Ornamental Enhancement
Our services include:
ORNAMENTAL PRUNING & DEBRIS REMOVAL
Shrub Care
This expert service is offered at a contracted rate of $50 per man hour, with a minimum of 2 hours. It is important to remember that pruning plants is a process, not an event. There is no one-day of the year that all plants are to be pruned. Each species has very specific pruning needs based on flower production and the growing season. There will always be plants that require pruning in the landscape at different times of the year.
Our first priority is pruning for bloom production, second is structure pruning for plant development and third is space management. Space management is most common in mature landscape environments. We must contain plants within the spaces allocated during landscape design.
Our employees are trained on the most common landscape plants in Richmond. If you have an extensive planting with specialty items, we will inventory the plants and discuss proper pruning. We remove all plant pruning materials from your site, shred/chip the prunings at our shop and compost the material for mulch.
INSECT CONTROL ON TREES AND SHRUBS
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Treating of Pests
Certain times of the year we find insects to be more of a pest than usual, causing damage to plant foliage and buds. Kirby’s Landscaping can treat your plants with an insecticide to prevent further damage. These applications start at $75 per treatment and increase dependent upon how many trees and shrubs need to be treated. More than one application may be needed to be fully effective at targeting the pest during the appropriate stage of its life cycle.
Our staff at Kirby’s Landscaping does our best to observe for pests and we will notify you if we see a need for this sort of tree and shrub treatment. However, we ask that if you see something unusual or unsightly happening to your plants, please notify the office right away so we can get a treatment scheduled asap. Insects can damage plants quickly and it may take a long time for the plant to regenerate or the damage could be irreversible if the plant wasn’t treated for the pest soon enough. The sooner we know, the sooner we can try to save the plant.
Please keep in mind that plants damaged by insects are not covered under any sort of warranty by Kirby’s Landscaping. We are always going to do our very best to save your plants, but sometimes mother nature prevails.
STORM DEBRIS REMOVAL
Large storms can affect the landscape of your property. While smaller plants might not be affected, often after a large storm, debris from trees needs to be removed. Kirby’s Landscaping offers this service for $50 per man hour plus the cost of hauling away and dumping debris. We determine if debris removal falls under the billable category of "storm debris" if the debris calls for additional equipment such as chainsaws and/or dump vehicles OR if debris is in excess of what is generally found during our other regular maintenance visits and requires additional time to be removed.
If storm debris is hindering the crew from performing their scheduled service, we will first attempt to contact the customer to notify them of the possible occurrence of a billable service. If we cannot reach the customer, we will move forward with the storm debris removal and the customer will be billed according to labor/time it took to remove and haul away the debris. We opt to continue with debris removal and performing our scheduled service in an effort to cause the least amount of interference and inconvenience in our customers lives as the expectation is generally that the role of Kirby's Landscaping is to maintain your outdoor property to its best potential.
FLORICULTURE
This expert service is offered in addition to the listed contracted price. Seasonal color beds are used to draw attention to entryways of property, highlight sign areas or enhance views through the landscape. There are two seasons in Richmond for annual flowers. Summer annuals are installed in April through September. Winter annuals are installed in October through April. There are countless types of annual flowers, which are available in dozens of colors. It is our job to recognize the specific site conditions you have and match the proper plants in a unique display.
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We call this entire process our floriculture program, it includes:
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Pull and remove existing annual plants.
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Prune back any plants that encroach the bed.
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Contour soil for proper drainage.
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Arrange a creative floral display with plants.
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Install 4” size pots of annuals.
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Apply insecticide/fertilizer if needed.
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Clean-up site thoroughly and remove debris.
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Initial watering & fertilization to a depth of 4”-6”.
We promise our annual flower program will provide you with a colorful display to enjoy and admire throughout the season. We ask you to help monitor and water the plants daily during the first 2 weeks of establishment. Also, water during periods of drought throughout the summer. Due to the unpredictability of weather, insects, animals & disease, Annuals are not covered under a warranty.
MULCH
This expert service is offered in addition to the listed contracted price. Double Shredded Hardwood is the mulch of choice for ornamental shrub beds and natural areas in Richmond. Mulch benefits shrub beds by helping to retain moisture, control weeds, prevent erosion, protect from temperature extremes and to improve the appearance of our bed areas. Our mulch is free of sticks, pinecones and debris. This classification of work is critical to the overall success of our complete maintenance program.
The fee quoted for mulch is separate from the contracted total and will include the following:
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Delivery of mulch.
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Establish a vertical trench to define the bed area.
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Apply a pre-emergent herbicide to the bed area.
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Install/spread mulch to a 1.5”-2” thick.
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Clean up & dispose of all debris from installation process.
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Clear concrete surfaces and turf of debris.
Mulch must be replenished a minimum of one time per year or contract fees may increase due to extra time needed for pulling weeds and maintaining beds. A second application during the year to freshen the color is recommended. Mulch that is located in a full sun exposure with frequent irrigation will deteriorate much more quickly than mulch in natural areas that are shady and have no irrigation
yard clean up
Trash Removal: We police trash on site (paper, cans, glass) and recycle glass and aluminum. We utilize your trash can for non-recyclables and paper. We utilize mulching type lawn mowers to process leaves and pine straw from trees on your site. Fall leaves are to be mulched and then blown into beds or natural areas on your property for composting. If there are too many leaves to be blown into natural areas leaves can be collected by our leaf vacuum truck.
Clean-Up: All concrete surfaces, patios, decks and parking areas will be blown clean of debris from the landscape maintenance process. This process will include the edges of streets in some applications.
