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Spring is coming! Is your property ready?

When spring arrives in Maine, it is time to celebrate. We made it through another winter! As spring arrives, though, so does a new list of chores to tackle for keeping your yard and property looking their best. At least it’s a little bit warmer out as you tackle these chores than when you’re shoveling.

Winter takes its toll on a yard, and if your yard looks messy and unkempt your entire property will too. If you’re on an annual plan with AC Yard Services, you know that we are committed to keeping your property looking its best year-round, and part of that is doing several tasks in each and every season. For spring, we recommend starting with these five landscaping and yard-work chores to get your property ready:

• Pick Up Sticks (And Other Debris)
• Take Care of Overgrown Shrubs
• Neaten Up Your Gardens and Yard by Edging
• Clean Out and Freshen Up Your Flowerbeds
• Put Down Mulch

Pick Up Sticks (and leaves, and acorns, and everything else)

By the time the snow melts it can seem like your yard has turned into a gathering place for all the stray branches, acorns, and litter in your neighborhood. Getting rid of all of this debris can make a big difference in your property’s overall appearance, and it’s a chore that you can start relatively early, even before the snow is all melted. If you get ahead on this chore, your property will look much neater than those around you, and you will have a head start on your overall spring raking, weeding, and planting work.

Take Care of Overgrown Shrubs

Even if you thought you took care of all the trimming in the fall, you might notice some overgrowth in your shrubbery as spring arrives. The shrubbery that is particularly important to take care of in the spring is that closest to your house, especially if it sits right up against it. If shrubbery is overgrown, messy and tight up to your house, it not only looks unsightly but can also trap moisture – something no homeowner wants to deal with as an ongoing problem.

Shrubbery, when neat and healthy, can be an excellent accent to your yard. It creates borders, can help provide privacy, and offers attractive greenery with fairly little maintenance required. But, we’ve all seen what can happen when shrubbery gets out of control. Taking just a little time this spring to tame the shrubs in your yard can be a long-term investment in the health and attractiveness of your property.

Create Borders With Edging

Edging with a flat-edged spade can help you create a neat appearance throughout your yard. Tackle the areas next to sidewalks, along the driveway, your front walk, or around your patio. Edge the side of the lawn so it is a straight line against these property elements, and not overgrown and ragged. You might not even notice how much this project can help your lawn look neater until it’s done, but edging really does make a big difference in the overall appearance of your property. If the snow is gone earlier from some parts of your property than others, you can start with those and get a jump on this project.

Clean Out And Freshen Up Your Flowerbeds

As part of the overall debris cleanup discussed in Tip #1, you probably started getting sticks, branches, and leaves out of your flowerbeds. As we get later into spring, though, you should make a second pass through your flowerbeds to start pulling out weeds and getting rid of debris that may have found its way back there since you did your initial cleanup. Prepping the flowerbeds gets you ready for one of the best parts of spring – getting flowers in the ground!

When spring actually arrives, one of the most important things you can do for your property is to get rid of weeds and put in bright, cheery plants. Consider planting spring annuals, like petunias, to add vibrance to your yard.

Put Down Mulch

If your yard looks good, but you can tell it isn’t quite there yet – consider adding mulch. If the snow is gone, adding a layer of mulch is both a way to add a ‘pop’ to your property while also serving the practical purpose of discouraging weed growth. For weed prevention, apply a 3”-4” layer of mulch.

While mulch is available in several hues, black mulch is an excellent choice for improving a property’s look. Of course, some houses may have a paint color for which a brown or red mulch is a better choice, or some flower choices may do better with a different hue. Overall, though, if you’re not sure – black mulch is most often a good choice.

If you’re starting to tackle your spring chores and think it would be nice to be hand some of them off to professionals, give AC Yard Services a call at (207) 712-5554. Our team is here for you in every season, and we’re always ready to rake, mow, mulch, plant – and more.

Fall Is Coming!

It’s September, the kids are back at school, the Patriots are back, so it’s time to forget about your lawn care with the exception of raking leaves in a couple weeks, right? Wrong. It’s not fall until September 22nd – we’re still in late summer and your yard still needs your attention.

Before the leaves fall and then the snow falls, you need to make sure your lawn and gardens are ready for the change in seasons and the months of being covered by snow. So what yardwork should you be doing now? Here are three we recommend for the late summer:

Cut Your Grass Short

Yes, you should still be mowing. The difference between mowing now, though, and mowing earlier in the summer is that you want to cut your grass shorter in preparation for the fall and winter. With shorter grass, you are helping it to stay healthy because shorter grass is less susceptible to fungus and other issues that can occur when the grass gets wet and cold. When the grass is short, it’s easier for it to dry it. Taller grass gets compacted more easily under snow, stays wet, and more easily plays host to fungus and mold. For a healthier, greener lawn in the spring, put your mower settings down by a couple and cut your grass low now.

