Hello Current Clients of Contessa

I hope you are all reaching a point of spring expectation. I think by April we will be able to schedule initial visits. Checking out what survived and what is doing well, and setting up semi-solid appointments to begin some real spring tidy and preliminary gardening. Weather is always our definitive.

This year I am requesting that everyone purchase the products that I will need to tend your gardens. In many cases you will receive more adequate and fair pricing, if you will order these items yourself. Amazon has most of the items. This will facilitate my efforts a great deal, as going to purchase, transport and choose is just more efficient if you order online. If you need assistance however, I’m happy to consult with you.

The products I have listed are certainly universal to all of you. If you feel you don’t need a product please send me a txt msg and we can discuss.

I am very much looking forward to planting, carrying for and transitioning your yards back to spring/summer beauty.

If you wish to subscribe again this year to our ongoing “maintenance” program from June through the end of November…our plan will increase this year to $200/month. Please let me know as soon as you can as I have a couple folks on a waiting list. I want to serve everyone well. Same consistent care of your yards, but at $5.00 a day last year, it really was an overwhelming amount of work, and so this year we are raising our fee to compensate. It will now come to roughly $7/day. Very fair we believe. Our hourly “job rate” will remain at $50/hour for 2023/this year. Next year it will increase to $60/hour.  We feel that letting you know now….is very important.

So here are the products we need all of you to purchase prior to our arrival. Questions? Certainly phone us. We are happy to discuss.

AMAZON
Visit the Aqua Joe Store

4.6 out of 5 stars28,829Reviews

Aqua Joe SJI-OMS16 Indestructible Metal Base Oscillating Sprinkler with Adjustable Spray, 3600-Square Foot Coverage

#1 Best Seller in Lawn & Garden Sprinklers

Please order (2) bags

2/5 pks at $2.76 each

$10 to $12  (1 bottle)

Please order (2)

(Fertilizer Wand – Please order/purchase 2/one for spring and one for fall)

Fertilizer for hydrangeas – to acidify and maintain “blue” blossoms with a nitrogen supplement  (1 bag) Approx $20

••••••••••••

We look forward to a great season and to seeing you all again very soon. If you wish to go to the nursery with us, let us consider new plant selections in May. That is the recommended and common planting protocol in Virginia.

Happy Spring to all…….!

Penny

The Garden Contessa

Ms Peggy’s Garden – Spring Tidy (REVISED ) – Tues Evening – 3/7 – 6 pm

Today we visited Ms Peggy’s garden. She is now over 90  and so we take care of her….and her lovely spot. She is as neat as a pin and from May 1 through late October you will find her outdoors sitting in her lawn chair and visiting with all her neighbors as they pass by….. and of course all the dogs. Ms Peggy loves pets.

The gardening project that we completed last week…that will  soon go up for sale, was a referral from Ms Peggy to the real estate agent who contacted us. As a thank you gesture, we are going to take care of her spring tidy. We started today and will return tomorrow. Upon completion, we will take video and add to this post upon completion.

For us….being outdoors is our best act, so in the grand scheme of life,  Ms. Peggy is paying us…:by needing some work done in her lovely little yard. It’s a very good thing to do. More tomorrow………

“CONTESSA”

REVISED – Tues Evening – 3/7 – 6 pm 

52 degrees at Noon with a very brisk 24 mph wind, so we completed our tidy up; to include weeding, and edging all the beds. Prep for laying a fresh coat of hardwood bark mulch. Our homeowner was out for the day so we just proceeded to cut back late fall dried growth and remove any old mulch that was full of dead leaves. An invasive weed with tiny white blossoms was growing along the brick edging of the bed, and back up against the brick wall in the bed, so we removed all of them. Because of the brisk wind we elected to return tomorrow to lay the mulch and finish up. It’s looking tidy and fresh.

Today’s Video…..

 

The Garden Contessa – New Business Cards

Heads Up…….all gardening patrons…..

We received new business cards on Saturday. Please make a note of our “change of mailing address.”

Starting this month (March, 2023) we are now advertising in the Parkfairfax and the Fairlington Newsletters. Both publications come out within the first week of each month. We hope you will be pleased we are broadening our reach.
Please do look for us.

” Contessa” says……it’s a very good thing!

THE GARDEN MUSEUM, the U.K.

