Author Archives: Martin John Company

Now is the Time to Secure a Snow Removal Company for the Chicago Winter Months

Chicago is lovingly called the Windy City, but ask anyone who lives in the area, and they will tell you it’s moniker shifts to the Snowy City at least a few times each winter. Chicago winters can be unpredictable; one day, it is 55 degrees and sunny, and the next, there is two feet of snow on the ground. If you have not secured a snow removal service yet, now is the time. Here are some of the most important reasons why.

Book Early for Faster (and Guaranteed) Response Times

All too often, home and business owners wait until the snow has fallen to start contacting snow removal companies. Unfortunately, by that time, these companies are booked solid – and they have been for months. Snow removal services operate on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you want to make sure that your home or business is on the list when the flakes start to fall, it is important to call today – not when the snow is already on the ground. You will get a faster response, and in many cases, you will get a guaranteed response.

Snow Removal is a Difficult DIY Job

If you are debating the need for a snow removal service at your home or place of business, it is important to remember that moving snow is arduous work that often requires specialized machinery. Even removing just a few inches of snow from a large driveway or parking lot can take a considerable amount of time. You have more important ways to spend your time, so hiring a professional snow removal company is always your best bet.

It is Safer for Your Family, Clients, or Customers

When you plan your snow removal needs ahead of time, you are doing your part to keep your family, customers, or clients safe. Snow and ice create hazardous conditions for driving and even for walking, and professional removal is a fantastic way to ensure that everyone who comes and goes from your property is as safe as they can be. Furthermore, when you hire a professional in advance, you can expect fast removal of hazardous wintry precipitation, so you won’t be waiting for days to safely walk down your driveway.

You Will Get Better Results

Finally, if you are concerned about your home or business’s curb appeal, hiring a professional snow remover is the best way to ensure that your results are professional and aesthetic. Rather than simply removing the snow from surfaces like sidewalks, driveways, and walkways, a professional removes snow to precise areas that do not detract from the overall appeal of your property’s exterior.

Snow removal is important in Chicago and waiting until the last minute to call a professional may not yield the results you need. Call today to learn more about rates and terms, then get your home or business on the list. It will save you time, keep your family and customers safe, and preserve your property’s overall appearance.

How to Spruce Up Your Landscape for Thanksgiving Festivities

If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, or even if you just want your home to look nice for the holiday, ensuring that your home is clean and decorated for the occasion is important. Indoor decorations are easy, but when it comes to your landscaping, things can seem a little more challenging. Below are some tips for landscaping your yard in a way that appeals to your guests, your neighbors, and your family.

Start with Thorough Maintenance

If you want to create a beautiful Thanksgiving-themed landscape, it’s important to start with a clean canvas – and that means regular fall maintenance. Depending on the trees around your home and the average temperatures leading up to Thanksgiving, that maintenance may involve raking leaves, trimming grass, and even removing a few weeds from your flowerbeds. When everything is pristine, it’s easier to be creative in a way that allows your fall-themed decor to stand out.

Include Traditional Fall Colors

To start sprucing up your landscape for Thanksgiving, think about ways to incorporate traditional fall colors into your yard. Yellow, orange, red, brown, and all the shades in between are classic, and you can find many ways to bring those colors to life. You might opt for a reddish-brown mulch, a variety of natural brown containers, and even fall-themed lighting to suit your individual preferences.

Choose Hardy Plants in Fall Colors

Next, you can add pops of fall color to your landscape with flowers and foliage that are hardy enough to withstand Chicago-area autumn temperatures. Some great options include:

Anemone hybrids in stunning yellow, orange, and red hues;
A wide range of colorful Chrysanthemums (or mums);
Perennial sunflowers; and
Cold-tolerant succulents (such as Sedum and Sempervivum).

If you want to plan for years to come, consider trees and shrubs that are known for their gorgeous fall colors. Options include maple trees, bottlebrush buckeye, and crape myrtle, and each of these will provide a brilliant display of color from spring through fall.

Creative Decor

If you want to really have fun with your landscape, consider adding some fun decor to the mix. An adorable scarecrow in the flowerbed, a wheelbarrow filled with hay near the front walk, or a weather-tolerant cornucopia filled with a variety of pumpkins and gourds on the front porch offer a subtle, yet creative touch to your yard. If you’re planning to bring some plants in for the winter, consider repotting them in fall-themed containers for some extra fun.

