Tag Archives: MD

Ciminelli’s Landscape Services Can Transform your Lawn and Garden with Beautiful Annapolis Landscaping

A well landscaped garden is the pride of the neighborhood. Maryland landscaper, Ciminelli’s Landscape Services provides a wide selection of landscaping services for both new installations and existing gardens. They can completely make over a garden or, with their passion and creativity for landscaping, upgrade a garden to its full potential.

Ciminelli’s Landscaping Services in Annapolis listens to the owner’s ideas of their dream garden. They have the knowledge and experience to transform dreams into reality. They know exactly which native plants will thrive in the environment and can create rain gardens for the soothing and cooling ambience of running water. For difficult areas where drainage is a problem, they have the expertise to solve drainage issues.

Ciminelli’s Landscaping Services will also take on the difficult, time consuming tasks such as mulching, lawn care, pruning, leaf removal and winter cleanup. Their customers can enjoy their gardens and be proud of them without the extra work and the time taken from their busy schedules.

For those very fond of their gardens, landscaping services can also upgrade the plants for different seasons, so the yard looks beautiful even if it is covered with snow. Ciminelli’s Landscape Service professionals can add winter-appropriate plants as well as install a greenhouse where spring and summer plants can thrive until it is time to put them in the garden. There are also ways to attract birds to the garden in any season.

Ciminelli’s Landscape Services is one of the premier Annapolis Landscape Design companies for hardscaping services. This includes the permanent, non-living structures of the garden such as paver or flagstone patios, fire pits, retaining walls, walkways and paths, driveways, pool decks, stone steps, fountains, waterfalls and ponds. These features are often difficult to maintain looking fresh and clean and are important for a comfortable outdoor living space. They may become weather stained and crooked and need a professional to make them look good as new.

It is a good idea to combine landscaping and hardscaping services to maintain an attractive garden as well as some of the permanent features of the home. This will not only give pleasure to the residents, but also add value to the property.

The Environmental Benefits of a Rain Garden | Annapolis

A rain garden is a place where rainwater collects from paved areas, like roofs, pathways and parking lots. Runoff is decreased and rainwater absorbs into the ground instead of flows into drains. Flooding and pollution are prevented. The gardens are suited for certain soils and weather conditions. Reliable Maryland landscape services know how to use these gardens to the fullest benefits.

Rain gardens in Annapolis are environmentally friendly in several ways. They prevent contaminants from running into the storm drains and being transferred into lakes and rivers. These contaminants include pesticides and car fluids. Careful eco-landscaping is done to decrease energy consumption and land ruin. When the water collects in the garden, it enhances the appeal of the yard.

Using water from the sky saves money used to run the hose. Any water that falls is used and not wasted, so there is no need to irrigate manually. The gardens are different from basins because the water quickly gets absorbed into the ground. This reduces the appearance of mosquitos.

This type of garden is found in the front or back of the house. It is close to structures where rainwater runs off, like roofs and driveways. The garden should not be used within a few feet of the house because there must be some place where water collects. The garden is not usually placed over septic systems. Setting up a special garden arrangement is done by contacting Landscape Design Annapolis professionals. However, the garden could become more saturated than necessary. It is important to monitor the success of each garden.

With the use of a rain garden, the quality of local waterways is improved and the quality of the landscape is improved as well. When a storm comes, floods do not form easily. The rain runoff promotes biodiversity. Landscaping Annapolis providers make the ideal spaces for people who are interested in these features.

In Need of Landscaping Design in Annapolis?

Are you in need of landscaping design in Annapolis this upcoming fall season? Do you need Maryland landscape services that will transfer your boring yard into an inviting, beautiful space for the purpose of entertaining friends or for your own personal solitude? The enjoyment received from the nature in your yard does not have to stop once the cooler weather arrives. Fall can present some challenges, but it also can provide a beautiful yard with the correct landscaping in Annapolis. If you desire to make your yard a space of beauty that lasts into the fall season, you should trust the expertise of Ciminellis Landscape Services, Inc.

