FAQ
What kind of services do you offer?
Will this landscape be low maintenance?
What kind of irrigation systems do you install?
Why do you recommend dry-stack versus mortar walls?
How fast will these plants grow?
Do you install sod?
What about mulch?
What about weeds?
What is the difference between an estimate and a bid?
Shouldn’t it be Buen-a-Luna?
What kind of services do you offer?
We are a landscape design and installation company. We do on-site consultations to answer specific questions about your plants and give landscape design suggestions. We draw up concept drawings, planting plans, irrigation plans and lighting plans for your project, and install your new landscape. We also specialize in fine gardening and pruning, mainly in gardens we’ve designed/installed, but also in gardens we find interesting. Finally, we are garden coaches for those who want to work in their garden and wish to be better gardeners themselves.
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Will this landscape be low maintenance?
Everything requires some maintenance; even concrete has to be swept. That said, most gardens that we install are low maintenance, meaning the plants might need yearly pruning, like grasses, or occasional summer deadheading to extend bloom time for some of the perennials. To put this in perspective, cutting back and feeding once a year is a lot less maintenance than mowing a lawn every 7-14 days. Although most plants will live just fine without being cut back, they’ll look neater and healthier with some maintenance, and we’d prefer your plants to thrive, not just survive. All gardens generally need some weeding in the winter/spring and some plants pruned in the summer/fall. The irrigation should be checked once or twice a year, and you may have to top off the mulch every 2-5 years. Young trees in particular benefit greatly from annual pruning the first few years to establish a healthy form.
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What kind of irrigation systems do you install?
We focus our efforts on maximizing efficiency and ease of use. We recommend installing timers that offer multiple programs and start times to fully customize the irrigation schedule to fit your property’s unique requirements. We use low precipitation sprinklers for lawns, and drip irrigation for practically everything else (including drip micro-sprayers for veggie-gardens).
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Why do you recommend dry-stack versus mortar walls?
Dry-stacked walls use gravity and friction to hold them in place, meaning the size of the stone, the tightness of the fit, and the skill of the stone worker. This gives them certain advantages:
—Dry-stacked walls are usually cheaper to build. Mortar is expensive.
—Dry-stacked walls last longer. The oldest structures in the world are stones stacked on each other.
—Dry-stacked walls are cheaper and easier to repair. If a dry-stacked wall fails, you can take it apart and re-stack it.
—Dry-stacked walls let water drain through them. Mortared walls need drainage holes to let water pass; those holes can clog. The hydrostatic pressure behind a mortared wall can be very powerful, causing it to fall over or crack.
—Dry-stacked walls are flexible. When the ground around the wall moves (and Bay Area clay soil is constantly changing volume from season to season) the stones can adjust; mortared walls will crack. Dry-stacked walls don’t crack during earthquakes.
That said, mortar has some advantages:
—It can make small stones look like big stones. Some stone is so expensive it’s cheaper to build a facade of smaller stones.
—The stones don’t move at all. That makes them better for sitting on or stepping on or kicking a soccer ball at.
—Mortared walls don’t need batter. Dry-stack walls need to lean back slightly into the hill; mortared walls don’t. That can save space and, particularly with taller walls, sometimes make a better looking wall.
—Mortar adds strength without as much mass. Dry-stack walls need to be really thick when they are taller than three feet. The mass of the wall is what holds back the hillside; walls above three feet need to hold back a lot of weight.
Overall, most of the walls we build are dry-stacked retaining walls, but we do use mortar when appropriate,
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How fast will these plants grow?
We recommend planting younger plants, which may initially appear small. Most plants, especially trees and deep rooted natives, benefit from being planted young. Younger plants recover more quickly from the stress of being planted, they are better at spreading their roots into the soil, and they will make growth that is adapted to their permanent home instead of the controlled environment of the nursery. A younger tree in a 5-gallon pot will typically catch up to a larger tree in a 15-gallon pot by the third year, and will be taller and more established by the fifth year. Waiting for the younger plant to grow can take faith and a little patience, but it will be rewarded with a healthier, more drought-tolerant, longer-lived plant.
