Maintenance Services
Native plant gardens are not the same as conventional landscapes. They require particular care during their establishement period and knowing native plants from weeds is vital. Do you need a refresher on how to ID the native plants in your garden or full service care for you native planting? Give us a call.
Native Plant Garden Maintenance Initial Consult by appointment only
Walk your site with Hand &Petal and learn the secrets your landscape has to tell. The fee for this in-person consult is $75.00 and it takes approximately one hour. Depending on time of year, we identify garden areas and assess how current plants are performing, assess weed pressure, disease/pest presence, review your concerns, and discuss maintenance needs. Hand & Petal does not provide any lawn/turf care and provides specific shrub pruning. Hand &Petal will identify pest and disease concerns and list options for non-toxic, natural, organic treatment. Hand & Petal does not use any herbicides/pesticides and requires that client inform Hand & Petal if any are used on site.
What to Expect: Maintenance Items/Things to Know
Hand & Petal Landscapes generally follows these best practices for native plant landscapes:
Weed cut back at soil/minimal soil disturbance
Use of client located composting and or habitat pile for appropriate plant material
Cut-back of native plants later—often not until late winter/early spring in order to allow for food/forage
Keeping/encouraging leaves to remain in garden beds to serve as mulch
Avoidance of compacting soil when wet/or with heavy equipment
Use of electric/human/quiet equipment whenever possible
Do our best not to disturb of critters of all kinds, unless it is safer to encourage them to move on or their presence poses some other significiant potential for harm/damage (we pick off bag worm, etc.)
Promote the health of the plants as part of the health of the broader ecosystem, which, in turn, promotes the health of the plants—and us!
Share photos of the amazing plants, critters, and scenes we encounter while caring for your garden
What to Expect: Cost of Maintenance
Maintenance of native plant gardens and landscapes requires skilled laborer who know native plants, can identify unwanted and problematic plants, understand best maintenance practices for each plant, and know how to keep from spreading unwanted plants and pests to other areas. In particular, during the establishment period or first two growing seasons of a new native plant garden, these tasks can be time consuming. For several of the gardens we have installed and maintained, maintenance costs have reduced after the establishement period.
Ready to begin? Request a Consultation
We provide in-person consults for a wide swath of MD, DC, So. Eastern PA, and DE. Please submit your address when you reach out, so we can ascertain if you are located in our service area.