Thanksgiving landscaping doesn’t have to be incredibly detailed. In fact, Thanksgiving is all about the rustic down-home feel, so feel free to be creative. A few carefully placed pumpkins, a cute scarecrow, and a Happy Thanksgiving welcome mat can go a long way – but it all starts with a meticulously maintained lawn and landscape.

Sick of Dealing with Grass? Try Hardscaping!

While some home and business owners absolutely love thick, lush lawns, there are plenty of people out there who would rather not have to deal with the mowing, fertilizing, aerating, watering, and other care that comes along with keeping a lawn in great condition. If you are one of those people, hardscaping is a beautiful solution that is far more accessible than you might think.

What is Hardscaping?

Hardscaping is a term that is used to describe the process of designing and decorating a lawn or property with various non-living elements. Some hardscape elements may include things such as pavement, brick patios, gazebos, arbors, concrete walls, fire pits, stone pavers, decorative stone walls, and more. Hardscaping is most commonly used to provide outdoor comfort spaces and to define the way a part of your yard or property should be used. For example, a wooden deck is designed to be an area where your family and friends can gather in comfort while a decorative wall is an aesthetic way to mark a property line.

Hardscaping Ideas for Minimizing Grass

If you are not a fan of a big lawn, hardscaping is a great way to help you reduce its size. Because the elements included in a hardscape are not living, they generally come with far less maintenance. If you want to minimize the grass in your yard, here are some ideas for creating beautiful grass-free spaces that are still comfortable and functional.

A pool area. If you would rather spend your summers swimming in a cool pool of water than walking barefoot through the grass, a pool area is a popular hardscape option that offers aesthetic appeal and luxury – and in many cases, it can even increase your home value. Aside from the pool itself, you can design and build a concrete or wooden living space complete with chairs, an outdoor kitchen, and even a wet bar!
A huge patio. If your lawn is very small, it may be possible to turn it into a concrete jungle by installing a huge patio that includes all the amenities you could need to host your family and friends. If you decide later that you want a garden, you can always bring in some raised beds or some containers.
Large stone pavers and wildflowers. If you love the look of the wild outdoors but you are not a fan of mowing every time you turn around, consider installing large stone pavers all throughout your yard and planting small wildflowers in the spaces between. If you want to avoid weeding, try putting mulch between the planters and adding in a few annuals or perennials, instead.
Create a rock garden. A space constructed entirely from natural stone is by far the best way to maintain the look of nature without too much maintenance. Choosing rocks of varying colors and textures will create interest, and you will still have space for shrubs, ornamental grasses, and even water features.
An entire outdoor living space. If you want to go all out, it is possible to create a second living room and kitchen right in your backyard. Outdoor kitchens are incredibly popular right now, and so are outdoor living rooms. You can even buy weatherproof televisions so you can grill and watch the game at the same time.

There is no limit to what you can do with your outdoor space. Whether you want to create a natural rock garden with just a hint of grass here and there or convert the entire thing into a complete living space that you can enjoy with friends and family, the sky is truly the limit.

5 Reasons Why You Should Not Forget to Fertilize Your Lawn

Many homeowners believe that fertilizer is optional and their lawns do not really need it in order to be lush and green. Others intend to fertilize their lawns but cannot get to it due to their hectic schedules. If you are not fertilizing, your lawn is not as healthy and bright as it could be. Here are five important reasons why you should not forget to fertilize.

#1 – It Works with the Nutrients in the Ground

The best way to have a healthy lawn is to start with healthy soil. Depending on where you live in the Chicagoland area, your soil may be missing important nutrients. The best way to ensure that your lawn has all the nutrients it needs is to fertilize it every single year. Today’s fertilizers are specially formulated to work with the nutrients that already exist while replenishing the ones that have been depleted over time.

#2 – It is Good for More than Just the Lawn

Fertilizer is not just for your lawn – it’s also for flowers, vegetable gardens, bushes, and trees because they all need nutrients, too. When you are fertilizing your lawn, think about adding fertilizer to the soil in your garden beds, and anywhere you are growing flowers, trees, shrubs, or other foliage. If you are unsure which plants require fertilizer, contact a professional landscaper for help.

#3 – Fall is the Best Time of Year for Fertilizing

If you are planning to fertilize your lawn, now is the best time of year to do it. Ideally, you should aerate and fertilize just before the grass goes dormant for the winter season – before the first big frost. This ensures that the grass has all of the nutrients it needs to grow back healthy and strong at the first signs of spring next year, and it can help you avoid any dead or brown spots that might occur due to extended freezing or snow cover.

