New Year, New Landscape!

After spending some much appreciated time with family and friends this Christmas season, I've decided it's time to start evaluating my 2010 accomplishments, giving thanks for what I was blessed with this past year, and turning my focus to 2011.

Among other things, 2010 has given me the opportunity to spend time getting to know some of our clients. I have really enjoyed listening to some pretty creative ideas and helping to make these inspirations a reality. Here are just a few of the ideas I was able to help develop this year:

What a year for beautiful design!

In the coming year I am resolving myself to be a better blogger! I thoroughly enjoy the time I can spend exploring the inspirations of others through their own blogs, and I'm determined to provide you with the same exciting, inspiring blogging dedication right here on this site!

Here's to a very happy and prosperous 2011!

Cheers!

Got Mulch?

As this week's weather has made abundantly clear, WINTER HAS COME!

What does that mean for your landscape? It's time to mulch!

Winter is the time of year during which mulch can serve both an aesthetic and a functional purpose in your landscape. When trees have lost their leaves and flowers have died back, mulch can really make your slightly-less-exciting winter landscape look fresh and tidy.

More importantly, though, mulch serves a few important purposes in your landscape during the winter and early spring months.

Insulation: Laying a fresh dressing of mulch around your plants in early winter can help to protect their roots from winter cold and increase the chance of winter survival.

Erosion control: Winter weather often leaves areas covered in herbaceous plant material barren for a few months. This exposure of bare topsoil to winter's often windy and wet conditions increases the probability of erosion. Laying mulch in these areas can help mitigate the loss of topsoil.

Weed suppression: An annually applied layer of mulch can help to prevent the germination of weed seeds as temperatures rise in the early spring. Who doesn't welcome help with weed control?


Protect your plants and spruce up your 'scape; Spread some mulch!

the IVY league

A little eye candy for those of you who just love mossy, woodland gardens!







These fantastic stone steps are softened with moss and ivy to create a lush, calming pathway through a naturalistic garden. Lovely!






This striking combination of large-leaf hosta and variegated curly ivy creates real textural interest in a shady bed adjacent to the stone path.

How do you do that?

On September 15, Doug and Chris got to spend the day brainstorming about business and operations strategies...they came back with loads of great ideas!

The host of this fantastic event was Greenscapes, a design, build, and management company located in Raleigh, NC. (http://www.greenscapeinc.com/)Doug and Chris, along with many other Green Industry professionals, were able to visit the Greenscapes facility and learn about their production. In addition to witnessing the day-to-day operations of Greenscapes, participants were able to brainstorm together about tough industry challenges.

Many thanks to Greenscapes for promoting industry teamwork!

Backyard Entertaining Ideas

In light of this weekend's oh-so-anticipated cooler weather, we thought we'd offer some exciting ideas for some backyard entertaining with your outdoor kitchen. Enjoy!

Summer Party ideas for your

outdoor kitchen:

Harvest Party: Ask friends to bring some of the summer's bounty from their vegetable gardens (or stop by a local farmer's market!) and host a veggie grilling dinner party. Healthy and delicious!

Grill-Off: Gather family and friends and host a grilling competition to determine who has the best grill skills! Ask everyone to bring their favorite recipe and enjoy taste-testing!

Herb Cocktail Party: That pretty rosemary shrub can do more than flavor chicken dishes; search online for some tasty cocktail recipes that include herbs and have a few friends over for some Lavender Lemonade!

Summer Grilling Celebration!

Robbins Landscaping, Inc. hosted Mike Lampros of Gunther’s Gourmet
for our 2010 Grillin’ in the Garden Party!




Last Saturday we invited our clients, family, and friends from the community, to celebrate the start of summer at our 2010 open house, ‘Grillin’ in the Garden!’ While our guests enjoyed the Show Gardens, pond, and patios at our facility, Chef Mike Lampros of Gunther’s Gourmet (a longtime friend of Doug's wife, Leigh) provided grilling tips and samples of his tasty summer hors d’oeuvres! Despite the heat, our guests had a wonderful time meeting some of our other clients, tasting Chef Mike’s food, and even trying their hand at some lawn games! (Jesus, Carlos, and Tom won the mini 'corn hole' tournament! )

In addition to good food and grilling tips from Chef Mike, some great summer recipes to try at home, and a few tips for fun backyard adventures, we offered door prizes to six lucky guests! The following outdoor enthusiasts scored some great summer grilling treats to start their next outdoor event right! Robert Bryant, Mark Kirby, and Linda Auxier all received gift sets of Gunther’s Gourmet specialty salsas which can be used as marinades, dips, or even to spice up a drink. Karen Johnson and Bob and Carol Bailey won $75 gourmet meat packages from Chicago Stockyards for their next grilling adventure, and Bill Lyman won the grand prize of a $150 gourmet package from Chicago Stockyards. Happy grilling!

The Robbins Team looks forward to seeing you at the next Robbins Landscaping, Inc. Open House!

'Thank you!' to Our Military Families

Robbins Landscaping Team helps the Autry family!



Robbins Landscaping, Inc. greatly appreciates the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and their families. We recognize the depth of their contributions to our country and thus hope to offer support to individual military families with our time and expertise.

Each year Robbins Landscaping, Inc. (like many other landscaping companies across the country) works with GreenCare for Troops http://www.projectevergreen.com/gcft/ to find a local family with at least one spouse actively serving abroad. Robbins then offers that family lawn maintenance services until the serving spouse returns home in an effort to ease the burden of the spouse that is maintaining the family's home.

This year, in addition to providing routine maintenance for an actively serving family, Robbins Landscaping teamed with GreenCare for Troops to find a new family for whom we could provide a Spring clean up and some mulching and shrub care. With the help of GCFT, we found the Autry family!

Mr. Autry is currently serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army and is stationed abroad until Thanksgiving. He has been deployed before and will have been gone for nearly a year when he returns in November 2010. Mrs. Autry is at home with their three young sons. In addition to raising their family, Mrs. Autry volunteers a great deal of her time with the Family Readiness Program on base as a group leader; she organizes meetings, parties, and events to help other military families to prepare for and manage a spouse's active service.

Robbins Landscaping, Inc. wants to recognize the Autry family as a wonderful example of a selfless family who sacrifices much for our country. Many, many thanks to the Autrys!

Operation: Website Reconstruction!

After many years of dedicated service, our current website is announcing its retirement...

Though a bit bittersweet, this decision is mutually beneficial; as much as we love our folksie little site, complete with a very old photo of Doug working shirtless, we are in need of a more cutting-edge, more savvy site to better represent who we are as Robbins Landscaping, Inc.

To help us create such a site, we've joined forces with Market Hardware, a Maryland-based company that specializes in website construction. Over the next 8-10 weeks we will be working closely with Lisa, our Project Manager, to craft a site both representative of our company culture and beneficial and exciting to our clients and prospects.

Keep tabs on this project! The transformation is going to be nothing short of spectacular, and we look forward to sharing our progress with you.

Check out our old site now: www.robbinscaping.com
In a few short weeks this relic will be a mere memory!