“Mulch is any type of material that is spread or laid over the surface of the soil as a covering.” – gardening.about.com

From the definition above, we can say that mulching is basically placing a type of covering on the soil, specifically soil that’s been planted on. This method or practice is often used in landscaping, especially when it comes to the gardening part of it.

Mulches are often made out of organic materials, but they can also be made out of plastic sheets, but then these become permanent mulches. Some of the organic materials used in making mulches are shredded leaves, bark, grass clippings, and more.

About two layers of mulch are applied onto the surface soil of gardens for a variety of reasons, and usually have to be reapplied at different times of the year. This is because the plants in the garden will have different needs depending on the season.

For example, during summer or hot seasons, mulching is needed in order to retain water in the soil by reducing evaporation. It should be noted though that the type of mulch to be used should be able to still let water pass through into the soil. Certain mulch types can tend to absorb all the water, which prevents and blocks the water from reaching the soil.

What Are the Benefits of Mulching?

Mulching does more than enhance the look of a garden through creating a neat and unique-looking soil surface. It’s quite beneficial in a lot of other ways, especially in the gardens and plants it’s used for.

To have a better idea on this, here are examples of these said benefits of mulching:

• Mulching controls weed growth. Weeds pop out of nowhere and can be a real nuisance to a garden, especially since it steals nutrients from the plants we have in our garden! They come out of any possible open space we might have in our gardens, and tend to grow quite fast too. Regularly pulling out weeds can be quite tedious, and it’s definitely something we can refrain from doing. Mulching though can help prevent the growth of weeds since it acts as a barrier and limits the amount of sunlight that reaches the weeds and helps them grow.
• Mulching retains moisture. As mentioned earlier, mulch is great for retaining moisture as it covers the soil and significantly reduces the rate of evaporation. Uncovered dirt easily loses moisture, especially in warm seasons due to evaporation, and simply covering the dirt with mulch will help prevent it from drying up. This also reduces the need to frequently irrigate our gardens. Mulch also reduces soil erosion as it prevents the soil from washing out of the garden. To sum it all up, since mulching reduces evaporation, it also reduces the frequency of irrigation, and thus reduces our water consumption!
• Mulching evens out soil temperature. Mulch’s handy moisture-retention abilities are what helps keep the soil at a cool temperature during hot, summer seasons. The extra covering is also what keeps the soil warm during the cold, winter seasons. Maintaining the right and even soil temperature is also essential for keeping the plants in a garden nice and healthy, so they don’t wither too easily.

Landscape Design Services in Penrith

Mulching is among one of the landscaping services we offer to homes in Penrith and all over Sydney here at Surreal Landscapes! We also do other sorts of landscaping and maintenance services, all the details are on our website at www.surreallandscapes.com.au.

Keep the garden healthy and beautiful for a longer time without having to use too much water, let us get to work and mulch it!

The post Keeping the Soil and the Garden Healthy Through Mulching appeared first on Surreal Landscapes Expert Landscape Design and Builders in Glenmore Park | Western Sydney.

Our houses can often be a reflection of our personality, since most of our time is spent at home after all. For that reason, we always try to make sure our house looks great, especially when we invite guests over.

There are several things we do to make our houses look great or at least presentable to friends, relatives, and other such guests we might invite into our homes. We make sure the wallpaper, floor, and furniture match, we spring clean the place every once in a while, etc.

However, that is only for the interior of the house, as the things we can do to improve our house’s exterior beauty are a whole another set of tasks. While the purpose is the same, beautifying our home’s exterior requires a lot more elbow grease and may even have us get down and dirty.

Those of us who would rather not get down and dirty though can always avail of landscape design services around the area. These landscape designers are experts in the said area, and can do various sorts of landscaping methods according to which ones suit our homes the best.

One example of these said landscaping methods is the creation and implementation of retaining walls. A retaining wall is defined as ‘a wall that holds back earth or water’ and are somewhat similar to garden edges, only bigger.

How Retaining Walls Can Benefit Us

There are a good number of benefits to having retaining walls installed in our home’s landscape design, both aesthetic and functional. They can also be an affordable method of home beautification depending on the type of materials used in creating the retaining walls.