Landscaping in the fall is a forte of Ciminellis Landscape Services, Inc. They offer many services to help you transform and maintain your yard into a space you will enjoy every day. Leave removal is an essential service during autumn. As the leaves turn from green to fiery reds and brilliant oranges, they will eventually fall and carpet your yard. Ciminellis Landscape Services has been clearing leaves and landscaping Annapolis for over 20 years.

The fall is also a perfect time to enjoy plants that thrive in the cooler weather or a new patio. Imagine enjoying a fresh cup of coffee on your beautiful patio while you view the different colors and heights of a myriad of grasses and woody plants that remain hearty in a cooler climate. With professionals skilled in landscaping Annapolis, you can enjoy your yard well past summer and into fall.

Maryland landscape services such as Ciminellis can also offer you other great ideas for your fall surroundings. Fall can be a great time to start mulching because the leaves serve as a perfect material for the mulching process. Mulching can improve the quality of your soil, help prevent weeds from growing, trap vital moisture in the soil, and improve the look of your yard.

Let Ciminellis Landscape Services offer solutions to all your challenges for landscape design in Annapolis this upcoming fall season. Learn more about their experience in landscaping Annapolis today! https://www.ciminellislandscape.com/

At Ciminellis We Have a Commitment and Dedication to Quality Landscaping and Customer Service

Business Philosophy: To provide our customers with quality landscape construction and maintenance as well as friendly and responsive customer service.

Our goal is to meet the needs of our customers by enhancing and beautifying their homes as well as solving any existing landscape problems. We specialize in landscape renovation and construction with craftsmanship and Eco-landscaping in Annapolis incorporating environmentally sensitive solutions to landscapes using Rain Gardens, Storm Water Management, Green Roofs, Living Walls, Native Plantings, Permeable Pavement and more.

We run our business with integrity in all areas while designing and installing landscapes that meet the needs and exceeds the expectations of our customers. We provide respectful working conditions for our employees and commit to the community by participating in charitable outreach in local schools, Christmas in April, See Forever Foundation, Annapolis Historic Society, The River Keepers, The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and more.

Matt Ciminelli was in the first group of professionals in the nation to obtain the certification as a Green Roof Professional, we are certified LiveRoof installers, Interlocking Concrete Products Industry and National Concrete Masonry.

Ciminellis Landscape Services has over 20 years of experience and will work with you to create an Annapolis landscape that is beautiful, creative, functional and within your budget. As always, all of our work is guaranteed. Your satisfactions is our goal.

Customer Testimonial

Everything looks beautiful! Matt really understood our needs and gave us a great design. We will definitely recommend your company to our friends. – The Lehman’s

Thank you very much to Ciminellis Landscape Services for repairing our fire pit; what a fabulous job. The fire pit has brought our family much enjoyment with many evenings fires. It’s so pleasing to receive a compliment on our retaining wall and to know that I can confidently refer my family and friends to Ciminellis Landscape Services for an exceptional product with service and support after the purchase. – Dave and Kathie

Add a Pool Deck to a Backyard

Pool decks are unparalleled in their ability to wow guests when they come over for a visit. Homeowners with concrete sidewalks or patios around their pools should consider adding a deck to all or a portion of the area around the pool. The spring is a great time to add a deck to a pool area and have it ready for use when the weather begins to warm in a few weeks.

There are several reasons why to add a wood or composite deck around the pool. The primary one is the boost for the overall aesthetics of the pool area. A well constructed deck that is either stained or left the natural color of the wood is beautiful and will easily blend into a natural setting around the pool. Concrete patios or sidewalks around a pool can be very hot and appear uninviting if they are not shaded or landscaped properly. A few well placed trees, an umbrella, or a few pots of plants are all that is typically need to make a deck fit right in and be comfortable.

