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Terra Firma Landscape and Design servicing North Texas

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Normally when I write a post on this blog I discuss my garden, the types of plants I grow, plant profiles and garden maintenance tips. Usually when I write I discuss topics as though I’m talking to fellow gardeners. However, I realize that not everyone who visits this site has already created a garden. Some of you might have just purchased a home, and or are beginning to think about landscaping your property.

I also realize that not everyone wants to get their hands dirty! Perhaps you’re interested in having a beautifully landscaped property that’s maintained regularly by a landscaping company?

Well, if you live in the North Texas area and you’re interested in having your property landscaped or maintained you might be interested in contacting Terra Firma Landscaping & Design for a free quote.

Terra Firma Landscaping and Design offers services such as maintenance, lawn renovation, landscaping and complete property or garden design. The company is run by three design experts who’ve come together to combine their 15 years of experience in lawn maintenance and landscaping design.

If you’re interested in having Terra Firma landscape your property you’ll be happy to know that they are interested in finding out what you want in a design, how you want it to function and what kinds of plants or colors interest you. They discuss all aspects of design with their clients prior to starting a project and if the client is interested they’ll maintain the garden, change flower colors with the four seasons and so on.

I found the website very easy to navigate. Whether you are just visiting to check out what services they offer, to get a free quote or to learn more about the company and the projects they’ve completed in the past most of the information is only a click away.

The site has plenty of photographs on each page to compliment the topic being discussed in each article. The photos are lovely and of good quality. The site has also been designed with what I find to be pleasant colors with a background of white in the content areas and a pleasing green for the sidebars and navigational menu.

The only real complaint I have about the site is that it’s too wide. My laptop has a widescreen and I find that the pages come up off center forcing me to scroll sideways to center the text of the article. This is probably because a background image is too large and while irritating I’m sure it can easily be fixed.

One of the site features that I liked best was the blog. I’ve already got a garden and it’s not likely that I’ll be contacting anyone in the near future about landscaping or design. However, I’m still interested in learning about what the latest gardening trends are, or how to resolve various gardening or plant related issues and that’s where the blog comes in handy.

On the blog you’ll find posts that appear to be questions that some of their clients might have asked such as Why does my Crape Myrtle look like it was set on fire?, and posts about the type of landscaping that’s done by builders, featured easy care low maintenance plants and so on.

I’m sure many of my readers could find a helpful post on the Terra Firma Landscaping and Design blog.

Overall I think that a home or business owner who is interested in having their property maintained or landscaped would find this website very helpful.

However, besides the site being too wide there are a couple of things that could be improved. There are client testimonials on the site and I’m certain that many of their lovely photographs are of projects they’ve completed, yet there isn’t a specific section that discusses past projects or shows before and after photographs. I’d love to see that on this site as there’s no better way to demonstrate your skills than by showing before and after pictures.

The only other area of the site that might be improved is the plant directory. You can reach it by clicking the Plant Directory link at the bottom right of each page.

There are two columns of plant names. Site visitors can hover over a plant name and a picture of the plant appears to the right. Below the plants photo is the name of the plant and what appears to be a link that says click here to learn more. However I haven’t found a link that’s clickable. Another problem is that when you hover over a plant name in the left most column you can’t move your mouse across the page to the right side where the photo of the plant is located because as you hover over any other plant name the photo changes. I think it would be better if the plant names in each of the columns were clickable and once clicked the photo of the plant would appear.

I’ve been viewing the site using my Firefox browser. I decided I’d better take a look at it with my Internet Explorer 7 just to see if the problems I’d pointed out on the site only affected one browser type, but I see them in IE as well.

Overall I think this website is appealing and contains enough information to interest potential clients and gardeners alike, however there are a few functional issues that need to be addressed to improve the visitors experience.

Take a look at Terra Firma Landscaping and Design if you’re in North Texas and are in need of landscaping, design or maintenance services.






A lovely Polyantha rose – The Fairy

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This rose is The Fairy. It’s a Polyantha rose.

