Planting annuals in your Houston landscape

Planting annuals in your Houston landscape is a visual treat, the “fresh air” that a landscape design regularly needs. With each new season, they give you and all who travel past your property a renewed appreciation of the exterior landscapes. Annuals put color, texture and liveliness in your gardens. Purple pansies, orange daisies, pink begonias and red geraniums delight and captivate us when used as seasonal color because the human eye is naturally drawn to what is new.

Exterior Worlds uses the basic design philosophies of unity, repetition and balance when planting annuals, principles that are foundational to planting gardens of all types, shapes and sizes. There are many ways we accomplish these goals:

• We limit the color choices to those that work well together.
• Sometimes we may plant a single specimen throughout the gardens.
• Conversely, we may repeat a color across several different plant types.
• Always we consider the whole so that the overall scheme stays in balance.

Garden pots, containers and urns are perfect vessels for your seasonal color. For instance, potted annuals make a courtyard garden design really come alive. They add an architectural element to the ambiance. We have used a combination of pots and color to define a garden space or frame a view. By planting annuals in large-sized containers overflowing with color, we have also used them to create a zone, and, when you tire of that arrangement, we can always reconfigure the pots into another design.

We also recommend that you supplement the color that annuals bring to your yard with blooming trees, bushes, vines, grasses and other plant material. We like to mix up the blooming phases of your choices so that you get different spots of color throughout the year. For instance, native grasses provide movement and subtlety. We also use colorful, variegated foliage and berry-bearing bushes to bring variety without extra expense. In particular, planting roses is a prized way to add exquisite color to your gardens.

One note to the wise gardener: installing a drip irrigation system is a smart way to deliver water to your annuals, especially if they are in small or difficult spaces. Examples for their uses include beds between sidewalks or along a driveway, rose gardens, and containers such as decorative pots and hanging baskets. Drip systems let you to water the root systems instead of the flowers, something your annuals will truly appreciate.

When to plant annuals is a question we get a lot. The first consideration needs to be which annuals are appropriate for the current season, and by that we mean specifically the Houston climate. Attention must be paid to our mild winters, hot and humid summers and tendencies toward monsoon-like rains. The same answer is true for the question when to switch out to next seasonal color. In general, you’ve most likely waited too late if the current plantings aren’t surviving.

Make your Houston home and garden pop by planting annuals. In yards of all sizes, in garden beds, in wall planters, in pots, on patios, near the pool and spa, and at entryways—seasonal color breathes fresh life into your landscape design.

Lawn Care Professionals

Before hiring any lawn care professional crew, including Exterior Worlds, to take over your landscaping duties, be sure you understand not only what they do, but how they do it.

Following is a brief listing of services we think you need to look for in lawn care professionals that are in addition to mowing and trimming of grass:

• Lawn aeration. Aeration involves the methodical removal of small soil plugs, also called cores, out of the turf—most often by machine. This practice benefits the grass by increasing water infiltration that improves drainage and by increasing the activity of microorganisms that promote de-thatching. It is the best way to break up heavily-used turf and to control the build-up of thatch. For most Houston lawns, we recommend aeration twice a year, but you really can’t aerate enough, so the more often the better.
• Specialty care for theme gardens. Many high-end homes have theme gardens, such as a natural landscape or a Southern garden, which require the care of specialists because of the intricacy of the overall design or due to the delicacy of the plants. Our lawn care professionals are well-versed in different horticulture techniques and pay close attention to your chosen landscape design.
• Houston tree lighting/ Houston tree planting. Trees are valuable assets on your property. They need special attention and care, whether they play a prominent part in your landscape lighting scheme or are newly planted. We are experts in these matters.
• Quality drainage. Because of Houston’s climate and soil quality, a drainage system positively impacts your entire property. It prevents standing water that can cause mosquito breeding grounds, slick surfaces, and water-logged landscaping. Additionally, it drains water from areas close to your house that could damage its foundation. As for the care of your lawn, proper yard drainage is essential because it quickly moves water off your property, thus encouraging healthy turf. We have the skilled professionals who can monitor your drainage system to ensure its optimal functionality.
• Landscape and pool services. Often homeowners find that having one full-service firm like Exterior Worlds is beneficial—money-wise and time-wise. In particular, it gives us the opportunity to take a holistic approach to the care of your entire property.

One last thought: There is a general impression out there that anyone can take care of a lawn. It doesn’t help matters that anyone who can afford a sign on their pickup plus a lawn mower can call themselves a lawn care professional.

The truth is that it takes a lot of experience, technical ability and knowledge to make true landscaping professionals such as you’ll find at Exterior Worlds. We firmly believe that the lawn care business entails so much more than the weekly trimming of grass.

And then there is that something special. We’re talking about the nearly unquantifiable trait that is part enthusiasm, part intuition and part innate interest that sets the serious professionals apart from the wannabes. The best way you can flush out this quality is to ask about the art of landscape—and just sit back and see what kind of answer you get.

Call the professionals at Exterior Worlds for all your lawn care needs. Serving the greater Houston area. 713-827-2255

Garden Maintenance Services

Expert garden maintenance services are a necessity for a luxury garden. Luxury gardens, such as a Zen garden or tropical landscaping as you might find in sophisticated residential landscaping, need exceptional care and specialized knowledge. And not just in the early stages, but throughout the lifespan of the garden.

What are some of the benefits you should expect from Exterior World’s high-quality garden maintenance services?

• Care for annual flowers. Our services include pruning annuals to maximize the bloom cycle and, in the cold season, we cover them ahead of freeze warnings. We are also experts at switching out seasonal color.
• Landscape lighting. A vital part of high-end gardens, landscape lighting serves the two-fold purpose of enlivening the garden at night and providing safety. We can do the required repairs and maintenance to this intricate system.
• Fencing and gates. Our specialty garden crew can also paint and repair the fence and garden gates to maintain proper security and increase the life of your fencing. Additionally, we can maintain and repair your automatic driveway gates.
• Specialty services. This category includes regular chores such as pressure-washing patios, driveways, sidewalks and other hard surfaces, inspecting and cleaning the gutters, and tree removal.
• Landscape drainage systems. Since drainage systems are such an important infrastructure of yards in Houston we have, over the years, become experts at their design, installation and maintenance.
• Irrigation systems. Sprinkler systems work best with scheduled inspections. This inspection—and any subsequent repairs—is a time-consuming job best done by professionals such as Exterior Worlds who are routinely in the gardens and yards, and thus can spot problems quickly.
• Mulching services. Mulching is necessary for moisture retention and proper mulching is even more necessary. For instance, it is important not to put too much mulch on the base of plants as it causes plants to struggle to survive. Unfortunately, we find this careless practice done by some of our competitors.

If you currently use a single maintenance crew for both your garden and lawn services, remember that you can “un-bundle” those services. For instance, you can keep the lawn crew—something you may prefer to do out of loyalty or due to favorable pricing. However, you could hire Exterior Worlds, with our finely-honed skills, for the subtle work needed by your gardens.

In these days of increased ecological awareness, it is important to discuss xeriscaping with your garden maintenance services professional. Exterior Worlds is an advocate of xeriscape (pronounced “zer-a-scape”) gardens, which is a type of gardening that de-emphasizes the use of fertilizers and watering via sprinkler systems. The intention behind this gardening philosophy is to use indigenous plants that take naturally to our soil and climate—and still look magnificent. You can use these plants in a new bed or we can artfully arrange them into your existing garden.

