Landscape Design Services in Milwaukee

3-D Modeling Helps Clients Visualize Their Landscaping Projects

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It can be challenging for clients to envision how their finished projects will look. Often, a 2-D line drawing just does not adequately convey the beauty of the landscaping that our designers have meticulously planned. It is a leap of faith for many clients to trust that the lines and circles they see on a drawing will result in the design they are hoping to achieve.

Hurrah! In 2020, we began using a 3-D modeling software program that has been a game-changer in bridging the gap between design vision and reality for our clients. The process starts off with a plat survey as usual. Then, using the 3-D software we can show a perspective view or even do a video walk-through for our clients. We can pull in a wide variety of hardscape and plant material in the design to show clients exactly what they will receive.  

We’ve seen a few immediate benefits to using the 3-D software with clients. Overall satisfaction has increased since by seeing a design with their own eyes, client expectations match what we deliver. Communication is still invaluable, as we always make sure to temper expectations with the understanding that newly installed plants will not be as full and glorious in the first year of installation.

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Another benefit we have found is that cost estimates are generated more quickly and with greater accuracy. The software automatically measures the beds, patios, and other hardscapes so we immediately have accurate square footage for materials.

One of our guiding principles is “Continuously evolve. Find new solutions. Do it better.” Adopting this new software to help clients visualize outcomes during the design phase is a perfect example of how we put this principle into practice.

Our talented designers are ready to help you on your next landscaping project. Schedule an appointment and let’s get started! Call (262) 252-4260 or contact us here.

Winter Landscaping: Planning Your Landscape for Snow Removal

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In the immortal words of Ned Stark, “Winter is coming.” You might be rejoicing right now that you no longer have to mow your grass, but pretty soon you’re going to be outside with a shovel or snowblower—and maybe wishing you were pushing a mower instead!

Before the white stuff starts really hits, make sure you and your lawn are prepared for the inevitable snow removal. Here’s how to winterize your landscape so that winter takes a minimal toll on it.

Snow on Driveway leading to home

Protect Your Plants From Salt

Rock salt is an effective snow melting agent, but it can also wreak havoc on your grass and other plants. It can cause your plants to suffer from dehydration and will inhibit their growth once the warmer weather returns. Take precautions to protect those plants now, before the snow starts to fall.

Wrap trees, shrubs, and other plants around the base with burlap or plastic to prevent snow from seeping in. When it comes time to apply salt to your driveway or walkways, take care to keep from strewing it on the grass or plants.

You might also want to cut the salt with sand. This stretches it and dilutes its effect on greenery. Alternatively, switch to sand or kitty litter altogether. These don’t melt the snow and ice as effectively as salt, but they do provide traction on slippery walkways.

Prep Your Property for Snow Removal

If you contract with a plowing service (or even if you do it yourself), mark your driveway with reflective poles. This can prevent your yard from being damaged if the plow operator can’t tell where the driveway ends and the grass begins.

In general, a snowblower is a gentler way to clear snow than shoveling. A snowblower also makes it relatively easy to direct the snow into an area where it won’t cause damage, like the end of the driveway, for example.

If you do shovel, shovel early and often. When you wait until the end of a storm to commence clearing away the snow, it will be harder to remove. A buildup of snow also obscures the dividing line between sidewalk and lawn.

When shoveling, try not to pile the snow onto bushes, shrubs, or grass. Heavy, wet piles of snow damage plants of all types. Sometimes, of course, there’s no other place to pile it. If this is the case with your property, take advantage of sunny spring days by spreading the melting snow evenly across the lawn. That way, no one area risks incurring all the damage.

Don’t Forget Your Hardscaping

Fountains, statues, and outdoor appliances like grills can be damaged by snow and ice. Prevent problems down the line by bringing them inside, if possible, or securing them with heavy plastic or taps.

If you’ve recently had a driveway or walkway makeover, double check that it’s protected by a sealant. It’s also a good idea to inspect paths for loose or uneven bricks or stones, or any type of hole or crack. These can catch shovels’ blades or make for a tripping hazard.