#4 – It is More Affordable than Dealing with Dead or Unhealthy Grass

If you are not fertilizing because you want to avoid the extra cost, it is actually more cost-effective to fertilize your lawn each year than it is to try to regrow your lawn or place sod. A professional landscaper and lawn care provider can add aerating and fertilizing to your project for very affordable rates, so if you don’t have the time in your schedule to do it yourself, it may be more cost-effective than you think.

#5 – For Professionals, it is Fast and Simple

Finally, if you are already paying a landscaper for lawn care, adding aeration and fertilizer to your care plan is simple and easy. A landscaper has access to professional-quality tools and products that make the process much quicker than doing it yourself, and as previously mentioned, it is probably far more affordable than you might think. When all the other benefits are considered, it just makes sense.

As you can see, it is vital that you fertilize your lawn – and ideally in the fall – if you want beautiful, lush regrowth in the spring. It is good not only for your lawn, but also for other plants you may have around your yard and property. It can help you avoid the poor aesthetic associated with brown spots, and it is far more affordable than replacing sections with sod.

3 Reasons an Outdoor Fire Pit Will Change Your Life During Cooler Weather

If you have thought about installing a fire pit in your backyard but still aren’t sold on the idea, there are plenty of reasons why you should go ahead and take the plunge. Below, you can discover three of the best and most compelling reasons why an outdoor fire pit can change the way you utilize your backyard, even during the colder months. It might provide your family, your home, and your social life more value than you realize.

It is an Immediate Source of Heat

Many homeowners go to great lengths to landscape in such a way that there is always some foliage and color to see, even in the middle of winter, but very few of them actually get the chance to enjoy that landscaping. It is just too cold outside! A fire pit is one of the best and most effective ways to transform your backyard in fall and winter because it produces immediate heat that you can enjoy. There is nothing quite like sitting close to the crackling fire on a chilly fall evening and enjoying all the sights and sounds of the outdoors. Whether you have a fire pit built into your patio or you have a free-standing option, there are numerous opportunities to improve your backyard’s aesthetic and spend more time outdoors.

There are Many Styles to Choose From

Outdoor fire pits come in a wide range of styles, so regardless of the architecture of your home, your landscaping, or even your hardscaping, you can find a fire pit that will perfectly suit your current aesthetic. You can choose one that suits your existing patio, including stone and concrete finishes, and you can even find wall-mounted firepits if you want to save precious “floor” space in your backyard. There are slimline options, decorative options, and firepits that do double duty as barbeques, too. No matter what your style, and no matter how you plan to use your firepit, you can find one that is perfect for your home and family.

It Can Improve Your Social Life

Most of us enjoy standing outside talking to our neighbors, and some of us even invite our family and friends over for barbeques during the summer. Come late fall and winter, though, those talks and invitations stop because it gets dark and cold very early in the evening. Fortunately, a fire pit provides you with light and heat, which makes it possible to socialize even on the coldest, darkest nights. If you get a model that doubles as a barbecue grill, you can even serve up delicious food in the process. Outdoor fire pits pair especially well with hot tubs; strategic placement can prevent you from getting too cold on your way back into the house after a long soak. Think of a fire pit as a way to ensure that summer fun extends well into the winter months.

A fire pit is one of the best investments any homeowner can make. It extends your living space into the outdoors all year long, and it can have a drastic impact on your social life, even when it is freezing outside. Whether you want to enjoy a book and a glass of wine in front of a crackling fire or host a barbecue for your neighborhood, a professionally-installed fire pit is a fantastic choice.

How to Get Your Lawn Ready for Fall Weather

Fall is just around the corner, and that means it’s time to shift gears in your lawn care. Many home and business owners tend to assume that the onset of fall means they can stop worrying so much about their lawns, but failing to take care of them properly can cause problems in the spring. Here are some of the things you should do to prepare your lawn for cooler weather.

Do not Stop Mowing

As the temperature starts to fall, your lawn will not grow quite as quickly, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t mow. In fact, your grass will continue to grow all the way up until the first major frost, and you should continue to mow it back down to its normal height until that happens. When you do call it quits for the season, if you are mowing your own lawn, make sure that you winterize your mower by giving it a tune-up and removing any excess fuel left in the tank.

Remove the Fallen Leaves

Leaves will often start falling before the first official day of autumn, and it is important that you remove them frequently to protect your lawn. As they lie on top of the grass, they prevent photosynthesis from occurring, and this can cause patches of grass to die out. Though a blower will work now and then, it is important to manually rake (the old-fashioned way) at least once a week to remove the buildup that occurs over time.

