Natural Bed Edging

Edging along planting beds defines the transition from lawn to planting bed with an aesthetically pleasing divider, whether that be a physical border material or a natural edge. Natural bed edging, or Victorian Edge, is a bed edge divider that requires no materials to be installed, just a clean earthen trench. Natural bed edging is done in two ways: hand done with a shovel, or done mechanically with an edging machine. With skilled workers, both methods will result in the same end product and look.  Unlike a brick or vinyl edging, natural bed edging is not a permanent “one time” installation. Natural bed edging lasts for several  months to a full season, depending on rain fall, soil type and depth of trench installed. We recommend a minimum of an annual refreshing of the beds, and for a more manicured look, we suggest spring and fall.

To install a natural bed edging our crew uses either an edging machine or straight faced “spade” shovel, hence the popular term Spade edge. Once a bed line has been determined, the crewman will cut a vertical 90 degree edge into the turf just along the turf edge, about 3-4” deep. Then a back cut is made with a horizontal shovel, at a 45 degree angle to meet the bottom of the first cut. The crew then disposes of the soil wedge and rakes the trench smooth.  This will produce a clean beveled look to the trench and a mounded look to the planting bed, especially if mulch is installed after the bed edge.

If you are considering having your beds spade edged, please let us know of any know TV cables, invisible dog fencing, landscape lighting wires, and irrigation pipes by marking them with paint or a flag. Underground locating companies do not 

mark for all of these types of buried wires, so we cannot predict where they will be. We can repair low voltage lighting, TV cable, and irrigation pipe, but we do not repair dog fencing wire. If you are concerned about where your cables are buried, which is a handy thing to know, the number for the underground locating companies are as follows:

Illinois  

Indiana

There are many different bed edging materials that can be installed instead of a Natural or Spade edge. This link will take you to our page on other bed edging materials and choices.

Natural bed edging is a great clean look for both formal and natural style landscape, especially in areas with a healthy stand of grass. 

Defined bed edges not only can transform the look of your lawn, but keep grass from growing into the mulch, and keeps the mulch in place in the beds. Spade edge beds also offer an easy job for the person mowing the lawn by reducing the need to string trim along the edge.

Cultivating

Cultivating bare soil is another service that is commonly done when spade edging beds. Cultivating the bare soil is a service we offer, but do not recommend in most cases. Please call our office for more information on cultivating bare soil. 

Gutter Cleaning Service

Since 1984, Suburban Landscaping has been offering our professional gutter cleaning services to commercial, residential, condominium and townhome clients. Gutter cleaning is often the most over-looked part of outdoor maintenance. Leaves, branches, nuts, seed pods, and other tree debris often collects in your gutters and needs to be removed to prevent potential damage to your home.

Unlike most handy-man services, our seasoned, experienced crews are trained in ladder, bucket truck, and roof safety and we are fully insured, including workman’s compensation insurance. Suburban Landscaping also guarantees all of our work including our gutter cleaning service. If you are not satisfied with our work, we will return and address any concerns.

We offer our gutter cleaning service to the following types of properties (up to 3 stories):

• Single Family Homes
• Condominiums
• Townhomes
• Commercial Buildings

Why Do I Need To Clean My Gutters?

With just a normal 1”rainfall, the gutters on a 2,000 square foot roof can collect over 1,200 gallons of water, which in cleaned gutters will drain to the appropriate areas of your landscape. When gutters are clogged, the water over-flows the gutter and lands at the foundation to your home, causing potential drainage issues and erosion problems.

Additionally, standing water and saturated debris in your gutters can weigh as much as 350 pounds, which can damage the gutters, soffit, and fascia of your home or building. Over time, this weight also can change the pitch of your gutters, preventing them from draining correctly in the future and requiring what could be costly repairs.

Rain water landing at your foundation can also seep down and be collected by your sump pump, which will cost electricity (therefore money) to pump up and out to the yard. In shady areas, rainwater can also splash onto your house and cause molding, a different problem all together.

Other reasons to clean your gutters:

• Soffit & fascia damage
• Gutter damage
• Erosion of the soil around your foundation
• Water in the basement or crawlspace
• Drainage issues
• Water damage inside your home
• Debris and water marks on the outside of your home

What Does Gutter Cleaning Include?

Our standard service includes removing and disposing of the gutter debris by hand or blower, blowing the downspouts clean, and removal of any debris from edge of the roof adjacent to the gutter. Also included in the service is the clean up of any blow-over or spilled-over debris that falls to the ground. Additionally, during the cleaning if a crewman notices any damage on the roof or gutters, they will notate this on the doorknob hanger they leave on your front door when they are done.

We can also offer the option to wash down the inside of your gutters, with either a hose or power washer. Most often this service is not needed, but can be useful depending upon your trees and debris situation. This service is an additional charge upon your request.

Do I Need To Be Home?

No. You do not need to be home during our service visit unless you would like to be. Our crews work regular business hours while most clients are at work. However, we do need access to your entire yard, so please unlock any gates prior to our arrival.

What Does Gutter Cleaning Cost?

Our basic gutter cleaning service can be as low as $95. However, there are many variables to consider, which is why an estimate is the best way to get a price for gutter cleaning. To request an estimate, please call our office or request a quote online 24 hours a day.

Here are some of the variables that could effect your gutter cleaning price:

• The number of gutters you have
• The amount of debris that could be in your gutters
• If you have screens on your gutters
• The height of your gutters
• The pitch of your roof
• If the water & debris are frozen in your gutters
• The type of gutters you have

Gutter Cleaning Pricing Examples:

If you have a typical 1,200 SF ranch home with front and back gutters, the price should be $95.