This lovely rose grows to the size of about two feet and spreads approximately three to four feet. It blooms profusely several times each season with clusters of bead-like buds that open into globular pink flowers. It’s foliage is a nice deep shade of green and the plant is fairly resistant to most diseases.

The Fairy is also a hardy rose. Thriving in zones 4 to 9.

I barely ever have to do any special care for this rose. Each spring I might prune out a few of the branches that have died off, or thin the branches but that’s pretty much it. It’s very low care.

Does anyone else grow The Fairy?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

My five new roses – your experiences?

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Does anyone grow any of these roses? I’ve listed the roses that I purchased a week ago to replace the ones I lost last winter.

When I bought the roses … five in all, I knew exactly where I was going to put them, but now – a week later, I’m looking at them going what was I thinking?

These are the roses that I purchased:

Joseph’s Coat –

A large flowered climbing rose that grows from 8 to 10 feet tall by 4 feet wide. hardy in zones four through 10. Bred by Armstrong and Swim in 1969; mild fragrance, 23 to 28 petals – repeats occasionally later in season. Blooms are a red blend – but I’ve noted that they range from a combination of orange, pink, red, yellow and white mixed in each flower. It’s apparently a very thorny rose with average disease resistance.

Climbing Iceberg –

Bred in the UK by Cant in 1968, White semi-double blooms with 9 to 16 petals, blooms in flushes throughout the season; Grows to a height of 8 to 15 feet and is hardy in zones 4 to 9. May or may not have a mild fragrance.

Chicago Peace

A hybrid Tea originally bred in the USA by Graeme Johnston in 1962. Blooms are large- up to 6 inches, and are a pink blend with 45 to 60 petals. The blooms have a very double form. This rose blooms in flushes throughout the season and grows to a height of 4.5 feet to 6.5 feet. Mild fragrance. Susceptible to blackspot, requires winter protection. Helpmefind -Roses says it’s only hardy to zone 7 but they often state high zones for hybrid teas.

Climbing Westerland –

Kordes bred rose, 1969, scented – strong rose, spicy fragrance; Apricot & apricot blend, Semi-double (9-16 petals) bloom form. Blooms in flushes throughout the season. Grows to a height of 4 to 12 feet by 4 feet wide and is disease resistant. No hardiness info but I think it’s hardy to at least zone 5a.

Double Delight –

This is a hybrid tea that was first bred in 1977 in the US by Herbert C. Swim. The blooms are a red blend with red and white within, and red edges. It has a spicy fragrance. The average diameter of the flowers are 5 inches and each bloom is double with 17 to 25 petals. Blooms in flushes throughout the season. Grows to a height of 3 feet to 5 feet and a width of 2 feet to 5 feet. This rose is apparently susceptible to mildew and requires winter protection.

Wow, would you look at that? Every rose that I purchased was first bred in the 60’s. Isn’t that odd? All of them, with the exception of the Climbing Iceberg are multicolored roses. However, I’ve noticed that my standard iceberg often gets a pink blend in the petals as they age.

I really wanted to replace my Love and Peace but I couldn’t find one. That’s why I got the Chicago Peace. I’m hoping that it really does turn out to be as hardy as Love and Peace was because I didn’t have any problems with that rose. I think it’s demise was due to a fungal infection. It actually got a fungus like woody growth near the base of the rose. I think I’ll have to remove all the soil in that portion of the garden where Love and Peace was before I plant it’s replacement as I fear that the fungus or virus might still be in the soil. Anyone familiar with the problem that I’m discussing?

As you can see I’ve chosen some roses that get quite large and I have a small jam packed garden. This should be fun!

Obviously I’m not a rose novice but if anyone has experience with any of the roses that I’ve listed above I’d love it if you’d tell me how the rose faired in your care.

I’m particularly interested in how these roses do in cold zones.

I’m in Toronto and it’s classed as a Canadian Zone 6b or a US zone 5b. I know I’ll have to winter protect the hybrid teas I purchased but I’ve been very successful with roses that are not supposed to be all that hardy – like Just Joey, and Valencia for example, so I’m not too worried.

I do prefer to buy roses that are hardy to a plain Jane zone 5 or lower though as it gives them more of a chance of survival if we have a really harsh winter.

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