grass blades can clog your mower and break it or cause it to overheat. You should also be sure to regularly sharpen your mower’s blades. Dull blades will not make a clean cut and could cause your grass to not grow properly. It could also lead to disease or allow pests and insects to invade your grass.

Finally, when you are mowing, make sure you overlap each pass by at least a few inches. This is a great way to ensure you do not accidentally miss any part of your business’ lawn, and it will help ensure you do not end up mowing unevenly.

For more information on a commercial irrigation system in Minneapolis, call Advanced Irrigation at 612-599-8675 or you can contact us to get a Free Estimate.