Extend your Outdoor Living Season - Add a Source of Heat!

Even as the temperatures drop, you can cozy up in your Outdoor Living Space with a built in fireplace, fire pit or woodstove.  

Contact us today to get your project started!

Green Acres Landscaping

Designing and installing "Award Winning Landscapes"

540-268-5055

www.GreenAcresLLC.com

info@GreenAcresLLC.com

Making the Most of Tight Spaces

Do you have a small outdoor area living area? Is it not well utilized - or not used at all? Check out our Before & After photos showing just what we can do to help!

Before - If you have a small outdoor space living space available, let us make the most of it.

After - This is just one example of what Green Acres Landscaping can do for you. Check back soon for more Before & Afters!

Contact us today at 540-268-5055 or info@GreenAcresLLC.com
www.greenacresllc.com

A Front Yard Facelift for Your Home

If you are in the market to sell your home, simply looking for more curb appeal, or yearn for that "Ah, home" feeling as you pull into the driveway - consider giving your residence a "Front Yard Facelift".

An ultimate makeover can be done in phases or all at once.

A simpler update, also quite appealing, when designed and installed by Bill Garren and the Green Acres crew, will help to reduce maintenance and upkeep.

Contact us today!
info@greenacresllc.com or 540-268-5055
www.greenacresllc.com

Landscaping Your Home = Energy Savings For You

In today's economy, who isn't looking for a way to save money?

Landscaping enhances your home, not only by improving its appearance and creating useful outdoor spaces, but also by helping to maintain comfortable indoor living spaces.

In the summer, shading is the simplest, most effective way to cool your home and reduce energy consumption. Trees, shrubs and vines can be used to shade your home and reduce your energy bills.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that just three trees, properly placed around the house, can save an average household between $100 and $250 in energy costs annually. To be most effective, trees should be strategically located on the south and west sides of your home. Deciduous trees are best, because they shade in summer and allow light and radiant heat to pass through in the winter.

Shrubs protect the lower portions of walls from heat gain by blocking sunlight. They also act as a windbreak in winter to help protect the house from cold air. Choose shrubs which are low maintenance and grow to a fixed height; and just like the trees, be sure to select varieties that are native to your environment.

Vines provide shading and cooling, and are quick to grow. They can be grown on trellises, or in pots.

How can we help? Our expert advice will assist you with careful selection, placement, planting, and care of trees, shrubs, and vines to help you reduce your energy costs.

Contact us today! info@greenacresllc.com or 540-268-5055
www.GreenAcresLLC.com

Using Segmental Retaining Walls (SRW's) to Spice Up Your Landscape

Today’s new Segmental Retaining Walls (SRW), previously used only in commercial applications, can quickly enhance your outdoor living area and make you the envy of the neighborhood.

The SRW product has drastically improved - now available in numerous colors and sizes that are appealing for residential landscapes. Features such as stairs, seat walls, outdoor kitchens and fire pits offer a creative landscaping tool that makes a statement.

Use of this product in your landscape will add to the everyday enjoyment of your home. It will also increase your home’s value by creating usable living environments today’s homebuyers want.

The Benefits of SRW's:

Site Adaptability – A retaining wall constructed using an SRW block, such as Allan Block, conforms to your site conditions with ease.

Frost – No need to build or design your retaining walls or landscape walls below frost depth. The system is flexible meaning the wall will not crack like a rigid retaining wall would.

Slopes – Stepping up the base course of retaining wall block or mortarless fence block is done with ease. There is no need to bury more block than necessary, so you will not be buying additional block or concrete.

These systems have stood the test of time, are flexible, cost effective, and with today’s technology can be the perfect solution for your project.

Let us know how we can help improve your Outdoor Living Space today!

www.GreenAcresLLC.com
info@GreenAcresLLC.com
540-268-5055

Spring: A Time For Renewal

Each year, we look forward to Spring as an opportunity to open the windows and let the gentle breeze bring fresh air inside. An opportunity to renew our spirit and welcome the new life springing forth daily.

Start your spring renewal by inspecting several aspects of your landscape:

Shrubs are an important part of any landscape, as they provide year-round color, texture and are fairly easy to maintain. The key to keeping them as and integral part of your landscape it to give them the attention they need. Few shrubs are completely maintenance-free, and the shrubs that produce suckers can become overgrown, tangled and misshapen messes. These include forsythia, Virginia sweetspire, flowering quince, sumac and shrubby dogwoods among others.

Take a look at your deciduous trees and to determine if they are in need of pruning.

Inspect your mulch, paying close attention to its depth. Chances are organic mulches, especially those made from shredded or chipped wood, have decomposed somewhat or have been washed away by heavy rains.

Steps, walkways and stepping stones in the lawn can become unstable due to excessive rains or alternating periods of freezing and thawing. Determine if they need to be stabilized and leveled to make them safe to walk on.

Why not take advantage of this change of seasons and reconnect with nature by improving the outdoor living spaces at your home? We would love the opportunity to discuss the potential that exists right in your own backyard.

Call us at 540-268-5055 or send an email to info@GreenAcresLLC.com and let us know how we can help.

Green Acres Landscaping
www.GreenAcresLLC.com

Create an Outdoor Living Space on Your Budget

You have heard it, and quite possibly chanted it yourself numerous times lately.

"Spring is almost here, Spring is almost here".

We are all looking forward to a few warmer evenings when we can spend time outdoors again. Now is the time to start planning, or improving on, your own unique Outdoor Living Space.

Take advantage of the area under your deck. Create a spot to relax and unwind, using the small green space that is yours. Improve your backyard layout to meet your needs.

There are many different designs and products that can be used to create the space you have been dreaming about.

Allow me to help you start planning your project today.

Bill Garren
540-268-5055 or 540-392-2614
Bill@GreenAcresLLC.com
www.GreenAcresLLC.com

Snow and Ice: Tips for Managing your Landscape

Fellow Landscape Enthusiasts: Welcome to my Blog

The current weather has me spending more time in my office, so I thought this would be as good a time as any to start a blog.

Snow and ice cover our local landscape and have for almost the entire winter. We are still installing landscapes and hardscapes in this weather, but we can't work as much as we would like to.

I have had several conversations lately with clients and industry professionals about the effects of ice and snow on our landscape plants. Generally speaking, the situation is not as bad as some may think. Ice is the biggest threat. If some limbs get broken on a woody shrub or tree, prune the broken limbs back to a point of attachement. Just remember to cut back to a major side shoot and don't leave a stub. However, if the limbs are only bent, they will most likely straighten on their own. If a branch or limb gets pulled significantly out of shape, try tying it back in shape.

Many smaller shrubs are buried under the snow and ice. "Smashed flat and smothered". Not to fear, fellow gardeners. Relax and let nature take care of itself. Everything under the snowy ice is going to be fine ... mostly. Plants buried in the snow are protected from the dry winter winds, and also benefit from the moisture as the snow melts. If a small plant gets crushed, cut it back to the ground. By late summer it will look better than ever. I would recommend knocking the snow off large shrubs to help maintain their shape. But, the smaller plants under the snow, leave them alone.

Relax, and it will all work out. Spring will be here, better than ever, and right on schedule.

Until the snow is melted,
Bill Garren
540-392-2614 or Bill@GreenAcresLLC.com

www.GreenAcresLLC.com