Aerate Now – Not in the Spring

Aeration is important for creating passages that allow nutrients to reach your lawn’s root system, and fall is the best time of year to get it done. During the summer, heat stress and foot traffic can cause the soil to become compacted and hardened, so loosening it up will help your lawn stay healthy. While you can do this by hand, this is a job that is best left to a professional landscaper with the proper equipment. It aerates more deeply and thoroughly, which creates lusher, more beautiful lawns.

Apply Your Fertilizer Before the First Frost

Fall is also the best time of year to apply fertilizer since grass tends to deplete its source of nitrogen throughout its most active growth phase in the summer. Furthermore, applying fertilizer to a freshly aerated lawn boosts its effectiveness. Though grass will lie dormant in the winter, it will still require some nutrients to keep it alive and help it come back bright green and full the following spring.

Plant Grass Seed Where Needed

Finally, if you notice any bare spots or brown spots in your lawn as you are raking, mowing, aerating, or fertilizing, make sure you are applying the appropriate grass seed. It is important to ensure that the seeds fall all the way down to the soil in order to germinate, and in the summer, this can be difficult. Professional landscapers use seeding processes that are designed to force more seed down into the soil and produce thicker, fuller regrowth.

Fall is not the time to stop worrying about lawn care; in fact, it is the best time of year for many of the things that will keep your lawn looking bright and full all year. For the best results, rely on an experienced professional landscaper to help you prepare your lawn the right way and enjoy a beautiful lawn next spring.

The Right Trees Can Bring Quite a Bit of Value to Your Home

Whether you’re interested in adding visual appeal to your home or you want to add some actual value to your property, trees are an often-overlooked opportunity. Below are some of the best trees you can plant in your yard right now to help boost the value of your home and property.

Trees that Withstand Cold

Chicago’s winters are brutal, and they can wreak havoc on certain species of trees. As such, you’ll want to be sure that many of the trees on your property are cold-hardy. Some of the best options in this category include evergreens and hardwoods like oak or maple. The latter options can also provide reliable shade for decades, which can actually reduce energy costs during the summer months, too!

Japanese Maple

The Japanese maple tree is growing in popularity right now, and for good reason. Their beautiful foliage ranges from green to pink to red throughout the year, which brings eye appeal to virtually any landscape. You’ll want to make sure to choose cold-hardy variants of this popular tree, and they’ll need to be planted in soil that is both well-drained and moist. Because these trees are smaller and more fragile than their North American maple counterparts, they should be planted in a location that will protect them from strong winds.

Linden Trees

Linden trees come in several varieties, and they can range in size from four to five feet high to a towering four stories high (or more!) Linden trees are popular in the Chicago area because they provide essential shade, and their foliage slowly changes color throughout the seasons. The American Linden trees bloom with small yellowish-cream flowers that add visual interest to your property in the spring, as well.

Magnolia Trees

There’s nothing quite like the stunning blooms of a magnolia tree to give your home the curb appeal it deserves. They’re known for their large, fragrant pink and white flowers in the spring and summer and their striking cone-shaped fruit in the fall. They are often utilized as ornamental plants in landscaping throughout the Chicagoland area. Small magnolia trees can be as small as five feet tall; larger variants can grow to as tall as 100 feet and 40 to 50 feet wide! Choose your species carefully so as not to overwhelm your property.

Fruit Trees

Finally, fruit trees are a surefire way to add value to your property to the tune of edible fruit! Some of the best and hardiest fruit trees to grow in Chicago include cherries and persimmons, though peaches, pears, and apples are alternatives, too. Persimmon trees are in especially high demand among Chicago home buyers, so if you’re struggling to decide which to try, it’s hard to go wrong with delicious persimmons.

Whether you prefer the stately look of a large evergreen, the floral appeal of a stunning magnolia, or the harvest that comes from your very own persimmon and cherry trees, these amazing trees are sure to add value to your home both now and in the future.

It’s Getting HOT! Here’s How to Keep Your Lawn Healthy

Despite the brutally cold winters in Chicago, the summer months can bring stifling heat, excessive humidity, and conditions that may make your lawn miserable. Below are some expert tips for keeping your lawn nice and healthy, even when the climate isn’t cooperating.