Before the winter hits, take a good look around and patch up any problem areas.

Protect Your Winter Landscaping and Enjoy the Season

Once you have taken precautions to protect your lawn, garden, and hardscaping from damage caused by snow removal, you can sit back and enjoy the winter! Skiing, anyone?

Of course, you can always leave the hard work to the experts and call us for safe, effective snow removal services instead. Contact us today!

How to Choose the Best Cold Climate Plants for Milwaukee Gardens

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Planting a beautiful garden in a place like California is a no-brainer. The weather is nice year-round and you can tend to it 365 days a year. The same can’t be said for Milwaukee.

Milwaukee winters are a challenge. Most days have a high below freezing from late November to early March and as little as nine hours of daylight. So, how do you create a beautiful garden? The answer is cold climate plants.

Not sure what plants are suited for Milwaukee’s climate? No problem. Read on to learn everything you need to know!

plants frosted over in the winter

Choose Cold Climate Plants Suited to Your Hardiness Zone

The United States Department of Agriculture produces a map of the US that divides the country up into hardiness zones. These are zones that are optimal for specific plants to grow. It is updated every year to reflect any potential changes in climate throughout the country.

Milwaukee is firmly within hardiness zone 5b. When you consider whether you want to place a plant in your garden, be sure to check its hardiness zone. Most have a range of zones in which they can grow.

So, what plants are best for hardiness zone 5b? A lot!

Perennials

There are plenty of perennials that work very well for zone 5b gardens. A perennial is a plant that lives longer than two years. In fact, most live longer. Perennials that work well in 5b include echinacea, poppy, peony, and lavender for ground cover.

Trees and Shrubs

If you’re looking for seasonal color in your garden, try deciduous trees like the Autumn Blaze maple, Pin oak, or Cleveland Select pear tree. Gingko trees are also a great option, but be sure to look for male trees so you don’t have to deal with a stinky garden.

If you prefer evergreen, plant trees like the Colorado Blue spruce, white pine, or hemlock. Look into juniper, boxwood, or yew for shrubbery.

Go Native

Native gardens are a great way to pay homage to the land on which you live. Native gardens consist of plants, trees, and other vegetation that grows wild where you live. These plants are well adapted to your area, and in fact, thrive there.

In Milwaukee, a native garden means that you have a miniature prairie around your home. These low maintenance plants include grasses like prairie dropseed and little bluestem. For flowers, look for purple coneflower, prairie blazingstar, cream false indigo, and smooth aster.

Native garden bonus: Native gardens are an excellent way to attract wildlife like hummingbirds and butterflies. In fact, they are very beneficial to wildlife that is rapidly losing habitat.

Check Out Our Blog for More Info About Landscaping in Milwaukee

Cold climate plants a great solution for anyone who wants a beautiful garden in Milwaukee. Whether you select plants that are suited to Milwaukee’s climate zone or plants that are native to the area, you’ll end up with a beautiful garden you can be proud of year-round.

Need more tips about gardening in Milwaukee? Check out our blog for information about everything from winterizing your garden to attracting wildlife. Happy gardening!

6 Small Garden Landscaping Ideas for Your Menomonee Falls Garden

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Just because your garden is small doesn’t mean that you need to compromise design. While you may not have room for sweeping beds or a grove of trees, there’s plenty of ways to make a tiny garden feel larger.

Keep reading for a few small garden landscaping ideas that can help you do just that.

closeup of someone starting new garden in a plot of dirt

1. Add a Small Greenhouse

If you’re dreaming of raising exotic plants year round but Wisconsin’s cold winters have you thinking twice, a greenhouse is an obvious choice.

Many greenhouses are far too large for a backyard garden that is tight on space. Luckily, there are plenty of miniature versions.

A tall, cabinet-style glass greenhouse allows you to utilize vertical space, which means you won’t be wasting any space you could use for gardening.

2. Extend Your Space With Walls and Tiers

If your backyard doesn’t leave you with much vertical space for creating a garden, you can create your own space using walls and tiers.

