Project Landscape

If you’ve made the decision to light up your landscape and begin using the space at night, it’s time to make some more choices! There are many types of lights and ways to space them, but don’t be overwhelmed. We can help you come up with ideas that will illuminate your landscape and keep you feeling pleased year round.

Types of Landscape Lighting

• Up Lighting – This type of lighting is very basic and popular, as it creates drama in your yard and can add to the appearance of taller items like trees in your yard. Some people choose to illuminate the trunk while others aim more for the underside of the tree’s canopy. You can choose spotlights or well lights.
• Silhouetting – If you would like to highlight any interesting shapes in your yard, this is the way to do so! You have the option of placing a light source behind your favorite items and aiming the light towards the viewer, making the light source invisible.
• Shadowing – This technique is the opposite of shadowing. Instead, place the light between the item being lit and the main vantage point. This works best when there is a wall or flat surface behind whatever you are shadowing. We enjoy this effect because it creates a softer and moody effect. Use spotlights, well lights, or floodlights!
• Moon Lighting – If you have larger trees in your landscaping, this may be a good option. You can place lights in your tree and aim it downward, which creates an illusion of the moon’s light shining onto the ground below. Use spotlights for the best effect.
• Grazing – If you have retaining walls, fencing, or other hardscaping, this is a good option. You can place a light close to a flat surface and either aim it upward or downward for dramatic lighting. The idea is to show off the texture of the wall, so we recommend stone work areas! This is seen often in nice restaurants or in hotel design, so it can add an upscale feel to your home.
• Washing – If your space needs a little more lighting, you can try floodlights! Aiming these at a large wall or other surface will reflect light back over your yard and “wash” the landscaping with light.
• Path Lighting – These are lights that line the pathway through your landscaping. While this seems simple, it’s important to strike a balance and get the right amount. Too many makes the area too bright, while too few will leave you and your guests scared to go out in case you should trip.

Choosing What to Light

Not everything in your landscape needs to be illuminated, so we recommend thinking about a few different factors before making a decision. First, pick out the features of your yard that you like. Whether it’s a pond, a tree, or a statue, you can always show those off with lighting first. Second, you can add drama to areas that don’t necessarily get a lot of attention during the day.  You can add a light to a stone wall to totally transform the way your space looks at night compared to the daytime. Third, think about the function of your space. If you have a path you want people to use, then you will want to illuminate it for everyone’s safety when they visit.

A minor detail, but an important one, is your entryway. If you illuminate the entryway to your home or garden, then all your guests will feel both welcome and safe navigating through the space.

Contact Project Landscape Ltd.

If you are searching for a Calgary landscaping contractor to help you transform your yard into something new and exciting, then it’s time to call our team. We are your one stop shop for everything you could possible want for your landscape design. We would be happy to talk with you about your options and make decisions together about what will work best for your space.

When you are ready to get started, give our professionals a call! We know what your home needs, and we can give it to you at a great price. Together, let us help you transform your yard and give you the small paradise you’ve been dreaming of for years.

Whether you prefer to have your landscape meticulously maintained or would rather step back and let someone else handle all the details, we are here to help. Project Landscape Ltd. is Calgary’s top choice when it comes to landscaping contractors. If you’re someone who just finds a nice looking plant, brings it home, and lets it do its own thing, you might have noticed that they are more trouble than they are worth. Many landscapes end up looking like a weird mixture of plants that, at best lack cohesion, and at worst require expensive treatment and extensive care just to keep them alive. To make the most of your yard and landscaping vision, be sure to follow these tips.

Plan for Your Equipment

If you are planning to build a patio or a porch in the future, you are going to need some large and obscene machinery in your backyard in order to set up those things. Keep that in mind before you start planting your garden on the only accessible side of the home. Knowing what you intend to put in your yard can prevent you from planting something too soon and regretting it later.

Keep Your Focal Points

Your focal point of your landscaping, to put it simply, is where you look first. It’s what stands out the most in your garden and helps you move through the space with direction. While we may think of a tree or a statue as a focal point, you could also choose a fire pit or even a borrowed view of a nearby space. The trick with a focal point is to find something that stands out but doesn’t seem out of place in your yard. Keep scale in mind as well. If you have a small space, a nice bench or a statue will work better than a giant oak tree.

Don’t Think Formal

Formal landscapes that demand symmetry and maintenance may not be worth the hassle in the long run. If you have two rare plants on opposite sides of the yard and one dies, it may be difficult to find another plant to replace it without it looking silly or uneven. Sometimes, the only choice is to replace both plants, which is just an unnecessary expense. There is nothing wrong with having a grandiose vision, but keep the logistics in mind as you plan.

