Landscaping glossary
The terms you will hear from a landscaper, in plain language. What each one means, and where it matters on Cape Cod.
Lawn care
The words that come up most often about the grass itself, from how it is cut to why it goes brown in August.
- How tall the grass is left standing after a cut. A taller cut shades the soil and supports deeper roots, which matters on sandy ground that dries quickly.Lawn Care & MowingWhy Professional Mowing Protects Your Lawn All Season
- Cutting far too low in one pass, so the stems and soil are exposed. The lawn browns off, and the bare ground it leaves is where weeds start.Lawn Care & Mowing
- Leaving the clippings on the lawn as you mow instead of bagging them, so they break down and return to the soil.Lawn Care & Mowing
- Grass turning brown and stopping growth to survive heat or drought. It is protecting itself rather than dying, and it greens up again when the weather turns.How Cape Cod’s Coastal Weather Affects Your Lawn Year-Round and What Homeowners Can Do About It
- The layer of dead stems and roots that collects between the green grass and the soil. A thin layer is normal and useful. A thick one sheds water and hides pests.
- Raking that thatch layer out, by hand or by machine, once it has built up deep enough to keep water from reaching the soil.
- Pulling small plugs of soil out of the lawn so air, water and roots can move through compacted ground. The plugs are left to break down on the surface.Aeration With Results: How Pros Turn Thin Lawns Into Thick Ones
- Sowing fresh seed into a lawn that already exists, to thicken it, rather than stripping it and starting again.The Best Grass Types for Cape Cod’s Climate and What Actually Survives the Salt Wind and Temperature Swings
- Spreading a thin, even layer of compost or soil across a lawn, usually straight after aerating or seeding so it works into the holes.
Mulch and beds
Mulch does more than finish a bed. These are the terms that decide whether it helps the plants or works against them.
- A layer of material spread over the soil in a bed. It holds moisture in, evens out soil temperature and slows the weeds that would otherwise take the open ground.Mulch InstallationProfessional Mulching That Looks Good and Lasts
- Mulch made from shredded or ground bark. It knits together as it settles, which helps it stay put on a slope.Mulch Installation
- Chipped branches and wood, coarser than bark mulch. It breaks down more slowly and looks less uniform.
- How deep the layer is laid. Too thin and weeds push straight through it. Too deep and water struggles to reach the roots underneath.Mulch Installation
- Piling mulch into a cone against a trunk or stem. It traps moisture against bark that is not built to stay wet, and it is the most common mulching mistake there is.Professional Mulching That Looks Good and Lasts
- A woven sheet laid under mulch or stone to slow weeds coming up from below. Weeds still root in the mulch and soil that collect on top of it over time.Weeding & Weed Removal
Edging
Four ways to hold the line between a bed and the lawn, from a cut in the soil to a permanent border.
- A V-shaped trench cut along the bed line, by hand or with a machine. No material is installed: the shape of the cut is what holds the mulch back and stops the grass creeping in.Landscape Edging
- A thin metal strip set along the bed line. It holds a crisp line and handles frost movement better than plastic does.Landscape Edging
- A flexible strip with a rolled top edge, pinned into the soil. It is the cheapest option and the most likely to lift over a few winters.Landscape Edging
- Brick, block or stone set along the bed as a permanent border. It is the most work to install and the longest lasting.Landscape Edging
Pruning and trimming
Where the cut is made decides how the plant responds. These are the cuts, and what each one is for.
- Cutting a hedge back to an even surface with shears. It is what gives a formal hedge its shape, and it works on plants that put out dense growth from the outer layer.Hedge & Bush TrimmingHedge Trimming That Stays Straight
- Cutting a stem back to a bud. The plant responds by branching out below the cut, so the growth gets denser.Pruning For Health and Bloom
- Removing a whole stem back to where it started. It opens the plant to light and air without making it bushier, which is the opposite of what a heading cut does.Pruning For Health and Bloom
- Taking off spent flowers so the plant puts its energy into growth rather than into setting seed.
- Removing the oldest stems a few at a time across several seasons, so an overgrown shrub rebuilds itself without being cut to the ground in one go.Hedge & Bush Trimming
- Fast, straight shoots from the base of a plant or from along its branches. They crowd the growth you want and are usually taken out.Hedge & Bush Trimming
Planting
What you are actually buying when you buy a shrub, and the one measurement that decides whether it thrives.
- The roots and the soil holding them together that come with a plant when it is lifted and moved.Shrub & Bush Planting
- A plant grown in a field, then dug with its root ball wrapped in burlap. Usually larger and heavier than the same plant in a pot.Shrub & Bush Planting
- A plant raised in a pot. The roots can circle the inside of the pot, and they are loosened at planting so they grow outward instead of strangling the plant.Shrub & Bush Planting
- The point where the trunk widens out into the roots. It belongs at or just above the soil line. Buried too deep is one of the main reasons a new shrub fails.Shrub & Bush Planting
- The built parts of a landscape: walls, patios, walkways and steps.
- The living parts: the lawn, the beds, the shrubs and the trees.Residential Landscaping
Growing on Cape Cod
Three conditions that change how everything above applies here rather than inland.
- Soil that drains fast and holds less water and less nutrient than heavier ground. It dries out quickly in July and August, so grass does better cut a little higher and watered deeply rather than daily.How Cape Cod’s Coastal Weather Affects Your Lawn Year-Round and What Homeowners Can Do About It
- Salt carried inland on the wind off the water. It burns the foliage of plants that cannot handle it, which is why exposure decides what gets planted where.The Best Grass Types for Cape Cod’s Climate and What Actually Survives the Salt Wind and Temperature Swings
- A local rule limiting when fertilizer may be applied, written to keep nitrogen out of groundwater and ponds. Several Cape towns have one, and the dates differ from town to town.
Fertilizer rules are set town by town, and the dates are not the same across the Cape. See the rules for each town we work in.
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