Stonegate

We are half way through the season with our new landscaper. The Board of Directors of the Neighborhood Association have recieved comments and recommendations from several residents regarding the landscape care. We are interested in your views. Please, post them on this discussion trail.

By Rita Garcia, Board President

Blind Spot

I haven't noticed any problems but then again, I haven't looked too close. Last year they thinned out some of the plants where the road forks as you are coming into the neighborhood. This was nice because as it is now, kids could be behind all the plants and dart out unseen into traffic (near Heimerman's driveway.)

Lawn issue

The outlots look very rough, they are being overtaken with weeds, the grass is being taken over by all sorts of weeds. I talked with the lawn guy and he says the upkeep of all the outlots is too overwhelming for his one man operation. He was not under the impression that our expectations were to have him weed and control weeds in the grass areas. He says if that was the case, he would have given a higher bid at the time of the bidding process. I told him that we are going to need to look for a company with more experience and to fix a problem that is getting bigger as the summer goes on. He agreed but still wanted the job to cut the grass. I told him I would see about that. I feel bad for the guy because he is doing what he thought we wanted. But I said we need more. Thus we are going to need to pay for it! What about chemlawn to come out for the interim to treat the weeds. We need to lay commercial weed barrier in the outlots and get more mulch so they can be more maintenence free. The outlots have been edged and they really need to get the black stuff down so we don't have this problem every year. That is my suggestion!!

Landscape Care Feedback

I think our current service mowing the lawn is doing a good job. I do not know if the bid we got from him included fertilization and weed control, I assume not? Even with Horticultural Services I believe we had issues with the proper application/timing of fertilizer and weed control. Fertilizing doesn't do much good if it is not applied at the correct times through out the season.

I think the second half of our problem is that the outlots do not have irrigation. The weeds are always going to take over during the summer if the grass goes dorment from the heat and lack of rain. I don't think we can expect the outlots to look as good as our yards without irrigation.

Maybe take a look at a service like Chemlawn and work with them to get the outlots fertilized\weed controlled at the proper times. Experience has showed that the lawn service companies applied the applications when it was convenient for them instead of what was mandated by seasonal timeliness and weather conditions.

I agree that the edging and mulch in the plant beds and around the trees needs more attention than what we have given in the past. If installing hard edging and a weed barrier would solve the problem I'm all for it. But to get this much work done at the 'Spring Clean Up' would require full participation from every houehold. Even with full participation it still might take 2 years to complete the project.

Thanks,

Doug