Goodfellas Landscaping

05/12/2022

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=499307302293316&id=100066421526888&sfnsn=mo&mibextid=6aamW6

27/10/2022

Take a look at some of these hacks. Do you have a hack you could share with us?

30/09/2022

The client had an unusual task for this one.

Problem: Client couldn't use her clothesline as it was built under a canopy of trees that were located on the other side of the fence.

Solved!!

We simply removed the clothesline set up and reposted in a spot that she could use.

If you find yourself in a comparable situation, send us a message to help you.

26/09/2022

Having some trouble keeping your roses looking healthy and beautiful? Hopefully, this guide will help you bring the best out of your flowers, and not have your roses be a thorn in your side.

Growing roses is a time-consuming passion, which will reward you with many breathtaking flowers. You should allow at least 1 to 2 hours per week for an average sized garden of 10-15 plants to carry out all the required maintenance tasks.
Roses thrive in well drained, preferably sandy loam soil with a PH of 6.5. Most poorer soils can be improved to accommodate roses. Make sure to check your soil PH levels at least 4 weeks prior to planting and then once or twice per year thereafter to maintain the correct level. Refrain from planting new roses in freshly composted or manured beds. All your fertilizing should be done 8-10 weeks prior to planting.

Your roses require at least 5-6 hours of full sunlight per day. Plant them at minimum of three meters away from large trees and palms to avoid root invasion and shading from sunlight by tall trees.
Afternoon shade is fine and, in most cases, beneficial on those hot summer afternoons. Where possible, position your rose gardens on the north-eastern side of your house for the best results.

Roses can suffer from social anxiety like people can, so try not to overcrowd your rose garden with annuals, other plants, or shrubs. Roses grow their best when planted in their own bed, and at least 90cm apart and follow planting guides if you are planting new roses in a large bed with other established roses.

Keep the surface of your rose bed well mulched, with bush mulch or woodchip. Mulching keeps w**ds away and in summer, helps retain moisture and prevents heat burn from loose soil.

Much like anything else, roses will only grow as good as you feed them. Fertilize in Spring, Summer, and Autumn with 60 to 70 grams of high-quality rose food per square meter. Three weeks after each application, you should apply some organic fertilizer to maintain correct pH levels and to avoid soil burn out. Pamper your roses weekly in summer with a healthy dose of liquid fertilizer. This promotes a strong, healthy growth of foliage and flowers and helps plants to resist attack from pests.

When you are watering, make sure you start by soaking the soil with a sprinkler on well-established plants for about 1½ to 2 hours every fortnight, or as required depending on the weather conditions. In dry and/or windy conditions, be prepared to check the soil every couple of days to ensure that the moisture is still present in the soil underneath the mulch. Only water if the soil is starting to dry out.

Regularly spraying your roses with a rose spray is essential for a healthy garden. Spray your roses every two weeks to prevent Black Spot and other fungus diseases before they occur. Inspect the flowers and leaves weekly for any signs of pests that would damage the leaf system, such as aphids, mites, and caterpillars.

Look hard at pruning your rose bushes from around mid-July to early August to promote a sturdy growth in the Spring months. Light prune again in mid-March to remove any dead or spindly twigs, leaving any new branches to encourage robust growth.

Maintain your rose garden in a w**d and pest free environment. Keep any nearby plants and garden beds as pest free as possible. Remember to regularly remove any dead flower heads and diseased leaves to promote new growth. Maintaining a healthy root and leaf system is essential to obtain a beautiful flourishing rose garden that you will be proud to show off!

22/09/2022

Don’t you just love a before and after photo of a big job?

All the complex challenges that present themselves make the completion even more fulfilling.

20/09/2022

Looking to lower the grocery bill? This is your last chance to plant tomatoes, eggplant, capsicums, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelons, rockmelons, Choko, lettuce, radishes, beetroot, silverbeet, beans, rosella, okra, and sweetcorn due to the last of the cooler weather leaving us.

20/09/2022

Come down on October 8th and see how you can have an eco garden.

The Moreton Bay Eco Fest is a fun, family, free event promoting sustainability and eco-friendly lifestyle ideas for the whole community to come and enjoy.

