We love painting the interior of houses, and we’re good at it too.  If you’re looking for interior house painting services in greater Burlington, Vermont, Chittenden or Addison County, give Penny a call today at 1-802-343-6378.

We have extensive experience, excellent references, we’re neat freaks, happy people, and we love what we do.  Our schedule gets very busy as Spring clean up nears (Yes, regardless of the weather outside, Spring really is around the corner!), so call us now if you’re even thinking about an interior painting project for your home.

We’ll stop by your home so you can meet us, and we’ll give you a free painting estimate while we’re there.

Don’t procrastinate!  If you’re tired of your home – consider a “make over” with some of the new, fresh eco-friendly paint colors available.  It will save you a lot of money over buying a new house (grin), and might just be what you need to brighten your days and gain new perspective.  Don’t laugh – it can make a huge difference!

Call the best interior house painters in Vermont.    Call 1-802-343-6378.

It’s officially that time of year in Vermont, right before winter, when our lawns need some late-fall lawn care.  If you are in Addison or Chittenden Counties, here are some lawn maintenance tips we recommend.

Don’t Cut Your Lawn Too Short

If you’re planning to fertilize for the winter, it’s important that you not cut your lawn too short before it freezes.   Three inches is a good rule of thumb.  If your lawn is too long it can lead to matting with the winter snows.  Cutting the lawn too short requires the grass to put energy into repairing the tips of the grass – and those are resources that would normally be reserved for spring.  So keep your lawn around three inches, and you’ll give it the best preparation for winter.

Rake Leaves and Remove Debris

When mulched, leaves can provide a great source of nutrients for a lawn.  However, considering the plethura of trees in most Vermont yards, it’s not advisable to mulch a large amount!  Raking the leaves is advisable, especially through early to mid-November.  After that, if you subscribe to mowing your lawn once in November, and if there are only a few leaves on your lawn, let the lawnmower help with mulching them!

Remember to remove garden hoses  and other debris hanging out on your lawn.  It’s important for the lawn to get unobstructed sunlight – when the sun shines, that is.  (grin.)  Also, if you don’t want to risk having the water hose freeze, or worse yet, burst, remember to turn your outside water spouts off completely,  drain your garden hose, and store it for the winter.

Life is busy and often it’s hard to find the time to take care of these things.  If you don’t have some healthy teenagers hanging around in your home that can help with fall cleanup work, give us a call.

We’re experts at getting properties ready for the long Vermont winters.   Call 802-343-6378

Among gardeners who like to stay natural and environment friendly, a no-till policy is not uncommon.

Plowing into the soil loosening and breaking it up only helps with soil erosion, helping the rain and the wind blow off topsoil, and of course helping the rain drain off pesticides into the ground. But over the last couple of years, it has become increasingly difficult to keep this commitment. They’ve called in the tilling machines to rip up the soil, and to mix in herbicides. They’ve had enough of terribly stubborn weeds that seem tosuffocate every other garden plant around. They are the new scourge of the gardening enthusiast, the gardening problem to end all gardening problems – they are the superweeds – yes even here in Vermont.

It’s the same thing that has happened with people and bacteria. People have been recklessly popping pills for decades now and bacteria and other organisms have just become used to them; health documentaries on the Discovery Channel can’t stop trumpeting how the future will just about be all about battling tenacious super germs that will just laugh at all standard drugs you could throw at them.  In the same way, gardeners across the country are beginning to battle gardening problems that come from super weeds – with the use of super toxic herbicides. When they can, they’ll try to rip the weeds out by hand – but it often just takes too much time and effort.

One of the best ways to stay ahead of the game is indeed to keep your gardens and beds free of weeds from the very beginning.   Many of these  new weeds – horseweed and ragweed – have spread from the large-scale farms to our backyards, to our gardens – for supersize industrial scale gardening problems for all of us.

Most people simply are not willing to keep up with the work required to do this by hand. If you are organically minded, or at least lean toward being environmentally friendly, you might be surprised at just how reasonable it can be to hire someone to take care of weeding for you.

