GUIDE
Local businesses oer home improvement tips
COMPILED BY SIERRA MARTIN AND AMIRA VAN LEEUWEN HOME IMPROVEMENT AND MAINTENANCE
Richard: All this stu does cost money, but it’s not money wasted. It’s money that’s put in to your home to make your home a more valuable place and to make your home more a place you want to be spending most of your time. That’s where most people spend all their time is at home. Taylor: An empty backyard without landscaping is just a blank canvas you stare at, but when you fully landscape it, it becomes something functional that you look forward to seeing every day. WHAT NATIVE PLANTS DO YOU RECOMMEND HOMEOWNERS USE WITH THEIR LANDSCAPING? Richard: We use a lot of Esperanza, Lantanas, Texas sage, bottlebrush bushes, oleanders, cactus and yucca.
double because now we’re tearing out what they’ve done and putting [new landscaping] back in. WHAT LANDSCAPING MISTAKES DO YOU MOST OFTEN SEE HOMEOWNERS MAKE? Richard: The biggest mistake is the actual preparation of the ground and [drainage]. ... Homeowners don’t understand that when they do a project on their own. WHY IS INVESTING IN LANDSCAPING AND IRRIGATION IMPORTANT? Richard: The cleaner it looks, the crisper it looks, the more value you add. When you want to resell your home, curb appeal and green yards, ... that stu is very important to buyers.
ASK A LANDSCAPER AND IRRIGATION EXPERT
Richard, CC and Taylor McCarter, the owners of Ground Control Landscaping & Irrigation, shared some of their recommendations for landscape design in New Braunfels.
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SOMEONE LANDSCAPING THEIR HOME? Taylor: When you rst buy a plant and you get them from the nursery, you get them at the most immature state, so it’s small. And they want their bed to come out right away looking 100% nished, … and then in about a year or two, those things [are] going to be a 4-foot diameter instead of that half-a-foot diameter of what it was to begin with, and you start to get them to grow into each other. And you have to trim them up and everything like that. When you’re doing plants, think about how big it will grow and how much you have to maintain it. Preparation is key in every landscaping job. … Our biggest issue right now in landscaping is [when unqualied landscapers] win jobs, and then we’re having to go in and tear out what they’ve done, many times costing the customer
WHAT LANDSCAPING CHALLENGES DO RESIDENTS OFTEN ENCOUNTER? Richard: Right now your biggest landscaping challenge is drainage … because of the building that’s going on and how they’re building the houses and the slopes of the lots. People that don’t have gutters up create that water running o the edge of that house and goes in between, and that’s just nothing but standing water most of the time. Most of these houses—especially the new builds—the drainage becomes a serious issue. HOW CAN THEY OVERCOME DRAINAGE ISSUES? Richard: [By] installing French drains with underground drainage or xeriscaping [landscaping without irrigation]. French drains are ditches that have a 4- to 5-inch pipe running through the bottom of it that’s perforated [and] surrounded by river rock.
Richard McCarter (left) Co-owner CC McCarter (center) Co-owner Taylor McCarter (right) Licensed irrigator Ground Control Landscaping & Lawn Service 177 E. Faust St. 830-310-7643 www.groundcontrolnb.com
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