For a wonderfully unique landscape, you need the best garden maintenance services. Since 1987, Exterior Worlds has provided the best landscaping services in the Gulf Coast region by understanding the local terrain and weather, using the best techniques and practices, and always striving to understand your desires and needs.

Houston Lawn Services

Exterior Worlds calls itself a landscape service company. What services do you offer for lawns?
Your landscape design program, including the lawn, begins with the design process followed by installation. Then comes the weekly care of and tending to that landscape, making sure everything conforms to the overall design intent—with plenty of room to make changes along the way.

Because of our climate, Houston lawn service is a year-round issue and one that has special needs because of our particular climate. Houston lawns require mowing and trimming weekly from March through October. From November through February, you can get by with every other week, unless you have other considerations, such as trees that shed their leaves. Exterior Worlds can customize a residential landscape maintenance contract to suit your needs.

Over-seeding your yard with winter grass is one way to keep your lawn beautiful during our cold months. It is best done in early to late October. The big disadvantage of this practice is that the winter grass competes with the St. Augustine grass for space and nutrition and that may have a negative impact on the St. Augustine in the spring.

A regular fertilization program is a wise idea. Fertilizers we have used include organic, semi-organic, fast release, slow release, winterizer and low salt. Two other important treatments in Houston lawn service care are insecticides and fungicides, which control disease and insect infestations.

Should we invest in an irrigation system? If so, what are the best practices?
Our clients have found that an irrigation system is really worth the money—it provides good value for the financial outlay. But if you spend the money, you also need to schedule quarterly inspections of the system since, being mechanical, it will break down occasionally. Attention to this detail is extremely important on large properties. Undetected leaks can be very costly—on your monthly budget and on the environment.

As for good watering techniques, we suggest that you water in longer spans of time, but for less time. This combination promotes deeper water penetration, which gives your plant material stronger root systems and healthier plants. Plus, because you water less, you save money. Another advantage is that it helps create a more drought-resistant lawn. In other words, your Houston lawn service program requires proper water management.

As part of a Houston lawn service program, how does Exterior Worlds promote the long-term health of the grass in my landscape?
One recommended lawn care practice for compacted and heavily-used turf is lawn aeration. Lawn aeration involves removing small soil plugs or cores out of the lawn by a tool called a core aerator. You may have heard of another type of aeration called spiking. With it, solid spikes or tines are driven into the soil without removing a plug. It is not as effective as core aeration because, with Houston’s thick, gumbo-like soil, spiking can actually contribute to compaction.

We also suggest regular dethatching, which is the process of removing thatch or excessively thick grass with machine or by hand, because it promotes healthy lawns. Lawn aeration also helps control thatch build-up, which is another reason to do it.

Residential Landscape Maintenance

Professional residential landscape maintenance ensures that your yard will look green and colorful regardless of the time of year. It will also keep your yard free of the many negative forces that will destroy plant life and damage the aesthetic of the property. Maintenance contracts lock labor rates into an affordable, predictable budget and ensure timely and consistent services on a regular basis.

Flower beds make a yard look like springtime regardless of the time of year.
Annual color maintenance is the rotation of different flowering species so that no matter what time of year it is, your flower bed will look lively and colorful. This is best done by trained experts who know what types of plants will flower at specific times of the year, and what types of flowers will grow better in the shade versus the sunlight.

Lawns are greener and neater when cared for under a residential landscape maintenance contract.
Mowing and edging the grass are the two fundamental basics of your lawn care program. During the warmer months, you should have this should be done on a weekly basis. Beginning in October and February, you should have it done bi-weekly. While onsite, we will also check your lawn for a number of diseases that plague grasses and treat them accordingly if discovered.

Professional aeration of soil is an extremely important aspect of residential landscape maintenance.
Houston soil is much like clay in its thickness and constituency. Over time, it gets pressed and compacted, which creates a barrier to root growth. Aeration removes cores of soil from the lawn that are approximately one-half inch to three-quarter inches in diameter. This both softens the soil and lets in much needed air and water, which roots need just like we do for optimal growth and health.

A residential landscape maintenance contract will take care of your irrigation and drainage systems.
Irrigation and drainage systems are usually custom built in a yard. Any repairs to these systems or cleaning that needs to be done is best performed by the professionals who installed them.

Residential landscape maintenance keeps all of your vegetation fertilized the way it needs to be, when it needs to be.
Grasses, gardens, and flowers need to be fertilized periodically in order to remain healthy and vibrant. Lawns, ground cover, vines, and shrubbery must be fertilized once every three months. Certain types of flowers, such as gardenias an azaleas, need fertilizing in April and May. Roses must be fertilized every four weeks beginning in the spring and continuing throughout the growing season.

A residential maintenance contract includes systematic and safe pest and disease control.
It is essential that you protect all vegetation against insects, fungi, and plant diseases. Each species of plant, grass, shrub, tree, and vine has its own specific vulnerabilities that must be addressed on an individual basis. What works for roses will not work for shrubs and grass. An advanced knowledge of botany is required to counteract the many different threats to plant life, and to systematically treat each species proactively without putting adjacent species at risk of the wrong chemicals or treatment methods.

One of the greatest threats to your lawn is a fungal disease called “brown patch.” To counteract it, we will perform routine fungicide treatment. Roses will be treated for black spot disease, and virtually everything in your yard, at one time or another needs a good spraying of the right kind of insecticide.

Tree preservation is one of the more unique benefits our plans offer.
We would all like to think that trees will take care of themselves because they do such a good job of it in Nature. This is an exaggerated perspective. In the forest, we do not notice how many trees actually suffer from disease and injury. In our yards, however, we can spot a dying or damaged tree almost instantly.

Houston Lawn Care

Life is too busy and unpredictable for the working Houstonian to take care of his or her landscape consistently. A professional service agreement will see to it that every element of the yard is properly attended to with the right amount of attention, proper tools and materials, and in the right order and season it should be done. Houston lawn care is best managed under a comprehensive landscape maintenance contract that will make sure that all elements of grass health and growth are ensured throughout the year.

One of the more neglected aspects of Houston lawn care is inspecting the yard to see if the right types of grasses have been installed in the correct locations. San Augustine grass grows very well in both sunny areas and shade. However, when it turns brown, it looks unsightly. With a landscaping and maintenance plan, Zoisa grass and Bermuda grass can be installed to diversify the sunny areas of a yard and distinguish it from neighboring homes.

Water can also be a rather tricky aspect of Houston lawn care. Not everyone knows when and how to water a yard properly. Care must be taken not to overwater certain areas, or water the yard when the sun has already become too hot. Many Houston residents have now resorted to the convenience of automated sprinkler systems that allow them to program times of day and night so the system takes care of it for them. It is not always easy to know what time of day works best based on the season of the year, and it is also very hard with some sprinkler systems to deliver different amounts of water to different areas that have been planted with atypical, yet very attractive, grass species.

This is why we strongly recommend having Exterior Worlds install a professional irrigation system and drainage system that will handle all aspects of not only Houston lawn, but garden care as well. Our irrigation systems are fully automated and much more advanced than retail sprinkler systems because they are custom designed for a specific property and as part of a master landscaping plan. These systems will selectively water different parts of the yard at optimal times of day, and they will deliver just the right amount of water to the particular grass species that is growing in that zone.