Water Appropriately

Watering your lawn appropriately is one of the most important things you can do to keep it healthy and green during the summer. The best time to water your lawn is early in the morning, ideally sometime between sunrise and 10 AM. Make sure that you are watering when the sun is up to trigger photosynthesis, but not when the sun is high overhead as this can cause much of the water to evaporate before the plants can take it in. In some cases, it can even burn your lawn. Finally, water thoroughly but infrequently to help your grass develop strong, healthy roots. Soak your lawn three times per week, applying about an inch of water with each application. Skip days when you receive one inch of rain or more.

Check Your Mowing Habits

If you’re mowing your lawn as short as possible so you don’t have to mow as frequently, you’re certainly not alone. However, cutting your grass too short can lead to shorter roots, which become problematic during the dry months. Short roots can’t take in the water and nutrients the lawn needs to stay green. Aim for a lawn length of about 3.5 inches for the best results all year long.

Feed Your Lawn

If you really want a healthy, thick, bright-green lawn, apply a slow-release fertilizer to your lawn. The best time to apply is early in the spring season once your lawn has had a chance to revive after being dormant during the winter. For the proper interval, follow the fertilizer manufacturer’s instructions on the package. You need to fertilize regularly to keep the grass thick and prevent weed growth.

Aerate Your Lawn

If your lawn isn’t getting enough air, it can choke and turn brown. Aerating your lawn regularly not only keeps the soil looser and aerated, but it also makes the soil better able to absorb water. This means less runoff, better absorption of fertilizer, and an overall healthier lawn. To aerate on your own, use a garden fork and push it into the ground at intervals of about one foot. You might also choose to rent an aerator or call a landscaping professional.

Get Rid of Weeds

Finally, weeds can really take the life out of your lawn if you don’t keep them under control. You should be diligent about removing and preventing weeds from spring through fall. Don’t apply weed killer to your entire lawn all at once; rather, check your lawn for weeds about once every week and spot-treat as required. Pulling weeds manually is always the best practice, but if you prefer to use a weed killer, it’s best to use it only on small areas at a time.

Keeping your lawn healthy during the hot summer months is all about knowing how and when to water, mow, fertilize, aerate and weed. Once you have these five basics down, you can enjoy a beautifully lush and green lawn all year round.

Chicago Summers Can Be Rough – Some Ideas on What to Plant

If you’re thinking about updating your summer landscaping, it’s important to remember that despite the freezing cold winters in the Windy City, Chicago’s summers can be downright brutal. Below, you can learn more about some ornamental plants – trees, bushes, and flowers – that will absolutely thrive in the hot Chicago summer months.

Hellebore

Hellebore is a beautiful option for landscaping in Chicago because it will provide visual interest all year round. In the summer, its long-blooming bright pink flowers add ever-important color while the bright green leaves stay green throughout the winter months. Hellebore performs best in partial shade, and it’s a perennial, so it will bloom again and again as long as it is maintained.

Coneflower

If part of your space is always in full sun, it’s important to find plants that can tolerate those rays without being burned to a crisp. Coneflower is by far one of the best choices here, and the droop-petal coneflowers are actually native to the Chicago area! They come in a wide range of colors, they bloom all summer long, and they will absolutely thrive if left to bake in the hot summer sun. You can expect them to grow to anywhere from 12 to 24 inches tall and about a foot wide, so make sure you plan adequate space.

Smoke Bush

If you’re looking to incorporate some greenery into your landscape, the smoke bush shrub is a fantastic option. It changes color throughout the season – from a stunning coral pink to a golden cream – so there’s always some visual interest. While the smoke bush thrives in full sun, it also fares well in only partial sun, so you can be fairly flexible with its placement.

Creeping Lilyturf

If you’re looking for groundcover with pizzazz, look no further than creeping lilyturf! It looks very much like ornamental grass, and it can survive virtually anything the Chicago climate can throw at it. When the wind blows and the lilyturf moves, its beautiful shine is noticeable from hundreds of feet away. Just be careful when planting; you’ll want to make proper use of edging to keep it within its boundaries. Otherwise, it can easily take over your entire space.

Hosta

No summer landscape is complete without some hosta, and there are dozens of varieties that fare exceptionally well in the brutal summer heat. These are considered fail-safes because even if you have never grown a plant in your life, you will struggle to kill them. They will survive virtually any imaginable condition, but if you want them to look their absolute best, plant them in a mostly shady area that receives a few hours of indirect sunlight each day.

Whether you’re looking for bold, bright color, evergreen foliage, or even conversation-starting groundcover, these five plants are perfect for Chicago summers – even if you’re not much of a gardener. They’ll look great all summer long, and in many cases, they’ll continue to provide visual interest all year, too!