Traditionally decks have been constructed with redwood, treated pine, or cedar. These are still great alternatives and will provide years of low maintenance service. However, new composite materials have become the go to material on decks for a lot of contractors. Composite deck boards are made from cement and will last for decades with little to no maintenance required. The composite boards are a little more costly to install, but in the long run pay for themselves because they will not likely require replacing.

A deck is a great addition to a back yard. This is especially true for yards with a pool. The typical deck construction time for a professional crew is a week to 10 days. Home owners that act quickly can get a contractor scheduled in enough time to ensure they will be enjoying their new pool deck this summer.

Rain Gardens

Rain gardens do more than please the eye and delight the senses. They offer many environmental benefits for the sustainable gardener.

During a thunderstorm or even a gentle shower, rain falls from rooftops and gutters to paved surfaces, where it collects pollutants before running off into storm sewers and drains. The drains empty into our waterways, concentrating toxins in the water.

An ideal and easy way to filter those pollutants is to create a rain garden. A porous mixture of loam and sand allows the water to drain well without flooding, straining out toxins, metals and other pollution. The water leaches slowly into the ground, where it eventually rejoins and replenishes the water table. What remains is absorbed into the roots, stems and leaves of the rain garden’s plants.

Plant diversity is another important benefit of rain gardens. A well-designed rain garden includes a very wet, pond-like center, surrounded by a wet-dry area, and bordered by a dry area. These three “micro-climates” lend themselves to greater plant diversity than if the garden contained a single type of soil.

An incredible variety of plants can thrive in a rain garden. For the wetter and shadier areas, lily-of-the-valley and many types of fern, milkweed, mallow, sedge and jack-in-the-pulpit will do well. Medium to sunny areas can be planted with aster, marsh marigold, phlox and even river birch. Dry-sunny borders can sustain anything from bee balm to black-eyed Susan, coneflower, poppies and more.

Aside from the beauty of a rain garden, it also attracts wildlife. Salamanders, frogs, toads and garden snakes will all find their way into its special environment. Important pollinators like bees, butterflies and hummingbirds collect and spread pollen with their bodies as they forage for food.

After a rain garden is planned and planted, it will need adequate water in hot, dry weather, mulching and weeding for the first year. If a good mix of perennials is used, it will need very little work after that. All in all, a rain garden is a beautiful way to garden sustainably and to help the water supply replenish and cleanse itself locally.

Landscape Lighting: Practical and Attractive Solutions

Landscape lighting makes a dramatic difference in the appearance of the lawn and garden, giving the home or business’ exterior space an inviting glow. Various lights placed strategically can make the outdoors magical or floodlight yard art or objects such as a patriotic flag. Then, the lighting is practical helping to provide the safety of light to lawns, walkways and other outdoor areas. Beautiful and practical, many home and business owners choose some type of lighting for their outdoor space.

Uses for Landscape Lighting

Here are some of the many uses for lights outdoors:

– To highlight a doorway

– To light a pathway

– To spotlight a fountain, flag or other object

– To outline the driveway

– To light up a garden

– To bring light to a gazebo

Enlightening Outdoor Entertaining

At home residences, people who like to entertain in the evenings often install lighting for their lawn, garden, patio or front porch. They want their guests to feel welcome even before they enter the home. Also, they do not want anyone to stumble around in the dark and hurt themselves. Lights help make the yard and driveway safe.

Then for warm nights, outdoors entertainment can be perfect. The evening can be spent on a patio, gazebo or walking about the garden. Cookouts and catered affairs, weddings and other celebrations are wonderful in a lighted yard and garden. The ideas for outdoor entertaining are endless.

Landscape Lighting Goes Green

Many lights for outdoors are energy efficient and environmentally friendly. LED lights use up to 90% less than electric lighting. Solar lights are powered by the sunshine, and battery lanterns use battery power to stay lit. These lighting solutions can be purchased inexpensively.