Another very important thing to remember in Houston lawn care is the proper use of fertilizer. This is another area where people get themselves into trouble without a maintenance contract. Too much fertilizer will harm the grass, and too little will be ineffective. If different grass species are growing in the yard, or if grass health is less than optimal, it is best to outsource this to professional landscapers with degrees in botanical science. Our team knows what types of fertilizer will work and what types will not work with different grass species, and they know how to create their own compost mixtures, when necessary, to make certain that each yard zone gets proper treatment and the best chances at growth.

Something else that many people in Houston never even think about when it comes to Houston lawn care is aeration. The soil in our part of the world is a thick, clay-like mixture that quickly compacts and squeezes out the oxygen. Plant roots need oxygen to grow, so this will stunt the development of grass if pockets of air are not reintroduced into the soil. Aeration restores soil oxygen content, but it is time consuming and sometimes very grueling work. Exterior Worlds can handle this for you and make certain soil oxygen content is at optimal levels before we leave your home.

Call today to setup a free consultation to look over your property and develop both a master landscaping design and supportive landscape maintenance contract to preserve the value of your home and property investment in today’s problematic marketplace.

Landscape Maintenance

Our landscape has become more and more sophisticated over the years and we need a landscape maintenance firm that can properly care for it. Can Exterior Worlds help us out?
A beautiful yard says something special about the homeowners and, after spending your hard-earned money on a landscape installation, it now makes sense to protect it and make sure it develops as designed. And that’s where an Exterior Worlds’ landscape maintenance program comes in.

The services listed below are part of any excellent landscape maintenance contract. But Exterior Worlds prides itself on providing extras, such as identifying unexpected diseases and providing an estimate for treatment, and treating all landscape elements—for example, your sculptures and statues, irrigation systems and landscape lighting—with particular respect. We are also mindful of hard surface maintenance: pathways, driveways, patios and outdoor kitchens. Water elements, such as swimming pools and outdoor water fountains, that may accumulate debris during trimming of shrubs or lawn are cleaned as well.

Please give us Exterior World’s philosophy of maintenance.
Landscape maintenance starts with your turf. Houston lawns typically need trimming weekly through the summer and bi-weekly in the winter. We also recommend that lawns be aerated twice a year, although with aeration the more often, the better.
Other key components of our maintenance program:

• Shrubs, Ground Cover and Vines. As part of our thorough landscaping maintenance program, hedges, shrubs and bushes are trimmed regularly to maintain the desired contours. Vines and ground cover are also edged to maintain a neat appearance. This regularly-scheduled maintenance ensures that all elements conform to the original plan of your landscape design.
• Flower Bed Maintenance. We weed flower beds weekly. We also turn the mulch every two weeks so as to keep the exchange of air and water flowing into and out of the soil. To optimize the growth and bloom cycles of seasonal flowers, we regularly prune and fertilize them.
• Tree Maintenance. All small trees are pruned as necessary. As a good practice of landscaping maintenance, we also schedule a deep root fertilization of these trees annually.

What about long-term care? An important step for your landscape’s long-term health is a pro-active fertilization and chemical treatment program. It provides a healthy boost to plants and is also a preventative for diseases and infestations common to our area.

We recommend that lawns be fertilized four times a year. All vines, ground covers and bushes should be on a similar schedule. Roses need to be fertilized in the spring, and then continued every four to six weeks during the growing season. Azaleas and gardenias need fertilization in April and May, and acidified in February.

For Houston lawns, one of the most common diseases is brown patch, or “Rhizoctonia solani.” The solution is a basic maintenance program involving a fungicide and herbicide treatment. For Houston roses, the major enemy is black spot disease, therefore roses need to be sprayed when black spot appears. Finally, we have found that all plants benefit from chemical treatments to protect against various insect infestations.

Houston Lawn Maintenance

What are the special considerations of Houston lawn maintenance?
Once you’ve finished the design and installation of your landscape, then comes the day-in, day-out care of it, its plant material and hardscapes. Because of our climate, Houston lawn maintenance requires year-round attention to maintain the intent of your original design, add any new elements, such as seasonal color, and perform the tasks peculiar to our climate and environment.

As a premier Houston lawn service company, Exterior Worlds recommends that ongoing maintenance begins with your turf—its health, care and looks. Houston yards demand mowing and trimming once a week in the spring and summer months. From November through February, you can do it every other week. Dethatching, the process of removing thatch or excessively thick grass, is an important part of turf maintenance and promotes healthy lawns. It is done by hand or machine.

A great way to keep your yard beautiful throughout the fall and winter months is by seeding the lawn with winter grass. Early to late October is normally the best time to spread it, as dictated by local temperature ranges. It should be noted, however, that rye grass does have some disadvantages. For example, rye grass can compete with the St. Augustine grass for nutrition and space, making it difficult on the St. Augustine when springtime arrives. In particular, this struggle occurs in shady areas where St. Augustine typically has difficulty establishing itself.

We also encourage lawn aeration, sometimes called core aeration. This lawn care practice is recommended for compacted, heavily-used turf and also to help control thatch build-up. Lawn aeration involves the use of a core aerator to remove small soil plugs or cores out of the lawn. A different type of aerator pushes solid spikes or tines into the soil without removing a plug, a procedure known as spiking. Because of Houston’s clay soil, spiking is not as effective as core aeration since spiking can actually contribute to compaction.

We are also big believers in the value of a sensible chemical program. Types of fertilizers we use include organic, semi-organic, slow release, fast release, winterizer, and low salt. Two other important treatments are insecticides and fungicides, which help control the ever-present danger in Houston lawn maintenance care of disease, fungus and insect infestations.

What can Exterior Worlds tell us about water management and irrigation systems?
For deeper water penetration, which gives your plant material stronger root systems and healthier plants, we recommend watering long and less often. It makes your lawn more drought-resistant, plus you save money because you water less.

Investing in an irrigation system can be a time-, money- and energy-saver for your Houston lawn maintenance program. We suggest quarterly inspection of your system since sprinkler systems, like all machines, break down from time to time and need repair. A regularly-scheduled survey prevents the loss of water from undetected leaks, something that is important for the environment and your bank account. Attention to this detail is extremely important on large residential properties and commercial lawn maintenance.

Can Exterior Worlds help us with ongoing maintenance?
Absolutely. Please follow this link which talks about our maintenance contracts.

Lawn Care Services

In 1987, Exterior Worlds began offering expert lawn care service in Houston. We have since grown to become one of the Gulf Coast region’s premiere high-end landscape design and services firms. We believe that all lawn care service is not created equal. Our lawn care services not only include the list of expected duties, but also many extra chores you might not have considered. The Exterior Worlds’ version of lawn care service also includes an overall intention to provide top-tier care and attention to your landscape design and each element in it.

The typical clients of Exterior Worlds are homeowners who appreciate the return on investment principle as relates to landscaping. They understand the relationship between a beautiful, well-designed, well-maintained residential landscape and property value. They also find worth in the skills and expertise of professional landscapers because they see the financial rewards this proficiency provides to their personal bottom line.

And they also thoroughly enjoy gorgeous, green spaces and luxurious outdoor living.