Plan the Curves

A curving landscape or retaining wall can do a lot to keep your yard looking interesting, but be cautious not to overdo it. We have found that long, gentle curves work much better than several bean-shaped flower beds. Also, we recommend that you keep one geometric shape in charge of the whole landscaping design. You may want to consider the shape of your plants and emulate that in the rest of the layout.

Add Movement

Gardens don’t sit still. Insects come and go, birds visit to sit and rest, and plants sway in the breeze. Keep this movement in mind and add to it. The addition of flowers can attract birds, and a small pond with fish inside may make your landscaping into something you’ve always dreamed of.

Change What You Need

If you have a dream of a vegetable garden, then don’t let that eyesore of a shed get in the way—especially if you aren’t going to use it. Instead, be willing to make changes to your property to get the results that you want most. You never know what possibilities will arise once you get rid of things in your landscaping that you don’t love.

Contact Calgary’s Landscaping Professionals

When it comes to getting landscaping that captures the overall feel of your home and your needs, it’s time to contact us. We at Project Landscaping Ltd. are prepared to handle whatever we need to in order to give you the results you’re searching for. Call our team and tell us how we can help you! We do everything from fire pit installation, regular landscaping maintenance, irrigation, landscape lighting, decks, fences, and more. Whatever your vision may be, we are the ones who can bring it to life. Don’t settle for a crew who can’t do it all—call the ones who can be there from start to finish, no matter the project. We look forward to talking to you soon!

Even though fall is still far away, we want to ensure you know what to do when the time comes! There’s more to lawn maintenance than just cutting the grass during summer and raking the leaves in autumn. As a matter of fact, the fall months are an ideal time to work in the yard. But it’s not just to keep things looking good year round (though that’s important too), it’s to lay the groundwork for springtime.

Fall is a crucial time for the health of your landscaping, despite the fact that the temperature is dropping and winter is coming up shortly. If you’re a fan of gardening and want your landscape to look beautiful in spring, keep reading. We’ll share a few tips to keep in mind for prepping the lawn and garden for its inevitable bloom.

Prepping Your Landscaping for Fall

• Suppose that, during the spring and summer, your perennials have grown and spread out nicely. But some perennials like Shasta Daisies, Daylilies, and Hostas have a habit of getting a little too big. When that happens, just dig them up, split them in half, put one half back in its original spot and place the other half in a new area. By doing that, you’ll be able to easily start up a new garden.
• Sometimes some shrubbery or parts of the garden can become so healthy that they start to take up too much space. Autumn is an ideal time to move smaller and medium-sized shrubs like Azalea, Spirea, and Rhododendron. These are hardy plants, and when you dig them up and replant them, they’ll settle in nicely and enjoy the cooler temperatures and rains. The added benefit is when you move some shrubs, other plants that were previously blocked will come to prominence and create a new look.
• If you have a green thumb, you know it’s important t spend time in spring to clean things up. Make sure to put in equal time during autumn to rake leaves, edge along the lawn and beds, and cut down perennials. The benefit to this is the fact that you can put down mulch earlier in the spring and have more control over weeds as the growing season shifts into high gear.
• Too many people believe that once autumn hits, it’s okay to let weeding go until springtime. The fact is, weeds will go to seed as the temperature drops, and seeds are spread all over by the wind and birds. The weeds themselves will become dormant during winter, and once springtime rolls around, you’ve got an energetic crop of weeds. Put aside a little time to do some thorough weeding. If you can remove the weeds and their roots, you’re setting yourself up for an easier growing season.
• There’s an old belief that spring is the ideal time to do seeding. As a matter of fact, fall is when seeding truly needs to happen. Since the soil is warm already, and you can expect rain showers, you’re providing the perfect environment for new root growth. All you need to do is thoroughly rake, apply a light mixture of quality fertilizer and nutrient-rich soil, rake in fresh grass seed, and water it well to promote healthy growth.

As one of Calgary’s premier landscaping companies, we see a lot of lawns. We figure there are roughly three kinds of homeowners. First are those who, well, basically don’t do anything. Their lawns look terrible, and everybody in the neighborhood gives them the side-eye because they bring down property values. Second are the average homeowners, those who do enough to keep things looking reasonable, but likely don’t have time to do more than that. The third category is those who put in the work and, as a result, their home looks like it belongs on a magazine cover.