Enhancing the Landscape with Lighting

The outdoors environment is much more inviting when lit in the evenings, and the lights can be installed for safety and practical reasons. People enhance their landscape with creative lighting solutions that are reasonably priced and glowingly attractive.

10 Ways to Achieve a Healthy Home Landscape Without Harming the Chesapeake Bay

From the Maryland Cooperative Extension:

1. Take a soil test every 3 to 4 years. Fertilize according to soil test recommendations. Use less than the recommended amounts listed on fertilizer packages.

2. Leave grass clippings on your lawn (grasscycling.) They are a source of nitrogen for your lawn and will not contribute to thatch build-up in fescue or bluegrass lawns.

3. Home gardeners tend to over-fertilize flower and vegetable gardens. Reduce or eliminate fertilizer applications in well-established beds if organic matter is being added each year.

4. Don’t fertilize trees and shrubs if they appear healthy and are making adequate shoot and leaf growth.

5. Compost plant residues or incorporate them directly into soil. Discard plants with serious disease problems.

6. When appropriate, substitute slow-release fertilizers for those that are highly soluble and substitute locally available organic fertilizers (well-decomposed farmyard manure, backyard compost and municipal leaf compost) for manufactured chemical fertilizers.

7. Keep fertilizers off hard surfaces. Rain water will carry fertilizer salts into storm drains and surface waters and contribute to nutrient pollution of our waterways.

8. Over time, rainfall causes bare soil to erode and become compacted. Keep bare soil covered with a mulch and plant ground covers in areas where turf won’t grow. Plant winter cover crops in vegetable gardens – like oats, winter rye and crimson clover.

9. Avoid excessive foot or equipment traffic to prevent soil compaction, especially when the soil is wet. Construct terraces for beds on sloped ground. Keep soil in raised beds framed with solid sides.

10. To melt winter ice, use calcium magnesium acetate (CMA), potassium chloride (KCl), sodium chloride (NaCl) or calcium chloride (CaCl2). Do not use urea, potassium nitrate, or other chemical fertilizers containing nitrogen or phosphorous. The salts in these fertilizers may burn the foliage and roots of adjacent plants and wash into and pollute waterways.

Authors : Jon Traunfeld, Regional Specialist, Home and Garden Information Center, Maryland Cooperative Extension

Reviewers: Patricia Steinhilber, Ph.D., Nutrient Management Coordinator, Maryland Cooperative Extension and Judy McGowan, Nutrient Management Specialist, Maryland Department of Agriculture
12/03; revised 9/05; 2/09

MATT’S MARCH TIP

To fertilize or not to fertilize – that is the question

You would think that with all the marketing of fertilizers in the Spring, that it is impossible to grow anything without chemical intervention. Well, just go in time before the advent of big Agriculture companies and realize that most plants survived and thrived without our chemical assistance. Many plants, shrubs, and trees are able to absorb exactly what they need from the soil, air and water and do not need additional Nitrogen, Phosphorous or Potassium. One of our major problems in our Watershed is that many of the fertilizers that are applied actually “run-off” into our water system instead of remaining in the soil for the plants to uptake. This causes issues for our water quality as the chemicals leach into the aquifers and also run into the Bay and increases algae blooms and reduces water quality.

The first step before fertilizing is to have a soil test to determine your soil quality. Once you know your soil quality and the PH of your soil, you can determine what type of fertilizers and how much should be applied onto your lawn, garden or plants. When choosing the fertilizer – try to use SLOW RELEASE, ORGANIC fertilizer. And always think about improving your soil quality by applying compost, organic matter and controlling the Ph. These actions will help your plants thrive. Please visit the Maryland Cooperative Extension’s web site at the link below for more information on fertilizing and soil testing. Also, please visit our link to the GROWING GREEN PLEDGE concerning lawn care.

Maryland Cooperative Extension

Growing Green Pledge