A Q&A with garden designer Sean Pritchard Ahead of his talk with fellow gardeners Jo Thompson and Steve Lannin on 14 March, we spoke with Somerset-based Sean Pritchard to find out how he got started in garden design, where he finds inspiration and his favourite garden to visit:When did you realise you wanted to pursue a career in garden design? I suppose, quite organically, I grew into a garden design career off the back of a love of plants and how they are displayed. What drives me is a sense of telling stories with plants and creating little moments of tension that elevate outdoor spaces into dramatic performances – almost like a set designer might, only I’m working with nature. I consider myself to have the best job in the world and I wake up every day feeling very lucky to be doing what I do. You’re now an RHS medal winning garden designer. What did that career journey look like to get from studying to where you are now? I studied at the Garden Design School in Bristol under the brilliant Robin Templar-Williams, which gave me a solid foundation in design principles and the construction of gardens. Of course, nothing quite compares to getting out into the world and trying it for yourself, so since then I’ve been developing my style and ways of working with clients – it’s constant learning and exploration, every day… Keep reading Talk | Instagarden: Social Media’s Impact on Gardens and Gardening Thanks to social media we can visit beautiful gardens all over the world and learn from gardening experts all from the comfort of our phones. The ways we find inspiration have changed, but is the experience of visiting a garden in-person irreplaceable? What can some of our favourite garden-insta follows tell us about social media’s power and influence? We’re exploring the online garden world in this talk with garden designer Jo Thompson, garden designer and writer Sean Pritchard, and Iford Manor Head Gardener Steve Lannin. Tues 14 March, 7pm – join us in person, or fittingly, watch online! £15 Standard, £10 Friends / Young Fronds £10 Livestream Book tickets The Wild Escape: Easter Holidays Family Workshops There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden… what else can we find outside? Join us to create paper garden flowers, plants and creatures inspired by the wildlife we find in our gardens. These will be displayed as part of a collaborative artwork for Earth Day on 22 April, and the display will be up until the end of May. Using paper, collage, paint and glue, we will explore and create flowers and animals for our collaborative artwork. What plants and flowers might grow at the bottom of the garden? Daisies, dandelions, tulips, daffodils? And from wildlife to pets, what animals live at the bottom of the garden? Foxes, squirrels, tortoises, cats? £2 per child, suitable for ages 3-10 Mon 3 April: What’s growing in the garden? (plants and flowers) Book tickets Weds 5 April: Who lives at the bottom of the garden? (animals) Book tickets These workshops are part of Art Fund’s The Wild Escape project uniting museums with schools and families in a celebration of UK wildlife and creativity. More about The Wild Escape Plant of the Week: “Ming fern” (Asparagus retrofractus) By Matt Collins, Head Gardener Without question, asparagus ferns are among the big hitters of the houseplant resurgence of this last decade — South African members of the Asparagusgenus, whose bold yet delicate fern-like foliage stretches, twines and creeps through living-rooms the country over. Chief among them is Asparagus setaceus, the common asparagus fern, which, despite its ubiquitousness remains popular for more than a few good reasons: unfussy and super easy to grow (or, hard to kill, depending on your take); excellent figure, effortlessly chic etc. A close second is probably the foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus) with its stouter, more compact bushy plumes. But the real gem, for me, is A. retrofractus — the ‘Ming fern’ — a less compliant yet totally captivating species with the star quality of silver-white stems and a springtime flush of acid-green foliage. I acquired our retrofractus at one of the early houseplant festivals held at the Museum, advised by the seller that the seasonal contrast between its new and old needle-like leaves is something quite spectacular, which it is. This might have been about four years ago, and since then the plant has been bumped up and up pot sizes until at last filling the largest terracotta we have to offer it. Repotting just before Christmas, I tied the stronger of its attractive though viciously thorn-clad stems to a discrete stake, and folded in the other stems to form a kind of lifted bird’s nest structure. Under the pressure of continued rapid growth, the ‘nest’ is already falling over itself, but the effect is just lovely: a tumbledown, feathery creature with a bright skeleton of questing branches.