If you’re reading this, you probably care about the condition of your landscape to a degree. But maybe you’re not quite sure how to take it to the next level, or you want to do a few things to enhance its appearance without spending numerous hours outdoors. We get it. Keep reading, and we’ll share a few tips to help your lawn look better and be healthier.

How to Improve the Look of Your Landscaping

• It’s important to mow your lawn, but it’s more important when it comes to how you mow. Begin by cutting 2 strips around the perimeter, then start cutting in straight lines that are perpendicular to the perimeter lines. After that, try to alter the pattern you mow in every other mowing sessions. When growing season hits, mow weekly and ideally remove up to ⅓ of the height of the grass.
• If you want your lawn to look ideal, your lawnmower needs to be operating ideally. Every season, take the time to sharpen the mower blades. Also, before you begin for the season, change the oil in the mower and be sure to do that yearly. You’ll know the mower is operating at peak proficiency if you can easily mow wet grass and pick up clippings.
• Want to make your lawn stand out from the others? Put in a little time edging your turf. When you create a distinctive edge, you’re creating a distinctive boundary between the lawn and flowerbeds or bushes. As a result, you achieve a look that avoids clutter and is nice and clean. You can use either a gas-powered edger or a weedeater, both will achieve the same end result. Also, make sure you edge after every other mowing.
• This might sound like a bit of a no-brainer, but weeds aren’t much of an issue when you have a healthy lawn. Having said that, they can occasionally appear. When you see them, you can either pull them out by hand or use a selective herbicide. The risk you run by using a non-selective herbicide is that it can kill the grass that surrounds the weeds. While you’re mowing, keep an eye out for weeds and deal with them as soon as you see them.
• Sometimes, moss can be a recurring annoyance, usually appearing in shady spots and areas where the soil isn’t encouraging healthy grass to grow. By pruning bushes and shrubbery, you can reduce shade and let in more sunlight. If you can’t remove the shade, think about removing the grass in that area and replacing it with plants that are shade tolerant. To kill moss, you can use liquid iron, but don’t let it drip onto hard surfaces since the stain is very tough to get rid of.

With these tips, you can have the perfect lawn! Contact our professionals today to learn how we can help you.

When most of us think of landscaping, we think of a sunny summer day cutting the grass and clipping the hedges. We might think of autumn and spending an afternoon or two raking leaves. But when winter hits…pretty much nothing happens. That’s normal, right? Well, if keeping your lawn looking its best is a priority to you, you’ll want to take steps and care for the lawn all year long.

However, there’s a trick to it. We know, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “During winter, how hard is it really to look after the lawn?” There are right and wrong ways to perform lawn care, and by avoiding common pitfalls, you can ensure your landscape looks fantastic and stays healthy throughout the year. 

What NOT to do with winter landscaping:

• It’s common wisdom that, when you cut the grass for the last time during the season, you should cut it as short as possible. However, that wisdom is wrong, because when the grass is too short, weeds can move in. Keep the grass cut to about 2-3 inches. It will be an effective buffer for weeds, as well as keep moisture in the soil more efficiently.
• Speaking of the last grass cutting of the year, too many people don’t think ahead to the following spring and, as a result, the lawn doesn’t look so hot through autumn and winter. Take the time to either have a good once-over lawn manicure done or do it yourself by re-emphasizing the lines diagonally. When you do that, the lawn looks great during cold months.
• During the summer, lots of homeowners have irrigation systems going to keep plants looking green. But plants still require water all year long, and they often don’t get any in winter. If you let shrubbery, trees, and grass only get water from rain and snow, you’re putting them at higher risk of dehydration and contracting disease. Take a little time to give them the occasional watering, and they’ll stay strong.
• You might be more on the proactive side of things by remembering to apply fertilizer. That’s great because you can start the next season out stronger. The trick is using the right fertilizer. For example, granular fertilizers have a nasty habit of taking much longer to dissolve properly when things get cold. The best way to avoid this issue is to use sprayable fertilizer, which is much easier for plants to absorb.
• Odds are you know the most insidious and annoying obstacle standing between you and a beautiful landscape are pests. Many homeowners figure that, when winter rolls around, the cold temperatures will kill off insects and they can start spring with a clean slate. Not the case, because insects are great at finding places to dig in and weather the winter. It’s worth your time to periodically check your plants for infestations and deal with them as soon as you find them.
• Finally, we know that raking leaves is a chore that’s incredibly boring. It’s also incredibly necessary since an accumulation of leaves creates a great environment for mold and fungus. Plus, snow will stick around longer in an unraked yard and be more difficult to get rid of.

To learn how we can help you, please contact us today!