A lawn maintenance contract with Exterior Worlds includes items such as:
• Regular mowing and trimming. We recommend mowing and trimming weekly during the warm and hot months and going to every other week during the cooler months.
• Chemical treatments. Feeding, fertilization and chemical treatments are other important practices in lawn care service as they provide a boost to vigorous plants and prevent infestations and diseases common to the Houston area.
• Inspection of your drainage system. Your residential landscape maintenance is impacted by the drainage system. By draining water from low-lying areas, it prevents standing water that can cause mosquito breeding grounds, slippery surfaces and soaked landscaping. Proper yard drainage is essential for the care of your turf as it transports water off your property in a timely manner, thus promoting healthy grass and allowing the maintenance crew to perform its regular lawn service duties.
• Inspection of your irrigation system. A fully functioning irrigation system requires ongoing maintenance. Since the system is both mechanical and electronic, it requires regular check-ups, such as the replacement of stuck valves and broken heads. We also monitor the best times and days to water, which change depending on the season and the weather. For this area, we usually recommend to start watering a couple of hours before sunrise, which puts water on the plants and ground just in time for the sun to come up and start generating heat. Any earlier and the water just sits there, giving fungus the opportunity to grow. Any later and you lose a lot of water to evaporation.
• Lawn aeration. This practice is integral to proper lawn care and provides benefits, such as increasing the activity of microorganisms that promote de-thatching, improving water infiltration which helps with drainage and reduces harmful fungi, and increasing the earth worm population. These elements work together in a symbiotic relationship to give you a healthier lawn. Core aeration also reduces the run-off from fertilizer and pesticide—and that helps the environment.

Additionally, Exterior Worlds offers garden services, such as:
• Rose maintenance.
• Dead-heading flowers.
• Professional pruning.
• Professional mulch installation and turning over of mulch.
• Training vines.

Serving the Memorial Villages, Tanglewood, West University, Bellaire and River Oaks. Call us at 713-827-2255 to discuss your landscaping needs.

Memorial Villages Yard Maintenance

Exterior Worlds offers customized Memorial Villages yard maintenance to its many clients in the area. Memorial Villages yard maintenance is special…because the Memorial Villages are special. Developed as estate-like living within a close drive to downtown Houston and all the city’s amenities, the Memorial Villages offer exclusive neighborhoods with verdant green spaces and genial living.

The Memorial Villages of Spring Valley Village, Hillshire Village, Piney Point Village, Hunter Creek Village, Hedwig Village and Bunker Hill Village typically have oversized properties that required one of a kind landscape services. Some of our customers find that they prefer to use our turn-key services under an ongoing maintenance contract. Others are better served by using only our garden services or our lawn care service. In other words, we tailor our landscape solutions especially to meet your demands.

Exterior Worlds prides itself on our commitment to the customer and to excellence. And regardless of how you use us, we bring professionalism, dedication to detail, and expertise in landscape design and care to each job—each and every time we show up. This consistency has earned us the reputation as one of the finest landscape firms in the area.

The tasks we perform as part of our Memorial Villages yard maintenance services include:

• Professional grooming, pruning and trimming of small plants and flowers.
• Turf mowing and trimming. We recommend weekly service March through October and bi-weekly in the cooler months of November through February.
• Chemical feeding and treatments. Insecticides and fungicides address insect and fungus problems, an ever-present threat to vigorous plants and grass. Types of fertilizers used include organic, slow release, fast release and winterizers.
• Over-seeding with rye grass or winter grass. This practice keeps your grass green and flourishing throughout the winter.
• Lawn aeration. We recommend aeration to improve compacted and heavily-used turf.
• Mulch installation and weeding. Weeding is done as needed. We are meticulous with mulch, including spreading it with our hands when warranted.
• Paying attention to the original landscape design and providing specialized care. Many of our clients use a wide variety of species to create a singular garden based on personal preferences. Styles include: English garden design Japanese garden, and modern landscape design.

With our landscape designs, you see how we use imaginative bursts of color or, if your preference is for a more subtle look, you will find a timeless beauty that attracts accolades and attention. We are known for our luxurious, highly personalized signature designs, a style defined by you, along with our use of lush materials and sophisticated techniques.

One area of our expertise lies in drainage systems. We are authorities on the special codes and regulations that the Memorial Villages enforce to combat flooding. We can maintain the one you already have—or design and install a storm drainage system for you.

Another important aspect of Memorial Villages yard maintenance is tree preservation and ongoing tree care. Trees are one of the features that make the Memorial Villages so special and we know how to care for them so that they thrive.

Since 1987, Exterior Worlds has specialized in high-end landscape design and services for the greater Houston area. In addition to serving the Memorial Villages, we have clients in River Oaks, Tanglewood, West University

Houston Lawn Services

Lawn maintenance service is a basic building block of overall landscape care. It creates a backdrop for all the other landscape elements. At least it does, the way Exterior Worlds performs these services. We do it so you don’t have to. In other words, we want to serve as property managers for your home landscape and gardens.

The basics of a lawn maintenance contract with Exterior Worlds include:
• Regular mowing and trimming. A representative contract covers mowing and trimming once a week in the spring and summer months and every other week during the cooler months.
• Maintenance and repair of the irrigation system. An irrigation system requires regular inspection for broken heads and valves. We also keep monitor the best times and days to water, which change depending on the weather and the season. In Houston, the preferred time to begin watering is about two hours before the sun comes up. This start time furnishes water to the plants and soil before the sun comes up and begins putting out its heat. If you start too much later, you will lose the water due to evaporation. If you start any earlier, the water tends to sit on the plants, giving fungus a chance to grow.


• Inspection of yard drainage systems. A fully-functioning storm drainage system transports water off your property in a timely manner, which allows your maintenance crew to perform its regular lawn service tasks and encourages healthy grass.
• Chemical treatments such as fertilizing and feeding. Chemical treatments are vital to lawn maintenance service as they supply a boost to plants, making them better able to withstand the rigors of our weather and to fight diseases and infestations found in the Houston area.
• Lawn Aeration. Another essential of proper lawn maintenance service, aeration produces many benefits, chief among them: it enhances water infiltration which helps reduces harmful fungi and helps with drainage, it increases the activity of microorganisms that encourages de-thatching, and it increases the earth worm ecosystem.

In addition to lawn services, Exterior Worlds provides garden services, either on a stand-alone basis or in conjunction with turf care. These services include:
• Professional mulch installation and bi-weekly turning of mulch.
• Rose maintenance.
• Dead-heading flowers.
• Training vines.
• Professional pruning.

For more than 20 years, we have provided these services to residences in River Oaks, West University, Tanglewood, Bellaire, and the Memorial Villages, including Hunter Creek Village, Piney Point Village, Hedwig Village and Bunker Hill Village, something we think proves our case about the quality services we provide.

Our lawn maintenance service starts with the intention to maintain and enrich the original design. At the same time, we bring ongoing and consistent superior attention, care and expertise to each task. For high-net worth homeowners, the opportunity cost to become bogged down in the management of landscaping duties far outweighs the cost of hiring Exterior Worlds to handle them. Our clients have found that it is a far better use of their time to be productive in the office rather than dealing with contractors, checking on the sprinkler system, and arranging for fungicide treatments for the roses.

Call us at 713-827-2255 to discuss how we can help you with your landscape maintenance needs.