Raised beds make it easier to separate your plants and attend to them. Plus, if you create those beds with concrete walls, the walls can double as an easy sitting area for working in or enjoying your garden.

3. Create a Living Wall

If your backyard isn’t even large enough for raised beds, you might think it’s too small for a garden. Think again!

Living walls are one of the latest trends in small backyard landscaping ideas. They utilize wooden planters stacked vertically along a wall.

Once your wall is in place, you can use creeping or draped plants to give your stacked garden a more natural look. Or use it to grow herbs for a simple, space-saving kitchen garden.

4. Give Yourself a View

When you’re perusing landscaping ideas for small yards, you’ll find plenty of ideas for creating plots or choosing the right plants. But none of those tips will be any good if you don’t also create a space for yourself to enjoy your garden.

When you’re plotting your landscaping design for small yards, be sure to put a focus on integrating a seating area. Position it so that you can see a large part of your garden.

5. Paint Exterior Walls White

One simple tip for making your backyard garden look and feel larger is to minimize distraction.

Dark or even lighter patterned exterior walls can draw eyes away from your garden, making it look even smaller. To minimize this effect, paint exterior surfaces white.

6. Use Lines to Create an Illusion

While a professional gardener will have a number of tactics to landscape small backyards and make them look larger, there are a few you can utilize on your own. For instance:

  • Plants arranged in clean, straight lines can help lend the illusion that a space is larger than it is.
  • Use your space to create the longest possible line with your plants to make your space look as large as possible.

Putting Small Garden Landscaping Ideas to Work

While these small garden landscaping ideas are great for making the most of your space, a professional landscaping service is able to do much more.

With the right tools and know-how for maximizing any garden, pros can help you create a space that looks and feels much bigger than it really is.

Contact us today to see how we can make a difference in your backyard. We offer garden design in Menonomee Falls and Milwaukee.

5 Gorgeous Zone 5 Perennials to Liven Up Your Landscaping

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We don’t see grand garden landscapes today the way we once did. No one plots acres of hedgerows or fields dotted with a hundred different types of rose for their own backyard anymore. Today’s garden is smaller and more manageable—but it doesn’t have to be less beautiful than the aristocratic roaming grounds of a bygone age.

If you want your little slice of Menomonee Falls to rival Alnwick and Versailles, you should first explore your own climate. A garden in southeast Wisconsin will not nurture the same plants you might find in the hills of Texas or the swamps of Louisiana.

Peony Bush in a Garden

Plant hardiness zones indicate which plants will thrive in your backyard. Wisconsin is in zone 5, where temperatures may reach a cold extreme of -20 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you’re not sure what plants are appropriate for your neighborhood, here are five zone 5 perennials that will thrive in a Midwestern weather.

Yarrow

This flowering plant, whose blooms cluster together in bursts of yellow (and sometimes red or pink), is hardy and eye-catching. It’s an ideal pick for zone 5 gardens. Yarrow is drought-resistant, insect-resistant, and has a bitter taste that discourages wildlife from nibbling at it.

If you like your plants to come equipped with fun facts, you can entertain visitors with some of the historical uses for the yarrow plant. Ground yarrow mixed with water was once used as a paste to heal sunburns!

Allium

Allium blooms tower above garden beds, and they are useful if you want to feature some taller specimens among your flowers. Their flowers are usually a vibrant purple, and exposure to full sun will ensure they stand tall to greet passers-by.

And here’s a secret: Allium is a type of onion! Because of this relation, their blossoms give off a mild scent that acts as an animal repellent. If your garden contains flowers likely to tempt the local wildlife, a few allium bulbs could save you a headache.

Potentilla

If you’re in need of ground cover but you’re bored with plain, old green, potentilla is an excellent option. This shrub typically has small white or yellow flowers. One variety even features a variegated, dark orange blossom that lightens to yellow at the edges.

In the winter, the leaves and flowers fall away to reveal reddish stems. They peel slightly throughout the season, giving your winter garden a little color and interest.