Purple and Sage is a locally owned company, and we pride ourselves on both our quality and reasonable prices.  Call us – we’ll give you a free estimate on your project whether it’s a one-time job or a continuous maintenance project.

Often our clients tell us that one of the most confusing aspects of lawn care is whether or not to water their lawn – and WHEN!   Should you water your lawn or not?  Is it best to water in the morning, mid-day or evening?  It seems that everyone has their own opinion.

Here’s what we believe is best, based on our research.

Water your lawn early in the day, if at all possible.  It’s best to water in the morning, when lawns are normally wet from dew.  Avoid midday watering because most of the water will simply evaporate rather than provide enough moisture for the lawn.

The theory with night watering is that the potential chance of some diseases gaining a foothold in your lawn is increased. The exception to this is when the weather is extremely hot, and nighttime temps don’t go below 68 degrees. In this scenario, it’s actually better to water in the late afternoon or early evening.

To recap, early or late in the day reduces the amount of evaporation that takes place during the very hot day, allowing more water to reach the root zone.

It’s not to allow a lawn to become somewhat dormant due to dryer conditions, however, if your lawn begins to turn brown or dry out excessively, it makes perfect sense to water it as noted above.

Be careful not to over-water your lawn.  The roots will not grow deeply and your lawn then becomes more susceptible to crab grass and other weeds.

As with most things, balance is good!  =)

If you need help with your lawn, call us for a free consultation.  Cell: 802-343-6378

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One of the most common problems faced by gardeners in Vermont and other states is slugs and snails.

Even experienced gardeners tear their collective hair out at the destruction these creatures can cause!  We’ve pulled together a few tried and tested tips to help you deal with them.  You may not get rid of them all together, but we think these tips will at least help you keep them under control.

To some degree, whether or not our tips work depends on just how bad the slug and snail problem is where you live.  Here’s a quick list.

Traps:

Beer traps – yes, we said Beer traps!  They can be very effective at dealing with both slugs and snails, and you can typically buy them at a garden center.

Place the trap, filled with cheap beer, in a hole with the top at soil level.  If you don’t have beer, you can also use out of date fruit juice, or even milk that’s just about to turn.

Another option if you can’t find the traps is to use grapefruit.  After eating half grapefruit, cut a small hole and place the skin upside down on the soil. Slugs love it and will congregate inside.  Each day you can collect them.

Collect all the slugs and snails you can find in the late evening, when they start to become active and drown them in a bucket of heavily salted water. Plain water will not work – they will simply swim to the surface and crawl out! Or, if you know where they hide out, you can gather them up during the day – try looking under logs or bricks, and shrubs, any dark, damp corner.

And what to do with the slugs you’ve collected? If you put live slugs or snails into your compost heap, they will probably stay there, as there is plenty of matter for them to feast on. You can also put the dead ones in there too, those in the beer traps including the beer – but scoop the dead slugs and snails out of the salty water first.

The next option is Barriers:

Barriers will be more effective against snails than slugs, as slugs live in the ground and can avoid the barriers.

On your garden borders, you can use barriers around plants, such as crushed eggshells, grit, bran, or wood-ash or soot. The theory is that slugs and snails are reluctant to cross these materials and will therefore wander off elsewhere to look for their next meal. Make sure you put plenty down without any gaps.

Scatter oat bran around your plants – slugs love it, but if they eat enough, they will actually expand and die.

Petroleum jelly smeared thickly around the rims of pots also has a similar deterrent effect.

You can purchase copper tape with an adhesive backing, which you can stick around the pot sides – this gives the snail a small electric shock as it tries to cross.

Last but not least, we’ll cover Predators:

For a biological control, you can use nematodes – microscopic parasites that kill the slugs above and below ground. Obtained from organic garden suppliers, you simply mix the powder with water and spray on to the soil using a watering can. This can be effective for around six weeks.

If you live in an area that allows it, and if you have the space, adopt some chickens or ducks – they just love eating slugs – and you can have some free eggs into the bargain.