Mulch Services & Installation

Mulch installation is an ideal example of the lengths that Exterior Worlds will go to in order to bring quality service to each and every job. We pride ourselves on our dedication to excellence—from the big projects, like putting in a property-wide drainage system, including French drains, to the small tasks, like mulch installation.

In general, mulch is shredded old limbs, trees and shrubs that have been composted. In this part of the U.S., pine and cedar are the most commonly used material for mulch. The benefits of mulching are comprehensive. Mulch keeps moisture in the ground, which is crucial during our hot months—and helps keep your water bill down besides! Mulch reduces the unattractive growth of weeds. Correct mulch installation also can prevent erosion, something valuable during our rainy season. Some mulch is specifically designed to knit together and form a netted surface. This type of mulch is particularly advantageous where there is elevation, since erosion occurs there first.

At Exterior Worlds, we believe proper mulch installation entails:
• Using a premium mulch. We buy from the best providers in the area, people we have known and trusted for years.
• Not over-mulching. We often find that less-knowledgeable competitors put too much mulch onto the beds. This practice means mulch stacks too high up plant stalks, which can actually kill your plants.
• Using bags rather than transporting by wheelbarrow. Bagged mulch is easier and less messy to carry from one section of the landscape to another. It also eliminates the dilemma of what to do with any excess mulch and the temptation to over-mulch.
• Not—repeat, not—covering the weep-holes in the house’s foundation. This point is essential in Houston due to our unsavory distinction of being a hot zone for termites. Mulch in weep-holes invites termites into your home.
• Breaking up the mulch or turning it regularly. Our residential yard maintenance contracts offer this service which needs to be done every two weeks.
• Mulching twice a year. We install mulch so that there is no build-up around plants and trees, even when it requires spreading it with our hands.

Other types of mulch include gravel, glass and rubber, materials that are generally low maintenance and decompose very slowly. In particular, glass mulch looks terrific in a contemporary garden design. Mulch that has been treated with a bio-degradable dye is also readily available. We often recommend black mulch as we think it visually makes greenery more pleasing.

Because Exterior Worlds recognizes that each of you is unique, our services can be customized and specialized for your specific needs. If you want a single element added to your landscape design, say, an outdoor water fountain or outdoor room, we can do that for you. Or you may need regular garden services. If so, we can customize a contract just for those ongoing duties.

Our services are for serious Houston homeowners in upscale neighborhoods such as West University, Bellaire, Tanglewood, River Oaks and the Memorial Villages. Our expertise extends to the maintenance of gardens done in a specific style; for example, Japanese garden design, classic landscape design, Mediterranean landscape design.

We welcome your call at 713-827-2255 to discuss mulching and all your other landscaping needs.

Maintenance Program

A maintenance program is the very best way to protect your landscaping investment. They is meant to be a cost-effective means of getting all the all necessary services you need consolidated at a fixed price point. A maintenance program will also save you money in the long run on replacement costs by preventing the loss of expensive gardens, trees, and hedge plantings. Even your yard will benefit from such a service agreement that has been customized to the specifics of your lawn and landscape by the very same professionals who designed it.

A maintenance program begins with lawn services.
Your lawn needs a lot more care than you may think. It must be trimmed every week during summer and every two weeks during winter. It also has to be aerated frequently so that clay-like soil of our area does not clump too heavily around grass roots and choke off water and nutrients. Fertilizer needs to be added four times per year.

Irrigation and drainage is another vital line item that should be on every maintenance program.
Whatever you do, do not wait until the drainage system floods due to neglect and clogging from debris. Water drainage is a very complicated science on the type of flat terrain that we have here in Houston, and only a landscape professionals can build one correctly and maintain it proactively. Drains must be cleaned throughout the year to remain free of debris. Irrigation pipes should also checked periodically during months when there is little or no rainfall in order to make sure the water is running the way it needs to be. One clogged drain on the day before a storm can result in a flooded landscape on the day after the storm. Be proactive, not reactive.

Pruning of trees, shrubs, and hedges are recommended components of a maintenance program.
Pruning keeps trees and shrubs healthy and makes them look superb. Smaller shrubs, trees, and bushes that often need the most attention and care. Many smaller species are very hardy plants that are always sprouting new leaves and branches. Pruning them helps maintain their shape and neat appearance.

Ground cover and flower beds should get weekly attention. These things too can be covered under your maintenance program. It is important to have your landscape design company perform these services because lawn companies seldom know how to properly weed ornate flower beds or properly trim vines and exotic ground cover species.

Deep root tree fertilization needs be done on any property that has very large trees with extensive root systems.
Big trees have enormous root systems underground. A maintenance program needs to include annual deep tree root fertilization services that will ensure the health, vitality, and longevity of the tree.

Garden Care

Garden care looks simple, but it involves a great deal more than you might think. Quality garden care should always be done by a trained professional, because it involves so much more than weeding and watering plants. It is a sophisticated science of cultivation—many aspects of which must be attended to prior to planting of the garden itself.

One of these aspects is developing effective drain systems in and around the garden. Drains are much more difficult to install than you might think. It is one thing to create a method of water removal, but it is quite another to build it effectively without letting it be seen. Professionals have to do this so that pipes, gratings, and any holes in the ground are concealed. Our planning and development team puts a great deal of care and effort into building drainage systems in this manner, and they also work very hard to periodically maintain them to keep them clean and functional.

The engineering of an irrigation system is yet another crucial component of garden care. Houston often will see several months with no rainfall during the hottest time of the year. The majority of exotic and tropical species that we cultivate cannot survive these months without some type of irrigation. We strongly advise all of our clients to avoid using garden hoses to water these plants. This is because plan leaves, when wet, become vulnerable to fungal growth. Plants remain much healthier and look much more attractive when they are irrigated beneath the leaves close to the ground and the root system.

Still another important part of garden care that must be done in the very beginning is soil preparation. Many of our first time clients have already planted some type of garden that has since become unhealthy or unsatisfactory in appearance. When we go out to visit them, we often discover that the problem began in the beginning with improper soil preparation. Store-bought fertilizer is often the root cause. Not every type of fertilizer will work with every type of plant, and many people fail to read the labels on the bag that tell them just what types of plants the fertilizer is intended to nourish. Most are manufactured for popular species of flowers and plants and may not work very well at all with more exotic or tropical species that people may decide to add to the garden later. It takes knowledge of botany and what nutrients each type of plant specifically needs to create just the right soil mixture required for a diversity of plantings that may otherwise not be able to grow together at all.

The aesthetic aspects of garden care are also important. The basics of clipping, weeding, and trimming even the simplest of flower beds have to be done no matter how large or small the garden is, and no matter how simple or complex it is. Again, we recommend that people not try to do this themselves. Some plants are very sensitive and require very special trimming methods. Furthermore, specific garden designs like parterre garden, the knot garden, the English garden, the Italian garden, and the Japanese garden have to be trimmed by people who know these forms—preferably by the people that planted them.

For these reasons, and many more, we always recommend that garden care be managed as a line item on a landscaping maintenance agreement with Exterior Worlds. This allows the team who designed the garden to consistently and cost effectively maintain its vitality and health.

Flower Garden Design

One of the hardest aspects of flower garden design is the limited lifespan of flowers themselves. While many flowering plants in and of themselves can live for many years, the flowers that they produce nevertheless do not. In order to design a flower garden that will truly honor the landscape year round, landscape architects have to plant different flowers at the beginning of each new quarter. The colors they recommend are normally chosen as representative of associations we make with the seasons themselves. Bright red, pink, and blue flowers are favorite colors for the new life of spring. In the summer, when the sun is at its hottest and brightest, yellow flowers are consistently popular choices. In late fall and winter, when bad weather often obscures visibility, white flowers stand out very well on even the muggiest of Texas winter days.