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Do you install sod?
Not usually. We prefer to seed lawns in the spring and fall, instead. Most people don’t realize that you can grow your lawn from seed. Seeding gives you more options as to what species of grass to plant. More importantly, seeding produces a healthier, more site-acclimated, drought-tolerant lawn that is completely chemical-free and doesn’t have to be transported in a truck. Typically, a seeded lawn starts to look green after a month, can be walked on after three, and looks like a lawn after four to six. It’ll be a tougher lawn than a sod-grown one by the second winter. So it does take some patience, but the benefits last years.
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What about mulch?
Mulch is the single most important thing for making a planting healthy and professional-looking. It can ameliorate a multitude of problems. If you have $50 to spend on your yard, I would say add mulch; if you have $100, I would say add mulch. With $200, I would ask to see the site before I make any other recommendations.
We primarily use the small fir bark mulch. It’s not for desert plants, which prefer gravel, or for slopes, which do better with shredded redwood, but for most plants it seems to work best. It retains moisture, nourishes the soil, weakens weed growth, and generally makes a planting look tidy. Our jobs are not finished until they are mulched.
Although its not our favorite, we use redwood mulch for slopes. Redwood has anti-bacterial properties which reduce rot; that makes it good for building, but not particularly great for mulch. It’s actually a good thing for the mulch to decompose; the decomposition feeds beneficial bacteria and slowly releases energy into the soil. Redwood mulch doesn’t seem to feed the soil much at all. The fibery texture of redwood mulch also seems to soak up rainwater and stop it from reaching the soil, which is helpful for erosion-control but distinctly unhelpful for growing plants. However, that texture is excellent at sticking to the sides of hillsides where fir bark would wash away and where gravity brings water down to the plants anyways. As a final comment, we’ve worked in a lot of yards, and the yards with fir mulch have the healthiest soil and plants.
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What about weeds?
We use weed cloth under hardscape, but we generally use a sheet-mulching technique using recycled newspaper or cardboard anywhere that we want plants to grow weed free. Weed cloth creates a barrier between the mulch and the soil. Paper or cardboard, on the other hand, smothers the weeds and feeds the soil and plants as it decomposes. It lasts one to three years, by which time the weeds will be dramatically reduced or eliminated, and the plants will be established and able to compete with the weeds. We never use plastic as it doesn’t allow water to infiltrate or air to circulate and it makes a mess as it breaks down into tiny little pieces that can never be fully removed from the soil.
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What is the difference between an estimate and a bid?
A bid is an offer to contract to build a project or sell goods or services at a given price. An estimate is a statement of the approximate cost of work to be done. Essentially, if the project goes over budget with a bid, the contractor pays the extra costs, but if the project goes over with an estimate, the homeowner pays. Similarly, if the project comes in under bid, the contractor benefits, and if it comes in under the estimate, the homeowner benefits.
Our company only does estimates for two reasons: First, the incentive is to charge more when giving a bid, to protect the contractor’s balance sheet. The contractor must charge more money as s/he assumes more risk. Second, the underlying incentive with a bid is to do the work as quickly as possible in order to complete the contract and move onto the next one; the business imperative of an estimate is to work quickly. On the other hand, the business imperative of an estimate is to work slowly and carefully. In either case, a reputable contractor will do the proper job in the appropriate amount of time, but the underlying difference between a bid and an estimate does matter. With a bid, the issue at odds is the quality of the work; with an estimate, the issue is the price. We believe that the prevalence of bids is a factor in the decline of the quality in home construction and landscaping in the United States.
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Shouldn’t it be Buen-a-Luna?
No. Bueno Luna is a last name, like Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa, Cabrera Infante, etc…, so the grammatical rules don’t apply. When the Buenos marry the Lunas, they stay Bueno!
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