About our gardens Object of the Week: Suttons Seeds Photographic Slides (1910) These photos showing flowers including marigolds, arctotis, begonias and snapdragons were taken to illustrate a Suttons Seeds catalogue in 1910. Suttons Seeds was founded in 1806 in Reading, and these items were one of many ‘rescued’ from disposal by an employee when the company was sold and relocated in the 1970s. They were gifted to the Garden Museum Collection in his memory. Explore our collection Images: “Ming Fern” Asparagus retrofractus (c) Matt Collins; School poster of children gardening (c.1955), Garden Museum Collection

Garden Museum 5 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB gardenmuseum.org.uk

Latest Fall Bookings Still Available!!’

Happy Monday…….

Today we wanted to give a shout out to everyone that this is an excellent time to book your latest “fall” Contessa Signature Bed Clean Up. We are taking bookings now. Please give us a call. We want to make sure you all are on our calendar. The weather is chilly, but when sun prevails we will provide our services to you. Do not hesitant to call us. We are used to working up to the end of December, because our coldest temps don’t usually roll into Virginia until January.

If you are a current client and someone you know can use our service….. we will appreciate all referrals of business. Thank you. And if you refer a booking to us, we will give you a $25 credit on your next ”Contessa Signature Service.”

Do think about booking NOW. We don’t want anyone to have to wait to be served. We are preparing wreaths but still have time to tidy up your areas. Yes….this is a very busy season for us, but we love it and your yard is just as important to us as it is to you.

Just Saturday we were called to visit one of our ongoing and “maintenance” subscribers. He wanted a final tidy. We spent  1.5 hours…. and what a difference it makes. He is “hooked” on what we do for him…. And his yard is completely ready for winter.  And to top it all off, even though all his plants have now been cut back his garden beds and his property still looks fantastic.  Bravo!

“Contessa” says…it’s a very good thing’

“ROUNDS” and our CONTESSA Signature Services

“ROUNDS”  What are they?

We provided ongoing maintenance on a regular basis for several of our clients this year. This service is what we call our “Rounds.” You don’t need to call because we automatically come round to provide services.

Today is our last day of “Rounds” until Spring. We will be visiting each current “rounds” client today to make sure they are tidied and ready for winter. We completed late fall clean up for all of them. This included a fresh mulch application at the Final. Their beds were tidied and watered regularly. In some cases additional work such as planting winter bloomers and bulbs and everything needed additional trimming. These projects are scheduled as “work” by appt  and are billed at our regular hourly rate.

If you’ve interest or an inquiry about “Rounds,” as we are out-and-about today, be sure to give us a shout. It’s not too late to sign up for spring. Our “rounds”

service means you will regularly be visited. Tidied, Watered and personally looked after and visited. Your Flowers will be dead-headed and you’ll be notified if we feel extended work is needed.

This is a unique ongoing spring/summer service that we now offer. A subscription is offered at a minimum of six months. We do not offer summer short term watering for vacations.

Each year the number of clients has grown .So do let us know if yoyr interest as soon as you can. We just last week added a new residence to our list. We will adjust staffing needs accordingly depending on how many of you we will have…,going forward. So far for next spring, we have six households enrolled. Payment by the month is available for six month sign ups. Folks pay via VENMO, check or cash

We appreciate all of you. You are fantastic clients and we do enjoy serving you.

Please remember that during our winter months of Dermber January and February, on warmer sunny days into the new year, we can still provide some services. Please keep that in mind.

Thank you for a busy and very rewarding 2022!

“CONTESSA”

 

TODAYS UPDATE: A General Tidy on Wellington (RE-POST) update Sat – 12/3 – 11:54 am

(RE-POST) Sat – 11/3 – 11:54 am

We just completed this “tidy and clean up” on Thursday. PFX Community Landscape our outside contractor, came late this year, due to a lot of rain and wind, and many of you still have yards that are not completely cleaned up.

A reminder: to everyone that we still have plenty of time as temps are still favorable to complete  “clean ups” for your yards. Waiting till spring just makes the process longer.  Surely you all have the need to tidy plants and beds from the summer/fall seasons. Please don’t hesitate to ask for an appointment. We are ready to help.  Weather is still favorable  

Our “special” client requested a tidy at 7 am this morning. It seemed out of the ordinary for her to txt so early. She has been in a panic about her new Pansies. Of note: she is not a gardener. But she bought her house and has wanted for a long time to have flowers. So towards the middle of the summer we planted up a few flowering annuals for her in planters. Not a garden per say…but some color and some blooms.  It sufficed.