Professional landscapers help you select the very best color choices that will specifically match your home and yard. They will then further extend the benefits of these choices by selecting the hardiest plant species that have the best chance of making it through some of the rather extreme weather conditions we sometimes experience in Houston. At any given time, we may be facing anything from a dry-cracking drought to a constant torrent of semi-tropical rain. We cannot always predict what the weather is going to do next, so it is essential that we choose species known to have the best chance of survival in a worst case scenario.

While climate can pose a challenge to flower selection, it is not an insurmountable barrier. An otherwise delicate species of flower can be strengthened against certain environmental extremes by the right garden design specialist. Plants that need more water than a particular season typically provides can be enhanced by aesthetically sensible irrigation systems. For plants that can be damaged by too water can conversely be protected with any number of drain systems.The biggest challenge, believe it or not, is the availability of light. Some types of annual flowers simply cannot live without a certain level of light and therefore can only be planted in certain areas. In such instances where a highly popular flowering species is discovered to be incompatible with its environment, Exterior Worlds will help to develop a workaround even to this. Such workarounds may require creating new pathways for light by altering nearby structures, or they may require using advanced botanical knowledge to locate very similar species that thrive under very different lighting conditions. Regardless, the only way to maximize your chances for lasting satisfaction and return on your capital is to have your flower garden designed by a professional. While yard service companies and gardening magazines are all full of good suggestions that have merit and application to a point, it is essential that you also work with professional landscapers who can apply those ideas in the context of practicality and workability.

Professional Landscape Service

Because our landscape design has become more sophisticated and complex, we need to get better educated on landscape service. What can Exterior Worlds tell us?
A well-planned, well-maintained property says something important about the owner—it conveys a message about who you are and makes your property stand out among all the others on the street. A professional landscape service program is the key to making it happen.

Where does design fit into professional landscape services?
To create a memorable landscape, you can benefit from the services of experienced landscape designers and landscape architects. We work with some of the best in the area. A competent landscaper helps you develop a plan and guides you through the design process that includes consultation, analysis of the site, conceptual landscaping design, construction documentation and dealing with permitting issues.

How do we factor in maintenance as part of our professional landscaping services package?
Once you have invested in a landscape design and installation, the next step is a landscape maintenance program, such as Exterior Worlds offers. Regularly scheduled landscape and lawn service ensures that all the plant material is healthy and conforms to the original design.

The key elements of our maintenance contracts for homes include the care of lawn, shrubs, ground cover and flower beds. Lawns are regularly mowed, edged, and fed. Shrubs, hedges, and bushes are trimmed to maintain the desired shape. Ground cover and vines are edged for a neat effect.

Trees need attention, too, since they are valuable assets. We recommend deep root fertilization on an annual basis. Small trees are trimmed as necessary. Before you undertake any new construction or remodeling, a tree preservation program should be developed.

We own some commercial property. Does Exterior Worlds handle commercial landscaping services?
Yes! For our commercial clients, the same maintenance tasks are performed as for residential properties. Additionally, most commercial establishments have landscape lighting, which we can maintain. Landscape lighting is a good way to give the property 24/7 visibility. Plus it is a big crime deterrent, making it particularly invaluable to establishments that conduct business at night, such as hotels, restaurants, social clubs, country clubs, colleges, schools and museums.

Drainage systems are essential. They protect the foundation of the building(s) from cracking and uneven shrinkage or swelling. They protect the property from flooding. And they properly drain roofs and green spaces to avoid standing water that can cause slick surfaces, breeding grounds for mosquitoes, or soggy landscaping.

Another common feature of commercial properties, irrigation systems save money, time and hassle. They separate the grass, beds and color areas into different zones, each requiring different water amounts due to the different plant types, sunlight conditions and weather. Regardless of the sophistication, drainage systems and irrigation systems need to be properly maintained by landscape service professionals such as Exterior Worlds.

Green Garden Design

We have become interested in environmentally-sensitive landscapes and want to know Exterior Worlds’ ideas on “green gardens.”
Like everybody else these days, we’re putting a lot of thought into “green” green gardens. At Exterior Worlds, we believe “green gardens” make a lot of sense. Not only from the viewpoint of being ecologically helpful, prudent and sustainable, but also in terms of beautiful landscapes, the impact on your budget, and time and energy savers.

With a design for a green garden, your goals are basically the same as for any other landscape design project, with a shift in focus toward using those materials, both plant and non-plant, that reduce the ongoing maintenance for watering, trimming, weeding and mulching.

Here are some ideas for your home landscape design to get you going on a “green” garden. And, as we’ve already mentioned, we think you will be pleasantly surprised by the positive side benefit of making your pocketbook greener, too!

Watering—
For grass, consider installing drought-tolerant lawns. Or you could use a variety of grass that grows slowly and thus doesn’t require mowing on a frequent basis.

Choose drought-tolerant and disease-resistant varieties of vines, bushes, trees, and ornamentals. Some plants in this category include pampas grass, spring bulbs, and black-eyed Susans. If you like roses, we recommend that you choose older rose varieties, which are hardier than modern large-flowered hybrids. In general, this type of garden reduces both the water requirement and the number of chemical treatments needed to fight diseases. Many of the Houston landscape designers we work with will be able to provide more ideas and suggestions for other plants that grow well in our climate’s rainfall.

Boost your irrigation system by adding French drains. We can also refer professional drainage contractors who can design drainage systems that allow storm water to be retained on your property. This design reduces the run-off into the city’s system and keeps the water on your property to recharge the soil.

Trimming—
For ground cover, use the varieties that need little to no trimming, such as Mondo, Ardisia, or Liriope. These types of ground cover work perfectly for your “green” garden because they are beautiful and colorful, and still reduce the need to mow, weed and mulch.

Weeding and Mulching—
To reduce regular mulching, mowing and weeding, consider using gravel as a ground cover. It’s another way to add interest and texture to your garden landscape and, at the same time, cut down your maintenance cost.

What other suggestions does Exterior Worlds have for us?
With your material selections for hardscapes, choose dark or earth tone colors that require minimal upkeep to look good. For all your hard surface areas, such as your patio design, use durable products like concrete, stone, engineered wood or pressure-treated pine, all materials with a long life span and a low maintenance requirement.

Another idea is to reduce large flower beds and instead use planters and urns for your annual flowers. This practice reduces the cost of replanting, allows you to keep the flowers fresh looking, and reduces the cost of your maintenance contract.

Xeriscaping Design

Xeriscaping is a landscaping technique that uses slow-growing, drought-resistant plant species for ground cover and gardening. Indigenous vegetation can also be used either as a supplement to imported species or a deliberate reintroduction of specific native species that grow very slowly and maintain their color and vibrancy year round. They are already adapted to the cycles of annual rainfall and do not need additional watering or fertilizer to thrive. Furthermore, they need far less cultivation and trimming due to fact that they are slow-growth plants.