To have a better idea about what these said benefits are to having retaining walls, here is a short list below:

• Retaining walls help add home value. If in any case we decide to find a new home and sell our old one, a retaining wall can help increase the old home’s value. This means we can sell it for a much higher price than when we bought it in the first place. Add the fact that the house was well maintained and other beautiful home improvements have been done, and it’ll be a lot easier to get a good price on it. Retaining walls also help the house look bigger and more spacious, again increasing its value and looking quite attractive to potential buyers. It also helps separate different areas in a landscape, such as the lawn area, garden area, etc.
• Retaining walls are durable and functional. When made out of the right materials and engineered properly, retaining walls become more than an aesthetic landscape improvement. They can last for years and effectively hold back tonnes of dirt without cracks or threats of collapsing over time. We just have to be sure these walls are done right and we use the right quality material to ensure its durability and strength.
• Retaining walls control soil erosion. Soil erosion doesn’t just happen in deep forests and farms, it can happen in our own front and backyards too. This occurrence can often become quite a pain since it leads to uneven ground that doesn’t look too attractive for a home’s exterior. Erosion is caused primarily by two things: 1. Running water, like when we water our plants or when it rains, and 2. When people walk on the grass. A Retaining wall helps prevent soil erosion because it keeps the water from flowing too quickly and moving the soil around, thus causing erosion. As for soil erosion caused by reason #2, a retaining wall sends an obvious signal that people are definitely not supposed to walk around there. By preventing soil erosion with the help of retaining walls, we can maintain the even ground level of our landscape and not have to deal with annoying soil erosion.

Have Concrete Retaining Walls!

Retaining walls can be made from a wide range of materials, and at Surreal Landscapes, we offer concreting services for homes in Bella Vista and can create beautiful concrete walls! Our other services include garden edging, creating and improving driveways, etc.

Just visit our website www.surreallandscapes.com.au for more details on how we can help improve your landscape design!

The post Choosing Retaining Walls to Beautify Our Homes appeared first on Surreal Landscapes Expert Landscape Design and Builders in Glenmore Park | Western Sydney.

The way a house looks on the inside and outside can somehow represent the personality and image of the homeowner. For that reason alone, we can say that managing the interior and exterior design of a house is quite important.

Now when it comes to taking care of the interior, we usually do the work ourselves since we do spend most of our time inside our houses, after all. We do the spring cleaning, decorating, etc., but sometimes we hire a handyman to do some of the tougher work like painting and installing accessories, like blinds or curtains.

However, how about the outside or exterior of our homes?
Some of us may not have put a lot of thought into it, and maybe we think that just some regular lawn mowing and a few shrubs are okay.

While that’s actually not bad because at least our homes looks presentable, we can do a lot more to really bring out the beauty of our homes. There’s no harm in putting a little effort into the landscape design in our homes because it shows how much we love our home as an owner.

After all, it’s the first thing people see when they pass by. The backyard is also as important especially during occasions when we have guests. With that said, why not do something to wow and impress them?

The Benefits of Great Landscaping

The primary benefit we can have from great-looking landscapes is an improved aesthetic appeal in our home’s exterior design. However, that’s actually only one of the benefits homeowners can receive.

To explain further, here are some more examples of these said benefits:

It manages rain and storm-water runoff. Whenever it rains, water tends to puddle in uneven surfaces, especially when there are craters. These puddles don’t only look messy, but they can be breeding grounds for germs and bacteria and not to mention mosquitoes that carry various diseases. Part of professional landscaping includes evening out the yard’s ground level so it bears no deep craters or cracks where water can puddle. Additionally, because of the shrubs, trees and other such greenery planted into the landscape can prevent soil erosion.
• It helps conserve energy. Hiring a professional to do the landscape can help us save on energy and utility costs since they’re experts who know exactly what they’re doing. Having enough greenery is also great for creating a cooler home environment since plants naturally absorb heat from sunlight. During the winter, aside from capturing the winter sun’s heat, it can also protect our homes from harsh winds. This means we can spend less on turning up the AC on hot seasons, and turning up the thermostat on cold seasons.
• It makes the yard more functional. Aside from being a simple outdoor display, landscapes can put that area of land to better use. For instance, having a nicely landscaped backyard and patio/deck can allow us to have an outdoor space to entertain guests and have social gatherings. We also have the freedom to ask the landscape professionals to create a raised bed for us to grow our own plants and vegetables as a pastime. In short, having a great landscape can add more value to our lawns and yards.

Landscape Construction in Glenmore Park

If you’re interested in having a better look for your home’s exterior, you can have us at Surreal Landscapes help you out! Have a look at our list of services on our Sydney landscaping website and let us know how we can assist you in your landscaping goals.

Experience home beauty on the inside and out!

The post Three Ways Homeowners Can Benefit From Landscaping appeared first on Surreal Landscapes Expert Landscape Design and Builders in Glenmore Park | Western Sydney.