Then in June she decided she wanted to remove all the Ivy and Vinca vines from her beds. So she trusted us to select and plant new Perennials. And in October when the Pansies arrived we selected quite a few for her. A tribute to her Mom. The garden looked so fresh and lovely. She was so happy,

Then in late October and into November we had tons and tons of leaves and rain. Her Pansy bed was suffocating and totally covered. She panicked.

Our community crews came about 12 days ago to blow leaves. A very windy day. They couldn’t make much progress so they left. Yesterday they finally came back to remove the leaves. By now her Pansies were buried. She called us early today to find out if we could get her cleaned up.

It really was a ton of leaves and the more the crews tried to blow them, the more the wind blew. The piles of leaves were knee high. It may not look like it, but in reality her pretty little Pansies were very well protected from rain and the chill and the wind. When we finished removing all the leaves and bed debris today…. Wow had the Pansies grown.  Each grouping was so tall they were laying on the ground. Green and blooming, but laying flat on the ground. So we had to complete a serious cut-back. Sad to say…. all the blooms and longer stems had to go….but with a good rain coming tomorrow, it will most likely only be about a week before she is back with her pretty Pansy bed. She is very pleased now and happy. And she is way more ready for SPRING!

“Contessa” says…it’s all very good!

Our Wonderful Mt Eagle client

Our third season going into year four. This client loves her garden. And she likes it tidy year round. After we visited yesterday, it motivated her to get out and clear up her patio. She personally is not a gardener nor does she really want to tend it. But….. we are her answer. We visit her yard at least 6 times per year and in 2023 we will be providing our Summer Maintenance Upkeep Plan for her property, at a cost of $200/month from May through December. It’s roughly $7.00 per day. We will provide bed upkeep, watering, picking up debris in her yard and tidying the patio of leaves. We will still provide at least four (4) “work days” in her yard billed at $50/hr. We plant and fertilize and provide care for each plant and bush. It’s a total yard service.

The above video was taken half way through this years later Fall Clean Up. Our remaining service is to water using a Miracle Grow General Fertilizer Wand. At $12.99 it provides a controlled feeding and is just attached to the hose. Fortunately she has a freeze-free spigot that was adapted by PFX so that she has a continuous water supply through the late fall and winter months. It’s a great feature and is available to all resident’s in PFX using the Buildium Tool.

Yesterday we completed this project for a total of 6.5 hours,  and our client is very ready for winter.  It was a beautiful fall day, sunny and crisp, but no wind, so the weather was just perfect fir gardening

Of course we will check in on warmer winter days just to make sure all is well.

“Contessa” says…. It’s all very good!

FINAL VIDEO

Martha Custis – 1600 Block- Late Fall Tidy

Our repeat client had us around mid-summer to tend to new bushes that needed shaping. The beds needed new soil, the Hydrangeas were performing poorly and the hew Camellia’s were tall and very lanky. And so we did some trimming and shaping. There was an very old Hydrangea that had been neglected, so we took a chance and cut it back pretty far. Happy to report its doing so much better. Often cutting them back can retard the blooming process but it was in pretty rough shape so it was worth the risk. Looking at it today , four months later we are pretty sure it’s going to be just fine

Today we weeded, added new soil to the entire bed, cut back the large crop of Iris so they will produce new blooms in the spring, and planted a dozen Pansies. We basically cleaned up the whole bed.

We we very hopeful that spring will bring healthy and prolific  bushes.

We cleaned up the  breezeway and in and under the hedge dividing our clients property from the neighboring residence.

Four  hours today and it’s looking so much more healthy and clean. Fingers crossed, for the great growth of everything ….after the winter months. Our pleasure and our homeowner seems quite pleased.

It was a beautiful weather day. Cool but sunny and crisp. So nice to serve this repeat client who has no time to tend her garden area.  It was our pleasure to help.

“Contessa” says….. It’s all good!  

Good Morning……

……Gardening Friends, 

I will be around to water and tidy (assuming your spigot has not been turned off) and if it has, and you are up to it …..you can pass me containers of water to put around your plants/bushes. I think only two of you have the freeze-free spigot.

I’m just coming later this morning because I’m waiting for “mother natures” sun/warmth, and hopefully the wind might die down a bit.

I’m also trying to be respectful of our “Sunday “ relax time/sleep in” resident neighbors.

Ill txt upon arrival.

Thank you so much!

“CONTESSA”