Xeriscaping with indigenous plant life offers benefits beyond water conservation. In cities like Houston where rainwater can wash pesticides and fertilizers into a system of bayous and pollute park and wildlife areas, carefully chosen indigenous plants can end this type of pollution on several levels. For one thing, native plants already have a resistance to native pests and do not need our help in repelling most insects. Secondly, it is possible to create new lawns and gardens that do not need to waste city water or use artificial fertilizer to maintain healthy growth.

Many Houstonians may not realize the potential for Xeriscaping our Gulf Coast region has to offer. The city grew so quickly that much of the native beauty of the region has been covered up. The bayous of Houston are home to a tremendous diversity of plants and animals life that can play major contributing roles in our landscaping projects while they benefit in turn from Xeriscaping techniques that are adapted to our unique corner of the world.

While many people may hesitate to consider such a shift in landscaping design, it makes sense for a city already moving in many new progressive directions to consider taking a very aggressive environmental stance. There are countless drought-resistant species native to Texas that can grow hardily in our environment almost no human pampering. Houstonians do not have to give up their French Landscapes, Italian Gardens, parterre gardens, or knot garden designs. In fact, all of these traditional landscaping forms can take on an entirely new aesthetic when Xeriscaped with native plants that directly correlate with those of our immediate surroundings, but are also placed deliberately in accordance with our sensibilities.

Such a change would no doubt help the local wildlife greatly by removing toxins from the food chain that kill not only insects, but the fish, birds, amphibians, small reptiles, and small mammals that eat them. Since it has probably been years since you saw a living box turtle or bullfrog in your back yard, would it not be wise to consider Xeriscaping as a means of creating not only a new look on your property, but also inviting back some old neighbors who belong here just as surely as we do?

Urban Landscaping Design

Our in-town home needs some help with landscaping. What ideas can Exterior Worlds offer?
The overall objective of any landscape design, including urban landscaping, is to create a space that has a relationship to its surroundings. The goal with your landscape architecture is to create spaces in which the home, garden and architectural elements are in harmony with their natural setting. Additionally, it should reflect your visual desires and function together in every respect.

An urban landscape, yard or garden comes with big challenges. Perhaps your property backs up to the three-story blank wall of a neighboring townhouse. Maybe the space is all straight lines and right angles. Start with the big picture of your landscape garden design —your assets and liabilities. For instance, you may have large, possibly immovable features, such as trees, a long fence-line or pool machinery and equipment. Decide if you want to feature them or hide them. Landscape designers and landscape architects can bring insight and experience to this process.

What elements should we consider including in our urban landscaping?
Be creative with:
• Landscape lighting. The right landscape lighting is a relatively inexpensive way to increase your property value. It allows you to showcase beautiful trees and garden structures, and, from a practical standpoint, it provides security and safe access.
• Outdoor water fountains. Water elements create a pleasing and welcoming ambiance. For urban landscaping, they are especially beneficial as camouflage for traffic, noisy air-conditioning units and loud neighbors.
• Pathways. Paths are functional in that they provide a way into the space. They also lead the eye in, through, and across your landscape and serve as the first insight into the homeowner’s personality.
What do we need to know about drainage issues?
For a Houston urban landscaping project, storm drainage issues are very serious due to our flat topography, heavy clay soils, and increased impermeable surfaces due to years of construction that have compacted heavily-forested lots. These factors have increased flooding during our rainy season.

To address drainage system issues, local regulations have begun to follow the standards used by the Memorial Villages that require temporary drainage systems, flow rates, minimum pipe sizes, engineered drainage plans, topographic maps, and as/built plans. We advise our clients that if drainage contractors undertake a drainage project without a complete understanding of these demands, they may find themselves in the middle of a big mess that can cost thousands of dollars to rectify.

What about tree preservation?
Houston is covered with a wide variety of trees, from small ornamentals to majestic oak trees. Their ability to survive and thrive is greater with proper preservation and conservation efforts.

Trees face three main offenders:
• Compaction caused by construction vehicles and materials, both during and after the construction.
• Root damage, generally due to digging for foundations, landscaping, irrigation systems, luxury swimming pools, drainage systems and landscape lighting.
• Soil contamination, caused when construction materials, such as cement, lime, paint or turpentine, are stored or dispensed around trees. Eventually, these toxic materials seep into the soil and kill the trees.

Ranch Landscape

How do I go about Landscaping my West Texas Ranch?
The sheer size of the rural landscape can be overwhelming for the average landscape contractor, landscape designer as well as the owner who no longer works the land but uses it for rest and retreat. The prospect of maintenance, care and management of a Texas Horse Ranch, Farm or Estate can be daunting. A plan should include phased management and implementation of a landscape design.
How do I develop a management program for my Ranch?
A complete management or maintenance program for a ranch landscape defines zones of management, prioritizes tasks and determines if various maintenance areas should be expanded or deleted altogether to make the job of maintenance much more manageable. Defining zones of management:

1) The most concentrated and highest maintenance takes place around the perimeter of the house. These include weekly tasks such as mowing, shrub pruning and weeding.

2) The next zone might include bi-weekly or monthly maintenance tasks such as weeding and pruning around less often used walk, patio or pool areas for entertaining. Both zones one and two should receive regular fertilization, mulch and have an irrigation system as well.

3) the next zone could include biannual spring and fall clean-up areas such as fields that are seasonally mowed, shrub brush edges that need regular thinning out or filling pot holes in the entry road all categorized as spring and fall clean-up.

By organizing tasks by their intensity, zone of management and time of year for tasks to be done a yearly maintenance schedule of tasks and budgets even the largest estate can be fashioned and brought into perspective.

How will a landscape design help me?
Because a lot of rural landscapes have been built at different times, with many different pieces, a Master Plan Design can be a great help in providing cohesiveness and unifying even the largest property by its various uses. It can be a very gratifying process in piecing together farm history of the past with the present.

What can I do to better unify the various buildings, uses and drives to my property?

Drive to the House- A row of majestic oaks or fruit trees along the drive can be a wonderful approach to tying the main drive into the house. Also, a circle drive could be added to accentuate the homes entry as well as provide a turn around.

Define edges-Define the different parts of your property into lawn areas, orchards, and woodland edges much like nature would have dictated in the past.

Outdoor Fountains –the sound and beauty of a rustic fountain. Build the country fountain in a simplistic manner so it is easy to maintain.

Summer Kitchens-country outdoor kitchens can be built to reflect the home be repeated such as matching roofing or molding details giving it a county nostalgia feel and creating unity with an old farm house.

Walkways-just as English Gardens of our past, walkways of gravel, limestone chips and reused brick or stone from the original construction can lead around the property and link to arbors, benches, or swings.

Maintenance Contracts

Why do I need a maintenance contract?

A beautiful yard says something about the owners. Whether a small garden design, a formal landscape design, subtle and simple, or made dramatic with landscape lighting, a well-kept landscape sends a special message. Just as important—from the street, a landscape that is meticulously maintained makes a home stand out, which is important when it comes time to sell it. After spending a lot of money, time and energy on your landscape design, it makes sense to protect it and ensure that it develops as planned. And that’s where landscape maintenance contracts come into play.

Tell me about your landscape services.

In business since 1987, Exterior Worlds provides residential landscape maintenance to properties in the greater Houston area. Our basic maintenance contracts cover regularly scheduled visits, in increments of 42 or 52 weeks per year (weather permitting), in which your landscape is tended to with immaculate care. Additionally, we provide commercial landscape maintenance, as well as high-end landscape design services.