Join celebrity gardener Costa Georgiadis, from Gardening Australia and other leading sustainability experts, community organisations, foodies and conservationists to learn practical tips on how to live more sustainably.

Festival goers will be treated to heaps of fun activities and entertainment throughout the day with a jam-packed line up on the main stage and plenty of hands-on workshops. 

18/09/2022

Aerating your soil: Why you should be doing this!

This is a shorter post compared to some of our others. Aerating soil is, simply put, removing plugs, or punching small holes in your grass and soil, allowing oxygen, nutrients and water and water into the root system. Ideally this process will reduce soil compaction while improving the look and health of your lawn!

16/09/2022

Top dress: Not just a nice compliment!

As I mentioned in our previous post, top dress is a way to help supply nutrients to your lawn after dethatching, or just giving it a healthy dose of nutrients in general. But what is top dressing? Follow along, and it might prevent your lawn becoming a pain in the grass!

Top dress can be a light layer of either sand or some form of composted organic matter. Sand is a terrific way to counteract thick clay soil, or if your lawn is uneven. Top dressing with sand is a fantastic way to improve drainage and loosen your soil density, however as sand doesn’t have a lot going for it in the way of beneficial nutrients, using a quality liquid or granular lawn fertilizer will be your ‘go to’ for nutrient introduction. Yellow sand is the medium of choice due to its fantastic drainage and porous properties. This is the main reason it’s used on man-made terrain like golf courses.

Compost on the other hand is a fantastic choice when it comes to top dress mediums. It’s rich in all the nutrients that your turf needs for healthy growth. Your lawn will absolutely thrive with a top dress of organic compost, provided it’s finished breaking down and had some filler soil mixed in. If you are using your own compost, and are unsure if it is ready to use, here’s a helpful hint: if it still looks and smells like rotten fruit and vegetables, and not have a consistency of soil, let it sit for a little bit longer until the material has completely broken down.

A composted soil mixture will help improve clay like soil and help the more sandy soils retain more nutrients and have the added benefit of attracting good microbes to your lawn.

Topsoil is an available option for use as a top dress, however your yard may suffer slightly from a lack of proper minerals that your grass needs to stay green and lush.

The last option (and the best choice for top dressing) is customizing your own top dress mix. It can be more economical, and you can tailor make your mixture to suit your lawn's needs. The most popular combinations use compost as a base blended with either sand or topsoil. A good mix of sand, soil and compost is an effective way top dress your lawn, while preventing the creation of puddling spots which can kill off parts of your lawn.

Whichever choice you make, it all comes down to how much do you need? For a typical lawn, anywhere between 3mm and 12mm coverage more than enough, and only needing to go thicker if your thatch is particularly bulky (but if you followed our previous post, this shouldn’t be an issue).

Now, here are the things you will need to apply all that lovely top dress to your lawn.

• Rake (or a spreader rake)
• Wheelbarrow
• Top dress mix
• Aerator
• Shovel

Provided you have followed our dethatching guide, your lawn should be ready to go. Rolling an aerator roller over the area will help improve your results here.

In the same way you would swing a tennis racket in a backhand fashion, start by flinging your top dress mix around your yard, aiming for that 3mm to 12mm coverage.

Once you have your light coverage laid down, use your rake (or if you have a spreader rake [it has a swiveling head and rollers instead of tines]) to spread the mixture around as evenly as possible. Once this is all done, give your yard a good watering, and it’s all done!

I’m sure you’re asking if you will see immediate results, however, I’m going to burst your bubble. If you maintain a consistent watering habit, you should start to see all that arduous work and effort beginning to pay off after 2 weeks.

One last thing is how often top dressing should be done. Good news is that you only need to do this every few years at the start of Spring.

If you have any questions on top dressing, and any lawn care in general, drop us a line here at Goodfellas, we’d be happy to hear from you!

14/09/2022

We recently completed a yard renovation for a client, and one of the stipulations was that a stormwater drain needed to be covered for safety while preventing the gravel I had put down from falling in. I was thinking of all manner of different ideas before I settled on this design, and I was quite happy with the result.....(spoiler alert) so was the client.

11/09/2022

Just a few services Goodfellas Landscaping can off you. Ask us how we can help you.