Your plants and decorative landscaping fare pretty well under normal amounts of rainwater. However, after heavy spring and summer downpours you must take up arms and defend your property from the onslaught of too much water. Consider what might happen to a picturesque garden like this, featured by the SeattleTimes.com article:
“I’m working on getting more foliage and shrubs to make this easier,” says Simmons as she wanders through borders thick with variegated iris, peonies, blue-blooming corydalis, wisteria, lilies and roses.
She’s adding foliage plants such as lacy Japanese maples and paddle-leafed bergenias. Flower colors are knitted together by the deep purple heuchera and purple sage repeated throughout the beds. “I buy one plant, and then divide it and divide it, spreading it about,”
In the new gardens, Simmons grows espaliered apples, blueberries and lilacs transplanted from her grandmother’s garden. A leafy banana tree, blue-painted fence and several little garden sheds form a backdrop. Simmons has planted shrubs with colored foliages, including barberries, spirea and Diablo ninebark, to keep the gardens going through the seasons.
She planted yuccas, sedum, agaves, thyme, hebes and other dry-land plants, mulching them with gravel. Hot-red furniture plays off the purple barberries and red maples.
While colorful blooms are a sight to behold, they can easily be destroyed if rainwater is left to pool all over them. Unfortunately, this can happen often when leaves from surrounding trees, shrubs, and flowers as well as twigs, sticks, dirt and other debris clog the gutters of your home. To help avoid the damage and mess, check if your gutter system is working effectively. If you have not installed a gutter leaf guard, just a simple overflow from water can ruin your landscaping projects – not to mention the damage it can cause to your roof, siding, basement and house foundation.
To avoid these types of issues you need to seriously tidy up your gutters on a regular basis. Get gutter leaf guards professionally installed by Gutter Helmet® so that you won’t have to worry about your gutters again. They can install metal gutter guards to divert water without allowing build-up and you can save money that would otherwise be spent on costly landscape restoration.
(Article Excerpt from Artist’s waterfront garden blooms bold and bright, seattletimes.com)