What do the Exterior Worlds’ basic maintenance contracts cover?

• Lawn Maintenance. The lawn areas are mowed and edged and all debris caused by maintenance is removed. Any diseases are identified for which the homeowner is presented with an estimate for treatment.

• Flower Bed Maintenance. Beds are weeded as necessary and mulch is turned regularly. Roses and annual flowers are also tended to with rose maintenance including dead-heading and fertilizing every six weeks during the growing season. Annual flowers are dead-headed and fertilized as well.

• Shrub, Ground Cover and Vine Maintenance. Hedges, shrubs and ground covers are trimmed to conform to the intent of the landscape design. Vines are pruned to maintain desired appearance. Beds are edged to maintain neat appearance. All debris will be removed with each service.

• Annual Flowers Maintenance. We can develop a separate estimate for seasonal change-outs at your request. Once a program is begun, seasonal flowers are fertilized and pruned for optimal growth and color.

• Tree Maintenance. Exterior Worlds understands the value of trees and are big believers in tree preservation. We inspect them for disease and insect infestations. As a part of regular maintenance, small trees are trimmed as necessary. Fallen leaves and limbs will be removed regularly. For taller trees, a service estimate is provided as needed.

• Fertilization Program. We think lawn areas benefit from fertilization four times a year. Azaleas and gardenias will be fertilized in April or May—and acidified in February. Shrubs, ground covers and vines are fertilized quarterly. Fungicides and insecticides are applied two to four times per year. Exterior Worlds is licensed and regulated under the Texas Structural Pest Control Board, License # 12015. For your information: Texas Structural Pest Control Board, P.O. Box 1927, Austin, TX 78767-1927. 512-305-8250.

• Surface maintenance. We clear and clean all surfaces at the end of a service call. Additionally, the surfaces of any swimming pools, ponds or outdoor water fountains will be skimmed to collect accumulated debris.

If you are interested in any high-quality landscape services, Exterior Worlds has been providing the high-end residential landscape services and garden design services discussed above for the Houston and the surrounding areas including memorial villages (Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hunter Creek Village), Tanglewood, River Oaks, West University and the greater Houston (Hou), area since 1987. Contact us at 713-827-2255

Houston Landscape Business

I want to hire a landscape business to work at my home. Can these companies do more for me then just gardening and landscaping?

Of course, landscape companies offer a full range of landscape services including consultation, design, installation and maintenance. A landscape business will usually concentrate in one or more areas and subcontract associated installation elements such as summer kitchens, swimming pools, water features, outdoor fireplaces, and night lighting.

Once you have decided to hire a landscape business, you typically begin with a discovery meeting or interview where you have a chance to talk about your overall goals, program elements, design objectives and the overall aesthetics. The subsequent meeting you may discuss landscape designs, landscape plans, permitting issues and cost estimates. In providing landscape services, a good professional should work conscientiously to help you define the scope of your project, phasing, scheduling, coordination, selection of all materials and construction methods, and project cost.
Once you have approved the landscape design, the landscape company you selected can begin the installation. As mentioned earlier, many landscape businesses act as the general contractor and oversee the entire installation of drainage, irrigation and landscape lighting. The fees for these services vary for each landscape business; however they are normally charged as a percentage of the total cost of the work for the project. .

A landscape business will usually include all plant materials, irrigation, drainage, and landscape lighting in their contract. Once the irrigation and lighting contractors finish their work, the planting can be completed by putting in all shrubs, groundcover, and seasonal color. After this step, mulching and cleanup commence. The irrigation and lighting subcontractors then return for final adjustments and the installation is complete.

It is during the installation that the importance of tree preservation must be emphasized. Careful pre-construction activities include protective tree fencing, borer applications on sensitive trees, temporary drainage and elevated walks to protect tree roots. Proper grading and soil preparation around large trees is another delicate issue. The foresight to understand the impact of changing grades on mature trees is crucial, so make sure your landscape service company is well versed in this area of expertise.
Some homeowners want to act as general contractors for their landscaping projects in order to save money. This choice can lead to some real problems. Often confusions can arise from the misunderstanding of trade terminology, scheduling and coordination if the different phases of a project. A subcontractor will respond much better to a seasoned general contractor who understands the work to be performed and with whom they have a good relationship based on past experience. Many landscape businesses have years of experience to make sure the end results exceed your expectations.

Landscape maintenance is one of the most imperative ongoing services to insure that your asset develops into a mature and beautiful outdoor environment. A landscape company will normally include proper trimming of plant material and mowing of all yard areas. They should have a methodical feeding program that boosts the varying plant health of tropical, acidic and seasonal color plants. The feeding program may also include spring and fall aeration of lawn areas with the application of fall rye grass.

If you are interested in landscape services, Exterior Worlds has been providing the services discussed above for the Houston Texas Hou area since 1987.

Houston Landscapers

Should I hire a landscaper to install my landscaping?
When choosing to hiring a landscaper, you naturally begin with a preliminary meeting with them where you have an chance to talk about the overall design objectives, program elements and the design intent, the landscape garden design approach, the overall aesthetics, and your personal landscape ideas. The following meetings may include landscape designs, landscape plans and cost estimates. In providing landscape services, a qualified professional should work diligently to help you define the scope of your project, project phasing, scheduling, selection of all plants and construction methods, and finally cost.

Once you have approved the garden design, your landscaper is ready to begin the installation. As discussed earlier, many landscapers act as a “landscape contractor” and oversee the entire landscape installation, including drainage systems, irrigation systems and hardscape elements. Generally landscapers will charge a fee for these services, which are typically charged as a percentage of the overall total job cost, to cover the project administration and management.

During the landscape installation phase, the landscaper will usually include all plant materials and subcontracted elements in their total project price. Once the irrigation and lighting contractors finish their work, the planting can be completed by putting in all shrubs, groundcover, and seasonal color. After this step, mulching and cleanup commence. Then the irrigation and lighting contractors return for their final adjustments.

Throughout the installation the importance of tree protection must be emphasized. Pre-construction activities include protective tree fencing, borer applications on sensitive trees, temporary drainage and elevated bridges to protect tree roots. Correct grading and soil preparation around large trees is another fragile issue. The insight to comprehend the impact of changing grades on mature trees is vital, so make sure your landscaper is well versed in this area of expertise.

Lastly, landscape maintenance is one of the most significant ongoing services to insure that your garden design develops into a mature and beautiful outdoor environment. Whether its residential landscape maintenance or commercial landscape maintenance, contracts include proper trimming of plant material and mowing of all lawn areas. Landscapers should have a systematic fertilization program that boosts the varying plant health of tropical, acidic and seasonal color plants. Irrigation management and continual inspection of the systems, controller, heads, and seasonal watering times is the foundation for lawn, shrub and tree health.

Some homeowners want to act as general contractors for their projects in order to save money. Unfortunately, this a decision can lead to some significant problems during the project. Problems can arise from the misunderstanding of trade terminology, scheduling demands and coordination issues, selection of materials, installation techniques, material availability and construction techniques. A subcontractor will respond much better to a seasoned general contractor who understands the work and with whom they have a good relationship based on past experience. The best landscapers in Houston have years of experience to make sure the end results exceed your expectations.

Call Exterior Worlds @ 713-827-2255 to inquire about hiring a landscapers to install you gardens.