Edging Gardens

This time of year, it’s easy to let your flower beds start looking a little messy. Your flowers are starting to go, and it’s Maine, so there will be frost and snow soon enough anyway, right? But both for your property’s aesthetics and your garden’s health, now is a good time to get edging done.

Edging just makes your yard look neater, and it’s always good to have tidy landscaping – especially if you might be putting your home on the market. Getting edging done now also makes it less of a major undertaking in the spring, when you are already faced with a laundry list of yard work to accomplish.

Perhaps most importantly, though, edging in the late summer means that you aren’t putting new growth at risk. Fragile roots can be disturbed by edging, and as plants are starting to blossom in the spring they are more likely to be damaged by edging. Now, though, there isn’t new growth, and your plants are either already gone by or preparing to settle in for the winter.

Trim Shrubs

If your shrubbery is looking a bit overgrown, now is the time to give them a trim. Don’t wait until late fall or until the frost hits – if you do, the trimmed branches won’t have time to harden off and will be damaged by the cold weather. Trimming shrubs now, in late summer, will give them time to harden off but not start new growth that will require yet another trim before winter. If you get this chore done now, it’s another item on your spring list that will either be non-existent or a bit easier than usual.

If you’d like some backup on these or any of the other many chores that maintaining a property in Maine requires each season, give AC Yard Services give us a call (207) 712-5554 or send us a message over email at . Our annual plans help keep your yard looking its best year-round!

When you see a lawn with stripes mowed into it, doesn’t it just make the property seem somehow nicer? No matter how nicely a lawn is mowed or gardens are landscaped, a yard doesn’t look completely finished until it has a pattern mown into it.

Lawn art shows that you go the extra mile in taking care of your property. If you’re looking to improve your curb appeal, this is a simple step to neaten up your home’s appearance. If you’re a business with a lawn in front of your building, it can help make your company more appealing to clients or potential customers as they feel welcomed into a well kept-up, clearly cared for building.

Lawn Art From AC Yard Services

While stripes are a popular choice for lawn art, they are far from your only option. From simple stripes to more complex designs, the AC Yard Services team is enjoying adding a unique touch to many of our clients’ properties. We can keep it classic with straight lines, or we can get a little more intricate.

That said, having the Red Sox logo mowed into your lawn is lawn art…but that’s not really the type of lawn art we do. We’ll leave that to the Fenway grounds crew.

What can we do? All kinds of geometric designs. Zigzags, checkerboard, even curved lines – if you have an idea in mind, let us know! If you’d like our professional insight into what might work best for your lawn and your property, we’re always happy to advise on landscaping matters.

Classic straight lines can help give your property a clean look. Perhaps you have a curved stone staircase leading into your front door; you can emphasize its beauty by having arcs mowed into your lawn that are aligned with the stairway. Use a checkerboard pattern to show off how dark green and lush your grass is, or use zigzags to add a little character as you make your yard a little neater.

Alternating Lawn Art Patterns

Once you’ve settled on a lawn art pattern, you can always change it from mow to mow. In fact, not only can you change it – you should change it.

When you mow the same way, in the same pattern over and over the grass under the wheels is consistently getting crushed, which can create ruts from mower wheels as well as cause fungus and disease to grow in that part of the grass. Your grass needs to breathe to stay healthy, and by giving areas of it a break from being crushed under mower wheels, or even just have the blades pushed in a different direction, you’re giving it a bit more freedom to breath and to grow.

You don’t have to completely change patterns from curved to zig-zag and back again (though you certainly can), but do something as simple as reverse the direction the curves are facing, or have stripes run vertically instead of horizontally.

Lawn art isn’t just fun, it’s a great way to keep your yard looking its best. If you’ve been looking for a way to take your property to the next level, lawn art might be the solution.

To find out more about AC Yard Services mowing and landscaping services, contact us at by calling (207) 712-5554 or by sending us an email!.

There is certainly something to be said for the gorgeous old maples and oaks that line many neighborhoods in Maine. And of course there’s the iconic pine tree, so impressive and numerous it’s a symbol of our state.

While it might be tempting to plant these recognizable trees in your yard, smaller options may be a better choice for your property.

Smaller Trees Are Better For The Rest Of Your Landscaping

You’ve spent a lot of time on your gardens, and kept your grass green and healthy. Now you’re looking at what trees to add to your landscaping. If you’re not careful, you might find that the trees you plant end up causing some headaches for the care you’ve already put into your property.