If you would rather that Nature take it’s course, make your garden wildlife friendly, to encourage the natural predators of slugs and snails to come and visit.

Dig a pond to encourage frogs and toads; leave out food for hedgehogs; and put up bird feeders. This will not provide an ‘instant fix’ for the problem, but in the long term will give you a healthier garden with fewer pests.

Here’s to a snail and slug free (or hopefully at least controlled) Vermont yard and garden.

Penny and Julie

www.PurpleandSage.com

The Seasons wreak havoc on a home’s exterior, especially in Vermont.  Our winters can be long and hard.

In fact, on average, Americans spend over $4.8 billion annually on maintenance services.

Spring is the ideal time for homeowners to schedule the repainting of their homes. The exterior of your home is the first impression you give the outside world and a good paint job is critical to your home’s appearance and longevity.

Following are some tips on painting the exterior of your home, with a few ideas tossed ion to make your (or our) job easier.

• First, thoroughly evaluate the condition of your house. Look for bare metal, wood, or masonry surfaces. This will be evidenced by worn paint, and you need a new coat.  Or, it’s possible that you have other problems such as moisture, that a professional painter can assess for you.

• Second, use a cleaning solution to remove dirt on siding. Scrub it well and rinse thoroughly.

• If you’re going to repaint your house, make sure it’s prepared well. Some loose paint is obvious, some is hard to find by just looking at it.  It pays to be thorough.

• Don’t scrimp here – buy the best paint possible for the exterior of a house! A high quality paint will withstand the harsh elements better than a cheaper brand.  In the long run, it may actually save you money. The same goes for brushes and rollers.

• If it’s a bright day, try to paint the shaded areas first. Painting in the sun can cause the paint to dry too fast and blister.  (That’s not typically something we have to worry about here in Vermont.  Heh Heh!)

• When painting, brush first, then roll, and finally, paint the trim last.

We hope this helps!  If it seems daunting, it doesn’t have to be.  Call Purple and Sage for a free estimate!

If you need someone to watch your home while you’re away for the weekend, a week, or even an entire season, give us a call for a free Home Watch estimate.  We cover Addison and Chittenden Counties in Vermont (or anything along the border of these Counties).

Here’s a video outlining our Home Watch services:

If you need someone to take care of your property while you’re away, give us a call.  We have amazing references, we’re insured, and reliable.  We’ll treat your place with the same consideration and concern that we treat our own.

Head out on your trip with peace of mind knowing that Purple and Sage is here to take care of general maintenance, mail, lawn care, safety checks, and so much more.  If you need specialized service – just ask!

Call us today.  802-343-6378

Continuing with our article about Landscape Design for Vermonters (if you missed part one, you can read it here: Landscape Design Vermont) next we’ll cover Balance and Color.

Balance in design is also about Equality. There are two basic types of balance in landscape design, Symmetrical and Asymmetrical.

Symmetrical balance is, as you’ve probably guessed, all about keeping things more or less equally spaced and matching elements of your garden design. When a garden is equally divided, both sides could share the same shape, form, plant height, plant groupings, colors, bed shapes, theme, etc. Symmetrical balance or design is somewhat of a mirror image or reflection.

Asymmetrical balance on the other hand, is a little more complex. While textures, forms, colors, etc. may remain constant to create some unity – shapes and hardscapes may be more random. A good example of this would be where bed shapes or paths actually differ on both sides of the dividing line. One side might be curvy with a sense of flow while the other side is straight, direct, and hard.

This can create a very interesting contrast. Flowing lines are pleasing to the eye but the bold contrast of a curve with a straight line can be very focused.

Another way to achieve Asymmetrical balance might be to have one side of the garden mostly large shade trees while the other side is predominately a lower growing flower garden or even a mix of both examples.

Ultimately, you’re only limited by your imagination.

Color adds an amazing dimension of real life and interest to landscape design.

Bright colors like reds, yellows and oranges almost seem to advance toward you and can actually make an object seem closer. Cool colors like greens, blues, and pastels seem to move away from you and can make an object seem farther away.

