Turf Management
Coverage, thickness and color across the whole property, not just the part you can see from the road.
What we treat for
HRH Lawn Care · Marshall County, Alabama
Seasonal Flowers
Color changed out with the seasons, so the property does not look the same in February as it does in June.
What to expect
How it works
A yard has four distinct seasons of growth and rest, and four distinct seasons of maintenance to go with them. What needs doing depends on the time of year and on the plant. After this many years in lawn maintenance we know customers want different things from their property in different months, which is why the color is planned rather than planted once and left.
- Seasonal color selected and changed out through the year
- Planned around what the property already has
- Beds prepared before anything goes in the ground
- Works with the bed maintenance and mulch schedule
- Residential and commercial properties
Planning
Color is planned for the year, not bought for the weekend
Seasonal color works when it is planned as a sequence: something carrying the beds in the cool months, something else taking over through the heat, and a changeover booked before the first lot has finished.
The alternative is what most properties end up with, which is one enthusiastic planting in April and a tired bed by August. Planning the year round it means the changeovers are expected rather than an emergency, and it means the beds are prepared for the next planting instead of the new plants going straight into exhausted ground.
In broad terms, cool-season annuals are put in as the heat comes off and carry through the cooler part of the year, and warm-season annuals go in once the risk of cold has passed and carry through the summer. Exact timing moves with the weather every year, so dates are set as the season arrives rather than promised in advance, and how long anything holds its bloom depends on the year it is given.
Siting
Not every flower works in every spot
Light, drainage and water availability decide what will do well in a given bed. A plant that is happy at the front of the house may struggle ten yards away on the shaded side, and no amount of aftercare fixes a bad match.
Sun is the first question and it is worth answering honestly: full sun means most of the day, not a bright morning. Drainage is the second, and it is the one that quietly kills more annuals than anything else, because bedding plants sat in ground that does not drain will rot at the root rather than wilt in a way anyone notices in time.
Watering is the third. Alabama summers can take a bed from fine to failing inside a few days, and a bed with no irrigation and nobody home in July is a different proposition from one on a system. That is a planning question, not a planting question, and it is better asked before the plants are chosen.
- How much direct sun the bed actually gets, through the day
- Whether the ground drains, or holds water after heavy rain
- What is watering it, and who is doing it in August
- Exposure: wind, reflected heat off brick or paving, foot traffic
Design
Grouping and color that reads from the road
Seasonal color has more impact in groups than scattered singly, and it reads better when the palette is deliberate rather than whatever was available.
A dozen plants of one thing planted together is visible from the street. The same dozen spread evenly across three beds is not visible from anywhere. Blocks and drifts do the work, and repeating the same block at intervals ties separate beds into one scheme rather than three unrelated ones.
Color choice is worth coordinating with what is already permanent on the property: the brick, the trim, the evergreens behind the bed. Colors that fight the house are noticeable in a way nobody can quite name. The planting is chosen around what the property already has rather than dropped on top of it.
Changeover
Preparing the bed, and replacing what has gone over
Most of the work in a seasonal planting happens before anything goes in the ground. The previous planting comes out, the bed is cleared and worked, and the surface is put back afterwards.
Annuals are a heavy crop in a small space, and a bed that has carried one lot through a season has been worked. Clearing the spent plants and their roots, taking out the weeds that came with them, and loosening ground that has compacted over the season is what gives the next planting somewhere to root.
Through the season, plants that have declined get replaced rather than left to drag the bed down. A single failed plant in the middle of a block is more noticeable than a gap, and a bed that is 80 percent good and 20 percent dead reads as 100 percent tired. Beds are looked over on the regular visits, so that is picked up early.
Bed edges, mulch and the general condition of the planting around the color are handled under flower bed maintenance, and the two are usually scheduled together.
Also handled here
Related services
Flower Bed Maintenance
Weeding, treating and tidying the beds so the planting you paid for is the thing people notice.
What bed work covers
Mulch and Pine Straw
Delivered and installed. Mulch by the cubic yard, pine straw by the square foot.
Mulch and straw pricingLawn and property care guide
More on this, in detail
Our summers stress cool-season grass and our winters stress the warm-season kinds, so advice written for anywhere else is wrong here in one direction or the other. These are written for this county.
The North Alabama lawn care year
What matters in each season here, from dormancy and pre-emergent timing through green-up, summer stress and fall cleanup.
Read the seasonal calendarAnswers
Questions about seasonal flowers
When do seasonal flowers get changed out?
Broadly, cool-season annuals go in as the heat comes off and carry through the cooler months, and warm-season annuals go in once the risk of cold has passed. Exact timing moves with the weather every year, so dates are set as the season arrives rather than promised in advance, and how long anything holds its bloom depends on the year it is given.
Can you plant flowers anywhere on my property?
Light, drainage and water availability decide what will do well in a given spot, and no amount of aftercare fixes a bad match. A bed with no irrigation and nobody home in July is a different proposition from one on a system. Those are questions worth answering before the plants are chosen rather than after.
What happens to plants that fail during the season?
They get replaced rather than left to drag the bed down. A single failed plant in the middle of a block is more noticeable than a gap. Beds are looked over on the regular visits, so declining plants are usually picked up early.
Service area
Serving Marshall County and the surrounding area
Crews run out of Guntersville and work across the county all week. These are the communities we look after.
- ServingGuntersville
- ServingAlbertville
- ServingArab
- ServingBoaz
- ServingSardis City
- ServingDouglas
- ServingGrant
- ServingHorton
- ServingSnead
Properties throughout Marshall County are looked after by crews running out of 5378 AL Highway 79 South in Guntersville.
HRH Lawn Care Services
Not sure what your property needs?
Call and ask. We would rather come and look at it than guess over the phone, and it does not cost you anything either way.