A larger tree with dense leaves will grow to the point that it prevents sunlight from reaching a good portion of your lawn or gardens. As a result, grass, flowers, and vegetables won’t be able to grow like they used to. (Not to mention the headache of all those leaves to rake up).

Smaller trees are also less likely to harbor pests that will snack on your flowers and vegetables, or just generally be a nuisance in your yard.

The roots of smaller trees are also less likely to push up through the ground and disrupt your carefully planned landscape borders and flower gardens.

Smaller Trees Are Easier To Maintain

Tall, wide trees can grow to the point that they cover up your windows and block sunlight from your porch. Their branches can get tangled up in electrical wires, and threaten to fall on your roof. Dead or sick branches may pose a danger to the rest of the tree – or to people in your yard if they fall. These are all reasons you may find yourself wanting to prune a tree. But what happens if the branches are large and out of reach? You can always call in professionals, but that gets pretty expensive pretty quickly.

With a smaller tree variety you are more likely to still be able to reach many branches to prune them using your household ladder. As a result, your trees will be able to stay healthier and your property won’t be overrun by large branches and dense leaf cover.

Small Tree Varieties To Consider

• Beach Plum
• Serviceberry
• Redbud
• Smooth Blackhaw

If you’d like the AC Yard Services team to help you keep your property looking its best, contact us today by calling (207) 712-5554 or by sending us an email!.

Freezing cold days, winter weather advisories, school cancelations: It sure does feel like springtime is a long way away.

While that may be the case, it is never too soon to think about what your yard will look like once it emerges from the springtime thaw. Owner Justin Hayden provides a few of his personal tips to get your property in tip-top shape for the spring and summer months. Check out the video below!

If you are looking for a reliable year-round landscaping company to get your property warm-weather-ready, check out our year-round plans. If you would like to learn more, please contact us today.

For property owners, a beautiful lawn is a point of pride. It’s the first impression people have when approaching your home or business, making a beautiful lawn worth the work. While most people regularly mow, weed wack, fertilize, and edge their lawns, aeration is a lesser-utilized but no less important part of a healthy and lush lawn.

What is Aeration?

Proper lawn care starts with fulfilling a lawn’s basic needs: water and air. Aeration is the simple act of creating small holes through the lawn to allow water, air, and other nutrients to enrich the soil.

Aeration Reduces Soil Compaction and Thatching

You’re probably familiar with “Do not step on grass” signs in public places. These have a purpose – to prevent soil compaction. Compaction causes soil erosion and impairs your lawn’s ability to accept the flow of air and water. For those with large lawns this usually turns out to be unavoidable. Whether it be playing lawn games, lounging outside in the sun, kids playing, or simply walking across it, people compact the grass on a regular basis just through our regular activities.

Aeration solves this by relieving the compaction and opening space that allows air to get to the roots and encourage water drainage. Regular aeration is required to make sure soil compaction and eventual thatching do not destroy the lawn.

Aeration Improves Air, Water, and Fertilizer Absorption

Once lawn compaction is relieved, your lawn can breathe again. These punctures create a path for air, water, and fertilizers to enrich the soil. It is a best practice to fertilize immediately after aeration because it ensures those essential nutrients penetrate through the lawn and into the soil. Without professional aeration, the lawn will fail to receive the maximum benefit from those vital nutrients.

Aeration Creates Strong Roots and Reduces Pooling and Run Off

Aeration is essential for ensuring the healthy strength of grass roots and the reduction of pooling. Though we don’t think about it often, grass is a series of plants living side by side across a wide space. It can get congested and create mismatched growth. Routine aeration allows grass roots to grow properly within their own space in the soil.

The reduction of pooling and runoff is one of the most critical effects of aeration. Heavy thatch prevents water from properly reaching the soil beneath where it is absorbed. So what happens to the excess water from rainfall? It creates a pool on the surface of the lawn, killing the grass and the roots underneath. Or, the water creates runoffs from hills and valuable nutrients in rainwater are moved away from the soil. A properly aerated lawn provides paths for that water to flow into the soil, providing nutrients and preventing lawn damage.

How can I properly aerate my yard?

The proper equipment and time to aerate a yard differs greatly depending on how big your yard is and what kind of soil is beneath the surface. If you think it’s time to check if your lawn is properly aerated give us a call at 1-(207) 712-5554 or email us at info@acyardservices.com. We would love to show you what we can do to make sure your lawn is lush and healthy.

Whether you’re putting in a new perennial flower bed, filling in your existing landscaping beds with annuals or simply need to replace a few plants, the right mix of fresh flowers and plants can help take the appearance of your property to the next level.

We asked owner, Justin Hayden, to share three of his favorite plantings, Check out what he has to say below. If you are looking for some more inspiration, check out our blog post on more of our favorite plantings.