Grays, blacks, and whites are considered neutral colors and are best used in the background with bright colors in the foreground.

To increase depth in a landscape, you can use dark and coarse textured plants in the foreground and use fine textured and light colored plants in the background.

Colors can also be used to direct your attention to a specific area of the garden. A bright display among cooler colors would naturally catch the eye.

If you don’t like radical or abrupt changes in your landscape, natural transition can be applied. An example of natural transition would be a stair-step effect from large trees to medium trees to shrubs to bedding plants.

Also, give special consideration to proper plant selection to avoid using plants that are out of proportion.

Repetition is directly related to unity. It’s good to have a variety of elements and forms in the garden – repeating these elements gives variety expression. Too many unrelated objects can make the garden look cluttered and unplanned.

There’s a fine line here. It’s possible that too much of one element can make a garden or landscape feel uninteresting, boring and monotonous. So consider using several different elements repeatedly.

This keeps the garden interesting!  Most importantly, have fun!

Penny and Julie

Whether you plan on “borrowing ideas” or want to create your own landscaping design, having a basic understanding of the principles of landscape design can save you a lot of time down the road.

This doesn’t mean that you have to apply every principle we talk about here into  your plan.  Yet having an understanding of these principles will hopefully help with idea generation and maybe even increase your creativity!

Great landscaping is a very individual thing.

Today we’ll give you two key principles of landscape design that you can  follow, but we don’t want you to think that they are “cast in stone” or “have to rules” of landscaping.   What it’s really all about is creating something that you will love and that will create something that makes you happy.

1. Unity. It’s a core principle in landscape design.  You can also think of it as repetition and consistency. Repetition creates unity by repeating like or similar elements – like plants, plant groups, or decor throughout the landscape.  Consistency creates unity in the sense that the different elements of the landscape fit together to create an overall design and feel in line with your master plan.  You can achieve Unity with the elements of design; height, size, color schemes, textures, etc.
2. Simplicity is another principle that’s very popular today, both in philosophy and in scope. It’s one of the best guidelines you can follow as a beginner or DIY landscaper.  Keep things simple. You can always do more later.  An example of simplicity in planting is to pick 2 or 3 colors and repeat them throughout your design.

   Keeping your decor to a minimum and staying with a specific theme will help keep you overall design simple.

   Keeping hardscapes, such as boulders or rock walls consistent, is also a key method of implementing simplicity in your landscape design.

In our next post, we’ll talk about two additional principles of landscape design, and how to bring it all together to create the look and feel of a yard you’ll enjoy for years to come.

If this seems overwhelming, or your just not confident you can pull it together, give us a call for a free estimate.  Our experience and love for landscaping translates through to the work we do for our clients.

Penny and Julie

How many times have you left for the weekend or on vacation and wondered…

• Did I turn that light off?
• Did I remember to unplug the small appliances?
• Did I remember to lock the windows and doors?
• Did the storm do damage to our property?
• Did I remember to…

We’ve wondered this more times than we can count.

If you can relate to the above, and you live in Chittenden or Addison Counties, Vermont, Purple and Sage Property Management offers Home Watch Services just for you!  It doesn’t matter how long you’re planning to be away, if you’re looking for peace of mind and need someone to keep a close eye on your home or property, give us a call.

We offer professional, convenient and affordable home watch services and rates.  Here’s a quick list of what we’ll do (and if you need something you don’t see here, “just ask” us about it.)

• Storm Damage
• Vandalism
• Flooding
• Moisture Problems
• Plumbing Failures
• Pest Invasion
• Appliance Check
• Mail and/or newspaper pick up
• Frozen/Broken Pipes
• Tripped Breakers
• Function of Air Conditioner
• Function of Furnace
• Doors/Windows Locked
• Lawn maintenance and landscape services

Our Home Watch Service can be set up for weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly visits, and we also provide seasonal home opening & closing services.

We are committed to your peace of mind.  We are reliable, trustworthy, and can provide numerous references.

Call us today for a free Home Watch estimate.  802-343-6378