By Neat & Tidy Landscaping
Guides to common plants, weeds, invasive species, identification, removal, and control, with practical advice for Seattle and Pacific Northwest yards and landscapes.
Customers often ask me what tools we use to remove English ivy. The answer is surprisingly simple. We use hedge trimmers, loppers, grub hoes, rakes, and buckets. You can buy these tools yourself. The harder part is knowing how to use them together—and having the patience to keep going until the job is done. We … Read more
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. That’s true of a lot of invasive plants. You start recognizing blackberry, ivy, and bamboo everywhere. Then one day you learn what Japanese knotweed looks like, and suddenly you notice it along roads, near waterways, and in people’s yards. I see knotweed on properties around Seattle fairly … Read more
Here’s the secret to low-cost yard maintenance: get a string trimmer and use it regularly. A weed whacker, whatever you want to call it. If your main job is cutting back grass and soft vegetation, that one tool can take you a long way. For homeowners, I recommend the EGO POWER+ Multi-Head System. Get the … Read more
Ivy removal is a pretty straightforward process. You pull the vines, dig out the rooted sections, rake up the debris, and keep going. There’s no mystery to it. The question is whether you want to spend your weekend doing it. Think about moving furniture. You can rent a truck, load everything, drive to the new … Read more
I’ve seen this before, and I’ll see it again. A homeowner wants bamboo removed. They start searching online, read a few articles, and try to figure out whether they can do it themselves, how much a contractor will charge, and why the quotes are so high. If you’re still at the stage of deciding whether … Read more
If you want to save money on an invasive plant removal project, the basic principle is simple: control what you’re asking the crew to do. It works like any other service. If you order more, you pay more. If you order less, you pay less. But with blackberry, ivy, and bamboo, you need to know … Read more
Lawn improvement is straightforward work for us, but the right approach depends on the yard. A thin lawn with patches of healthy grass is a different project from a lawn that needs to be removed and rebuilt. That difference matters when you’re comparing quotes. One job might involve mowing, dethatching or aerating, adding soil where … Read more
We see this around Seattle greenbelts, alleys, and other public land. A homeowner clears the blackberry along their fence, and a few months later, canes are coming through again. The visible growth may be on your property, but the main patch could be on land next door. Start by checking who owns that land. An … Read more
On just about every bamboo job we look at, there are two areas: the main stand of bamboo and the runners spreading away from it. Sometimes our customer owns the main stand, and the bamboo is moving into the neighbor’s yard. Other times, the neighbor owns it, and our customer is dealing with shoots coming … Read more
Don’t Forget the Yard When You’re Calculating What a Fixer-Upper Will Really Cost You’ve found a house you like. The neighborhood works. The schools work. The commute works. The house needs some updating, but that’s part of the opportunity. Maybe the kitchen needs $20,000. The bathroom needs work. The roof has a few years left. … Read more