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Maintenance is one of the most over looked aspects of the landscape. People in today's fast pace world do not have the time or do not make the time to maintain their plants. Maintenance is usually the least favorite part of a landscape for the homeowners. Most homeowners contract maintenance out to a landscape firm. This way they do do not have to worry about it themselves. Having a landscape firm maintaining your landscape is a great way to make sure it gets done, but it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what to do.

Plant Maintenance

Spring and Fall clean up
Maintenance is mostly done twice a year. Spring clean up is usually in April or May. During spring clean up you want to clean up all the left over leaves and trash from the winter. The next step is to fertilize your plants and mulch the beds with fresh mulch. Mulch should be spread between two and three inches thick. The covering of mulch prevents weeds from growing and retains moisture in the ground. Mulch comes in many different colors and shapes. No one mulch is better than the other. the kind of mulch you put down should accent your plants and house. Fall clean up is to remove the leaves that have fallen during the fall. During fall clean up you can also cut back all your perennials for over wintering them. For both spring and fall clean up you can trim the shrubs in your landscape. Keep in mind you should know which season is correct to prune back each individual shrub. During the year you will want to keep up on your plants.

Pests
Check your plants at least once a week for pests that may have entered your landscape. When you do see a pest, go to your local garden center and talk with them. They well explain the proper treatment methods. Insects and pest can kill or hurt your plants in a matter of days.

Plant Care Guide
Here is a plant care guide. This guide is from Scarff's Landscaping. They are located in New Carlisle, Ohio. This is a more in depth guide to help you care for your plants. The guide is under the Landscaping section of the site. Once you are to the Landscaping site go to the Plant Care Guide. http://www.scarffs.com

Patio Maintenance

Basic Maintenance
Your patio also needs to be maintained. Homeowners will over look the patio in most cases. The patio has not scheduled maintenance. The maintenance to your patio is done when ever you see the need for it. The patio over time will start to settle. This is just a fact of nature and can not be prevented. With the right base for the patio the settling will be minimized. When settling occurs you will have to remove the bricks and place more sand under the bricks to level them out. In the mean time the sand that is in between the cracks will also settle and be washed a way by rain. This is am easy fix. Take more sand and broom it in just as you did when you built the patio.

Weeds
The weeds growing up through the brick are also another problem. The weeds can be hand picked when ever you see them growing. Another method is to spray the weeds every other week or so. Weeds will always be a problem on your patio. The wind carries weed seed and deposits it on your patio. This is a chore that you will have to maintain all the time.