If you have a 5,000 SF multi-level home with a steep pitch and gutters on every level, the price could be $270.

If you are in a townhome, with many buildings in your association, your price would be based upon $95 per hour for a two man service crew.

When Do You Start And Stop Cleaning Gutters?

We can clean you gutters in the spring or fall, with service starting as of March 15^th and ending on November 30^th. We can clean your gutters before and after those dates, but there may be an increase in the price.

Things To Consider:

• We are fully Insured
• We have an A+ Rating with the Better Business Bureau
• We have been in business since 1984
• We guarantee all of our work

Do-It-Yourself Gutter Cleaning:

For the willing and able, here are some tips for doing gutter cleaning yourself, which we do not recommend for safety reasons.

• Never place your ladder on asphalt
• Do not try and clean gutters on dew-covered or wet days
• Consider buying a leaf-blower attachment for cleaning gutters. This tube allows you to clean your gutters from the ground.
• Make sure your ladder has rubber feet, and always attach the ladder to the gutter or roof line
• Buy a “gutter scoop” for about $3 to clean the gutters easier
• Attach a 5 gallon bucket (available at Home Depot) to the ladder for debris. This is about as much debris as you want to handle while you navigate the ladder. Empty the 5 gallon bucket when you are on the ground. We use a bungee cord to attach the bucket to the ladder.
• If you are going to walk on your roof, use a small blower and blow the leaves out of the gutters, then clean them up on the ground.
• Working on the edge of a roof is risky, and can be intimidating so be careful. This is not something to assume is easy or danger-free.

Other Gutter Cleaning Tips

Gutter cleaning is not just spring and fall. There are many trees, including some Maples, Oaks and Beech that hang on to their leaves well past fall and into the winter. This leaf-retention process is called Marcescence. This means that there may be a need to clean your gutters more than twice a year, depending upon your tree types.

Hand Weeding Of Beds

A very popular service offered by Suburban Landscaping is the hand weeding of beds. This laborious task is handled by our dedicated crews on a monthly basis or just whenever you call in. Included in the service is the removal and proper disposal of all the generated debris.

Weeds are typically a minor concern in established landscapes where the shrubs and ground covers have filled in and can “shade out” all but the most persistent weeds. However, bare soil beds and mulch beds can often become littered with annual and perennial weeds in a rather short timeframe. Once the roots develop into the soil below the mulch, then weeds can become a much larger problem.

Weed Basics

There are basically two kinds of weeds;

 Annual Weeds:

The annual weed seeds blow into your beds, start growing, send out new seeds to create new weeds, and then die at the first frost. Here are a few examples of annual weeds:

• Dandelion
• Plantain
• Chickweed
• Ragweed
• Spurge
• Purslane
• Black Medic

Perennial Weeds:

The perennial weed usually has a root system or runner that lives throughout the winter. These weeds are the most resilient and the hardest to eradicate.

• Thistle
• Evening Primrose
• Buttercup
• Prickly Lettuce
• Mallow
• Wild Violet

In these two general groups of weeds are also the sub-groups called Grassy Weeds and Broadleaf Weeds. Most of the above lists are broadleaf weeds, which are the most noticeable in the lawn and landscape. Grassy weeds in the lawn can sometime go un-noticed because they blend in so well. Below are a list of common grassy weeds in the Chicago area:

• Crabgrass
• GooseGrass
• Yellow Foxtail
• Barnyardgrass
• Yellow Nutsedge

Residential/Small Commercial Weeding Service

Our weeding service can be tailored to your specifications, or can be performed upon request. Our most popular service is our monthly weeding service, which is a monthly visit by our trained crews to pull weeds at your property once a month. Monthly weeding of the beds is typically sufficient to keep weeds at bay, and yet doesn’t break-the-bank. Our weeding crews service all types of clients, including residential, commercial, and multifamily.

The standard monthly weeding service for your beds includes the following:

• Monthly Visit
• Hand pull larger weeds
• Spray small weeds
• Hand pull any weed growing inside a shrub
• Hand pull tree saplings
• Spray gravel/utility areas
• Pull expired perennial tops (late summer)

Large Commercial/Multifamily Weeding Service

Larger properties can spend a fortune maintaining weed free planting beds, especially if the property has depleted mulch, bare soil, or cracked plastic weed barriers. For these properties, chemical weed control is often the best solution. It starts with a pre-emergent application to provide an invisible chemical barrier against weed seed germination. Then followed my monthly or bi-monthly herbicide applications. With this program some manual hand weed pulling may still be needed in and around the landscape shrubs and perennials.

How To Avoid Weeds

The best way to avoid weeds growing in your landscape beds is to use a “weed barrier”, which blocks the weed roots from getting to the soil underneath. A weed barrier can be many different things, but the most common are Mulch and a fabic/plastic underneath bedding stone. Weeds have a hard time growing in either type of bed, but anything is better at preventing weeds than bare soil. The bottom-line for weed prevention is to not have bare soil or allow weeds access to it. Visit our Mulch page for more information on mulching your beds.

What Does Hand Weeding Of Beds Cost?

All weeding is done by the Man-Hour at a rate of $30 per hour. Typically our crews consist of three or four trained women equipped with a variety of tools to do the job in the most expedient manner. For accuracy in billing, all of our trucks are equipped with live-time GPS so we can monitor the crews time on your property.