Russian Sage

This aromatic member of the mint family adds delicate hints of blue and lavender to a garden. It can grow quite tall, and it is a great addition to a rustic gardenscape. Russian sage enjoys direct sunlight and is drought-resistant.

Russian sage (which is neither from Russia nor sage, by the way) is popular with pollinators, including bees!

Peony

Peonies are a great choice if you want to be able to walk through your garden and collect flowers for a vase on the dinner table. These zone 5 flowers are showstoppers and last up to a week cut.

Peonies are slow growers, so it can take a few years for a plant to mature and bloom. They also require more maintenance than some other plants on the list. The soil in which peonies are planted may need fertilizing, and they should be deadheaded to encourage a healthy bloom.

Enjoy Your Zone 5 Perennials Gardening Adventure

Armed with your list of zone 5 perennials, there’s little stopping you from planting the garden of your dreams. Now you just need a great landscape design to pull it all together!

If you need help with the initial design or ongoing maintenance, let us know. We offer garden design and ongoing maintenance for landscapes throughout Milwaukee and Menonomee Falls.

The Homeowner’s Guide to Sustainable Landscape Design

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If your property is in need of some landscaping work, don’t forget to consider the environment before jumping in. After all, it’s everyone’s responsibility to look after our planetary home and to keep it clean and thriving.

Thankfully, choosing a sustainable landscape design is possible by making some very simple choices.

Wondering what those choices are? Keep reading for a full guide of simple landscape ideas to keep your property environmentally-friendly and safe for yourself and your family!

pretty landscaped lawn with sustainable design and mulch

Overload on Plants

Plants create the oxygen that allows us to live and breathe. So, whether you like shrubs, trees, bushes, grass, or flowers, don’t hold back!

When it comes to adding plants to your landscape, the more you plant, the better it is for the environment. Not only will this produce more oxygen, it will also help to filter harmful toxins from the air.

In order to pack as much greenery into your property as possible, brainstorm some creative ways to add plants to each aspect of your landscape. For example, think up some unique driveway flower bed ideas, conceptualize ways to add in potted plants around your property, and consider ribbon driveways to add a little extra grass.

Incorporate Composting

Composting has an unfair reputation of being complicated and annoying. However, this is only true if it’s done improperly. When executed well, composting is a simple way to create a rich, natural fertilizer for your home’s landscape.

Just decide whether you would like to create a cold or hot compost, and then research what waste from your home you can use. Then, simply combine the materials, stir, and add water. Composting is a vital part of all sustainable landscapes.

Conserve Water Usage

The next time you’re home on a rainy day, do some detective work. Where does the water around your property pool? Where does it drain?

By figuring out these patterns, you can plan where to place water-loving plants around your property in a way that harnesses the natural flow of your property. You can also collect water runoff, which can then be used to give your plants extra hydration without ever running a tap.

Conserving water is one of the best easy sustainability projects that helps our environment in a big way.

Stay Away from Harsh Chemicals

Some products used in landscaping can be harmful to us, our pets, and our planet. Make sure that you research each and every product that you are using on your property to support sustainable landscape design. Pesticides, in particular, can contain harsh chemicals to watch out for.

Stay Indigenous for a Sustainable Landscape Design

Did you know that plants that are indigenous to your area require less water, fewer pesticides, less fertilizer, and work in harmony with your local fauna? It’s true! Choosing indigenous plants for your landscape is one of the simplest sustainability ideas that you can incorporate into your life.

Ready for Your Own Sustainable Landscape?

As you can see, a sustainable landscape design is achievable for everyone through just a little mindfulness. By cutting out harsh chemicals, composting, conserving water, and keeping things local, we can all do our part in maintaining a healthy environment.

Have any questions or comments, or are you ready to dive in and start designing your own sustainable space? Feel free to contact us for professional help. We service the Milwaukee and Menomonee Falls areas.

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American Landscape - 50 Years of Outstanding Landscaping Service to the Greater Milwaukee Area

(262)252-4260
info@amerlandscape.com

N60 W16073 Kohler Ln,
Menomonee Falls, WI 53051

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