Landscape
The softer side of your outdoors investment, often called soft-scape or green-scape, is the filler of your outdoor investment after the hard-scape and or masonry is installed. While the new paver patio or natural stone wall may steal the show as the highlight of your property, the landscape will be the supporting role in bring the whole property together with colors, textures and greenery all to soften and maintain the whole picture.
Black Diamond Landscapes, landscape construction division has the experience and time proven methodology to build you the garden that you always wanted, install a few ornamental trees as a privacy screen, or the addition of a irrigation and lighting system to put the finishing touches on your outside living space. All aspects of the landscape construction process are taken into consideration when planning out what’s right for your property. Light conditions, drainage, grading issues, privacy solutions, or required maintenance are just some of the issues that affect what works and doesn’t work at your home.
After an onsite visit with the home or business owner, we strive on working with you to understand what your goals are, making the right decisions for what works in your specific property and recommending the correct materials for your project. After the design process, one of our experienced crews will begin the installation process following our plan and working with the home or business owner each step of the way, explaining and consulting with them as the project proceeds. Once the project is completed, we invite you to explore and review your project so that it meets every bit of your expectations, and you have what you wanted, on budget and on time.
Planting and Mulching
From small gardens to commercial parks and courtyards, Black Diamond Landscapes Inc. has developed the knowledge and skills required to design and incorporate the horticultural aspect of your landscape onto any property. From 20-foot trees, to 6-inch perennials Black Diamond Landscapes, Inc. can correctly plan and install your choice of plantings in any condition.
We have experience working in open area plans, hillside applications and simple foundation plantings, all custom designed and correctly chosen specifically with your ideas and property in mind.
Along with correct selection of colors, textures and size, the Black Diamond Landscapes staff has the knowledge to ensure correct technical specifications are met; including shade tolerances, soil composition, correct planting depths and water requirements. Soil additives such as compost and peat moss are always used when local soil conditions are unsatisfactory.
As a finishing touch to your new garden areas or existing plantings, we install a variety of mulches to complement your plantings, keep moisture in the soil, reduce weed growth and decrease soil temperatures. Choices can range from premium red hemlock to dark pine bark or brownish-red cedar.
Landscape Lighting
When the sun sets and the flowers of the garden go bed for the night, it usually means that your time outside and the view of your landscape is over until dawn. Over the past 20 years, improvements in technology and materials has given light to many professional landscape lighting options, that can be affordable and low maintenance for your home or business.
Professional landscape lighting, and I don’t mean mega home-center solar powered lights, are designed with a low voltage power-source that is in the form of a 120V transformer that plugs into any household outlet. The transformer then drops the voltage down to 12V and is connected to a number of light fixtures in landscape via direct burial low voltage cable, based on the amount of watt usage at the fixture and the distance of the fixture from the power-source.
The style and fixtures are quite extensive and consist of various metals, textures and finishes but are also unique based on whether they are up-lighting, path-lighting, accent or flood lights. The content of the landscape will help determine the style of the lights and your personal taste will determine the finish and texture. While the initial introduction of a landscape lighting catalog may be overwhelming, the goal of this night time feature is to highlight the best parts of your property with subtle soft accents and not to make it appear like the Las Vegas Strip.
Irrigation
Once you have finally decided on your landscape design for your home or business, all your material choices are finished and your plantings are chosen, the one last decision you need to make is: How am I going water all of this? The answer is a custom-installed automatic irrigation system.
As part of Black Diamond Landscapes Inc., commitment to proving the ultimate full service landscaping experience, irrigation is one area we have not forgotten. The Black Diamond Landscapes, Inc. staff is trained to design, install and maintain all types of irrigation systems and components. We will design the system that is right for you, whether you need a drip system for your planting beds, pop-up spray heads for your lawn or long range rotors for expansive turf areas.
All of our systems are constructed with premium commercial-grade components. All aspects of a design are carefully thought out including controllers, valves, head types, rain sensors, water supply constraints and landscape water requirements. Each fall we will come and winterize your system and startup your system each spring, as well as provide service for any maintenance along the way.
When we are finished with your new irrigation, worrying about watering the lawn and the flowers will be a thing of the past.
Lawn Installation
The lush green look, and cool carpet feel under your feet, and the stripes after proper mowing, these are signs of a great lawn. However, to get to this point, not all lawn installations are the same. Like any other correct project the proper planning, materials and installation methods are crucial. Black Diamond Landscapes has developed a time tested methodology that creates the picture perfect lawn each and every time.
The first step in our great lawn process is removal of that old lawn, roots, and infertile soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. After the excavation, a rough grade of the land is achieved, to conform to the correct grades and pitches to ensure proper drainage. All areas of the intended lawn are worked, whether it’s the wide open areas we can use skid-steers on or the tight corners that require hand work. There are no shot cuts to achieve a completely successful lawn.
The rebuilding of the lawn process starts with spreading 6-8 inches of a loam and compost blend. Many people ask why we use compost mixed with loam? The answer: all screened loam is what we just took off your lawn, a useless pile of infertile dirt. Only with compost does this add back a nutrient rich medium to grow the lawn we are after. Once your soil is installed, the correct seed choice is needed based on the light and traffic conditions that will exist. After the seed is spread evenly over the area, a correct amount of starter fertilizer is evenly spread and it is all raked in to the top 1 inch of soil and then rolled lightly to ensure seed and soil contact.
For some of us, patience are not our strongest attribute, thus, a sod lawn is the solution! It involves the same installation process, but without the seed, and a lot more irrigating. Sunlight requirements are also higher as sod needs at least 6-8 plus hours of direct sun a day. Sod can be the correct choice for your home or business, but careful evaluation of the site must be made prior to its installation.